The Point of Now: Presence, Identity and Seeing Through the Busy Mind
The podcast series explores a game-changing understanding of the human mind that operates “Before Psychology” — the
secret source that exponentially increases peace, performance, and potential for any individual or organisation.
A simple yet powerful way to see through the noisy mind
In this episode, Piers speaks with fellow coach and author Suzie Yeulett about her new book The Point of Now, and the simple but profound direction it points towards: the present moment, the nature of thought, and the resilience that is already available beneath the noise of the mind.
The conversation explores how much of our suffering comes from living in the mind’s projections of past and future, and how presence is not something we need to find, force or practise, but something that is already here. Suzie shares how her own experience of being with her mother at the end of life revealed a natural resilience that she had not created through tools, techniques or self-improvement.
Piers and Suzie also explore the deeper Quality of Mind theme of mistaken identity: what is the “self” actually made of, and what changes when identity is seen as thought, sensation and perception rather than something solid? The episode moves from practical examples of anxiety and overthinking into a deeper inquiry into presence, feeling, identity and the possibility of living with less striving and more natural clarity.
Key Discussion Takeaways
- Presence is already here - it is not something we need to manufacture or force
- Much of our pressure comes from thought travelling into past and future
- Identity is not fixed or solid; it appears through thought, sensation and perception
- The “self” may not be something to improve, but something to see through
- Feeling is not a problem to fix - we are designed to feel
- This is not about adding another technique, reframe or grounding tool
- Simple noticing can reveal how the mind works and naturally lighten the load
- Life becomes less serious when the role of the mind is seen more clearly
Key Chapters include:
03:33 How change can happen through recognition rather than tools or techniques
05:08 Suzie explains “the point of now” and her inverted triangle framework
06:50 Presence is already here - we are not looking for something missing
08:42 The everyday operating system of busy-mindedness and control
10:08 Anxiety, overthinking and asking: “where is the problem right now?”
12:18 The “fear of fear” and how anticipation creates suffering
13:51 Realisation versus using presence as another technique
14:48 What is identity, and why “shifting identity” may miss the deeper point
16:05 Direct experience inquiry and seeing the self as psychological
18:49 The case of mistaken identity and why it keeps us in the operating mind
20:10 Taking things personally and how that contracts perspective
21:24 Neutral noticing, expanded aperture and seeing that it is not really happening to “me”
23:17 The part of us that is undamaged by experience
24:35 Why we are designed to feel, rather than distract ourselves from feeling
27:05 When the conceptual mind has nowhere to go
28:07 What babies show us about feeling without self-identification
29:38 Seeing the mind move from invisible, to subtle, to obvious
32:24 How trying to be present can reinforce the separate self
36:54 How far simple noticing can take us
38:11 Loosening the conviction of separate identity
41:10 The relief of seeing there may not be a problem to fix
41:51 Why the words are not the point - the recognition underneath is
43:47 Natural change versus more tools, protocols and strategies
50:15 Life becomes less serious when we take the mind less seriously
