The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
Education:Self-Improvement
"Presence is power."
What if I told you that the solution to your quandaries about life, love, work, finding calm, anything of value and importance already resided within you?
While initially this may seem impossible, in actuality, when we dig down deep to the core of our motivations, our hopes and even our fears, the answers rest in being able to hold ourselves in the Present moment consciously on a regular and consistent basis. Now this may seem elementary, even a simpleton answer, but today, I want to share with you why indeed it is true. And how exciting to know that what we have been seeking (and not finding) outside of ourselves has been within our power all along.
The first thing we have to do if we want to welcome the power of Presence into our lives is consciously change our minds - how we think: the unhelpful and destructive defaults they fall into, and that is where most people balk, turn away and settle back in to what they have become accustomed to because this part of the journey takes time, direct and intentional effort and prioritization. But . . .
When we choose to invest in being able to hold our mind in the present moment which is the primary concept of mindfulness, while it may take time to create this new default, with practice, it makes all the difference.
Today, I look forward to sharing with you three components about why choosing to be actively Present in your everyday life is a pursuit worthy of your time and investment: (1) how to strengthen and deepen our ability to be present, (2) the benefits, and (3) what being present looks like in our lives.
First, what is Presence?
Paradoxically, being present is to free ourselves from our mind. As Eckhart Tolle teaches in his internationally acclaimed first book on the subject, The Power of Now, "The good news is that you can free yourself from your mind. This is the only true liberation." But again, back to the question: What is Presence?
Presence is to be free of thought as explained by Tolle (94). "You are still, yet highly alert. The instant your conscious attention sinks below a certain level, thought rushes in. The mental noise returns; the stillness is lost."
How then can we hold ourselves free of thought if we have to go about our days using our minds, you may be wondering? Well, it begins, as Tolle again teaches, with being deeply rooted within yourself. Being deeply rooted is something that you don't have to search for. It has always been within you, you simply need to return to it.
"We might think that we are stuck with the mind we have. That it's not capable of change, but habits can be unlearned. The mind can let go and our lives can be transformed." —Andy Puddicombe
How then do we change our mind? How do we discover what resides within us already but has been obscured?
Begin to welcome new habits into your daily life, little, simple, but regular habits each day:
I wanted to conclude with the last item on the list, because as over-simplistic as it may sound, it really is that simple. We make life and living well far too complicated. On this last point, Tolle writes, "Say 'yes' to life—and see how life suddenly starts working for you rather than against you." Saying yes to life is to be in the only place you can be every single minute, in the present moment, in the Now and not bringing to this moment the past or the future two places you will never be.
~The above list is an overview of practices and approaches that will enable you to live fully in the Present moment. To explore the concepts shared more deeply, I recommend reading any of the books linked above along with The New Earth by Eckhart Tolle as well, the fourth book in his five book series on the topic of Presence. Now let's take a look at the benefits you will experience in your daily life.
The Benefits of living fully in the Present moment:
"An Empty sort of mind is valuable for finding pearls and tails and things because it can see what's in front of it. An Overstuffed mind is unable to." —The Tao of Pooh, Benjamin Hoff
One of the most light-hearted, but deeply instructive books on being Present and its many gifts is The Tao of Pooh. A handful of years ago upon being introduced to this gem of a book (originally published in 1982), I was inspired to share a podcast episode on the 7 Life Lessons that spoke to me at that time as learned from the book (I've linked the episode below). And while I was still navigating the first steps of understanding why being Present was so powerful and how to become more Present, this book helped nudge me along my way.
What I hope to do today is ease your mind that unlike so many new skills, learning and embodying the daily practice of being Present takes time and while we can find ourselves engrossed in the Present moment while engaged in certain activities and pastimes we love, every moment of our lives is not spent doing these enjoyable tasks. Life, the have-tos, the routines, the work to pay the bills happens too. However! We may at first think we cannot make these unwanted tasks joyful and hold ourselves in the Present moment (as our mind wants to wander quickly to the weekend or to our plans that evening), but this is why learning how to be Present takes time because I have good news for you, you can be fully Present in all moments of your life, and it is in doing so, that you gain one of the most awesome benefits.
7 Life Lessons from The Tao of Pooh, episode #237
Benefits:
In many ways the benefits I shared above reflect what living in the Present moment looks like in our daily lives, but I wanted to tether out even more specifically what living in the Present is as we move through our days and encounter regular and constant unknowns and events out of our control.
I want to begin by saying, beginning the journey of choosing to practice the skill of Presence in our daily lives is more difficult initially. I share this from experience as I mentioned above earlier in this post, and especially if you are the only one in your life who is exploring how to welcome Presence into your daily practice, it can be hard to continue forward when others don't live in such a way.
With that said, that is why TSLL Community is a great place to visit when you need a community that does value this life quality. In each month's A Cuppa Moments with TOP Tier Members I pose at least one question for our monthly conversation that encourages each of us to explore our own lives and share a response. Sometimes it is sharing what we have learned and how we have incorporated a particular way of living that nurtures contentment into our lives and other times it is sharing ahas discovered through mistakes. Whatever is shared, it is with a community of people who value honoring our true selves, being vulnerable and brave as we each discover and savor our own unique journeys whilst celebrating others' journeys as well.
So what does being Present look like?
While each of our lives will be unique, below are daily activities and/or approaches in awareness that you may incorporate:
I know over the past couple of years, I have given much attention to cultivating contentment directly through mindfulness practices, but I share what I have discovered with you because I have seen the positive transformation in my own life, changes and improvements I never thought would be possible. And part of the reason I initially never thought such peace of mind, such grounded contentment in my everydays would be attained was because what I was errantly being taught through concrete methods of trying to control everything from scripting what I might say, and do certain things when was counter-intuitive to the reality of life. We can no more control anything beyond ourselves than we can control the weather, and to think we can is a fool's pursuit and to waste the precious time we have in our one and only life.
The beautiful paradox of contentment, as I shared in episode #339, is that through letting go, we actually gain what we have been seeking all along. It is when we are Present and consciously, or as meditation instructor Andy Puddicombe describes it, "Plug into the Present moment . . . that everything is observed with more clarity. The foggy mist dissipates and everything each of our senses encounters becomes clear." And when our minds are clear, we gain clarity and begin making the best decisions for the life that honors our true selves. And when we begin to honor ourselves through our decisions, our courage and our awareness, we begin to cultivate a life that nourishes our well-being daily. The stress becomes less and any stress that does arise, we now have the tools to combat it effectively without causing more or extended stress and/or any pain to ourselves or others. We see unwanted moments as gifts to teach us something we need to learn, and this is also how we strengthen our mindfulness practice. We no longer are resisting, but accepting and by responding rather than reacting, we are able to navigate constructively through and past these moments. And it all begins by choosing to strengthen the skill of Presence, thus a very powerful skill indeed.
I will leave you with one last thought from a recent meditation session:
"It's [in] only really getting comfortable being in this space, this place right now that we can really discover a genuine sense of contentment." —Andy Puddicombe
SIMILAR POSTS/EPISODES YOU MIGHT ENJOY
6 Unwanted Life Scenarios and How to Dance with Each One by Positively Moving Through and Past Them, episode #291
A Life of Abundant Bliss: A Nature State of True Contentment, episode #326
6 Benefits of Meditation and How to Meditate in Your Daily Life
Stop Waiting to Start Living, A Simple Change that Will Make an Awesome Difference
Petit Plaisir
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