A fresh start with PRESENCE
My intention is for these posts to be a resource of inspiration inviting us to learn about and experiment with simple practices that can help strengthen our emotional resilience.
With this intention in mind, I am going to try something new for 2020 by organizing my writing toward exploring monthly themes.
It is my hope that a monthly focus will give us more space to explore and play with the themes via different practices.
We’re starting off 2020 exploring practicing presence because this one skill is foundational for our wellbeing.
For me, practicing presence is like an anti-rushing medicine. I have a tendency to feel rushed and easily overwhelmed. So practicing presence is very important for my everyday wellness.
Now imagine this…
You get into bed at the end of the day and feel a sense of ease and peace in your body. This is because throughout the day you took small pauses to practice presence for 1 to 5 minutes, and in each pause, you invited yourself to reconnect to a feeling of peace and ease in your body.
I’m wanting more of this daily sense of ease and peace for me and for you.
Practicing presence - like an anti-rushing medicine - can help us. So here we go, let’s explore presence.
DEFINING PRESENCE
When speaking about presence, Dr. Rick Hanson first defines Mindfulness as “a clear, non-judgmental awareness of your inner and outer worlds...an alert observing your thoughts, emotions, body sensations, desires, memories, images, personality dynamics, attitudes, etc.”
He goes on to define presence as “the stability of mindfulness, which means the degree to which you are grounded in awareness itself.”
For me, presence is an invitation to inhabit the present moment by tuning into the expansive opportunities available for us to notice and feel the vast details of every moment.
Presence is not doing something to get it done and is not thinking about the past or future. Presence is about being in the moment.
HOW TO PRACTICE PRESENCE IN YOUR EVERYDAY
It doesn’t have to be fancy. You can do it anytime by simply following this:
Practice presence = pause and notice details of either your outer world, your inner world, or both at this moment.
You can Practice Presence right now:
Invite yourself to notice your outer world: Where are you? What details do you notice around you?
And, simultaneously notice your inner world: How is your body feeling right now? What sensory experiences are present?
Right now, as I practice presence I sink into a sense of being in the moment and become aware of more details of what is happening at the moment, and I feel in my body and inner slowing down that feels peaceful and pleasant.
How about you? What does being present feel like in your body?
We’ll continue to explore presence in the coming weeks.
Here’s to learning and growing together into a new decade,
Michelle
