By Celeste Smucker
Only in perceived Aware Presence can your unknowable essential self, the mystery, be experienced. To live in Aware Presence is mysticism.
M.C. Cannon
Being present means being fully engaged in the Now.
You aren’t anxious about the past or worried about what might or might not happen in the future.
You have experienced being present from time to time. Like when you were having so much fun you lost track of time. Or when you were overcome with grief so profound it shut out everything else.
While moments like these are not uncommon, sustaining a sense of presence is more difficult, as to do so requires balance in all of your dimensions: physical, emotional and mental.
Practicing regular meditation and adopting the principles of The Holistic Lifestyle® can help. But there’s more.
Let’s take a deeper look.
The Life Changing Benefits of Being Present
Here are just a few of the ways a commitment to living in the now can change your life.
Freedom from Stress & Anxiety
What keeps you awake at night? Money issues? Feeling unappreciated? Fear of losing your job? Taking on too much responsibility? Feeling overwhelmed or helpless? Difficult relationships?
Maybe it’s the anxiety associated with anticipating something great that might (or might not) happen.
During these times your anxiety or worry may cause you to tell yourself that what’s happening is not fair or that it’s not OK to feel stressed.
In other words, you believe “it should be other than it is.”
Even if you have hundreds of reasons for this belief, holding it is almost always a waste of time and energy.
Not only does it keep you stuck, your constant worry deprives you of having enough mental and emotional bandwidth to take positive action.
Instead, daily life becomes exhausting leaving you little time to enjoy yourself.
Taking time out to be present, even if just for a few minutes can help.
Enhanced Clarity and Mental Focus
By definition, living in the present moment frees you from the distractions of your usual mental clutter.
Now your mind operates more efficiently, leading to clearer thinking and better decision-making.
Living with mental clutter is a bit like working in a messy office. The information you need may be lost in stacks of paper interspersed with messages on post-it notes, bills waiting to be paid and even some random cookie crumbs. Or maybe it’s in an inbox full of unanswered emails or texts.
It’s difficult to stay focused with a clear mind in this situation.
And you also waste a lot of time and energy rustling through your stacks of papers or searching through your files.
Which brings us to yet another benefit of living in the present moment.
Less Fatigue & More Energy
Living with mental clutter drains your energy. You must work harder to achieve the same results as you would if everything was well organized.
You may be prone to anger and frustration when you can’t find a document or can’t meet a deadline.
The fear of what will happen if you fail takes even more energy as you scramble to come up with a solution.
A cluttered mind makes it difficult to concentrate and compromises your problem solving abilities. You may make less than optimal decisions causing even more problems down the road.
Increased Self Awareness & Better Health
When you are truly in the present moment you are able to tune into yourself and hear the messages your body sends.
For example, a sudden cold or flu or other kind of physical breakdown may be your body warning you to take time off, go to bed earlier or eat a healthier diet. If you don’t pay attention, the next time it could be a heart attack or a diagnosis of diabetes.
Ultimately, your body rules. And it's difficult to balance your emotional and mental dimensions without good physical health.
Take A Mini Vacation
Why not sit back, take a deep breath (maybe even several) and let your body and frazzled brain take a mini vacation into the present moment.
Notice the rush of energy as you let go of all of the stress. And that’s just the start.
You may also be better able to manage your emotions since you now respond out of clarity rather than impulsivity.
And this same clarity helps you see personal patterns of behavior that have been holding you back. Which means you may experience greater self awareness that allows you to make choices more in alignment with your authentic self.
Better retention of info is another benefit of being free of mental and emotional clutter. When your mind is free from stress and anxiety, it has more energy to recognize and retain the information you need to operate well.
In addition, when you choose to be present you will enjoy your life more and are more likely to come out and engage with others.
This increased enjoyment and engagement can lead to a more positive mindset, which helps support mental clarity and focus.
So how do you go about achieving all of this? Start with adopting The Holistic Lifestyle®.
Your Pathway to Aware Presence
When you choose The Holistic Lifestyle you are on your way to enjoying balance in all of your dimensions: physical, emotional and mental. And the closer you are to achieving this balance the better able you are to:
- Make conscious choices that support overall well-being
- Tune into your thoughts, feelings and surroundings so you can be present more of the time.
- Access your subtle dimensions, the seat of intuition and Aware Presence.
The first step is to commit to a consistent meditation process. Meditation is the most powerful balancing tool there is. And it operates on all three dimensions.
- It relaxes your body, immediately reducing stress.
- It brings emotional balance (because it feels good).
- It helps your brain generate more positive thoughts.
Beyond meditation are other effective balancing tools to help you enjoy the many benefits of being present:
- Throughout your day, stop your activities for a few moments and take an intentional pause to increase your awareness of what’s around you. This lets you tune in to your body, emotions, and thoughts and take action that helps you stay on track with what is most important.
- Adopt a daily conscious breath practice. Most of the time we don’t pay much attention to our breath in spite of breathing every moment we are alive.
A daily breath practice is calming and helps bring you back into balance on all levels. It also brings you immediately into the present moment as that is the only place in time that you can breathe.
So when you feel your thoughts wandering or your emotions getting out of control, bring your focus back to your breath where you are automatically in the present moment.
Without this kind of awareness, your breath can become an unconscious reflection of your current imbalances keeping you stuck in old ways of being.
- Spend time in nature. There’s something about being outdoors that helps keep you in the present moment. That is especially true if you breathe deeply and focus on the beauty of your surroundings, or consciously enjoy the presence of birds, trees, plants and forest creatures.
If your mind wanders or your emotions get out of whack, bring your focus back to the trees and plants and breathe deeply.
- Take a break and flow positive love-based feelings to help maintain emotional balance. A good example is gratitude. It’s easy to get bogged down in negativity. Flowing gratitude reminds you of all the things that are right with your life.
This also helps you experience being in the present moment in a different way. Why stress when there is so much good going on?
- When you’re feeling stressed or anxious pay attention to your thoughts and redirect them by repeating positive truthful statements to yourself.
Affirmations like this are a great way to bring you back into the present moment.
Use them anytime, but especially when your mind starts to wander.
For example, when you are sitting at a stoplight, standing in line and impatiently tapping your foot because things are moving too slowly, or when you are doing any kind of repetitive task.
It’s a Choice, Your Choice
Sustaining a sense of presence can be challenging. It requires both commitment and patience. Commitment to The Holistic Lifestyle and the patience to watch the process unfold in ways you may not have anticipated.
A sense of presence also requires awareness. As you move towards greater balance you are likely to fall back into old habits. When that happens, it is your sense of awareness that helps you recommit to the process and get you back on track.
The rewards, though, are worth it.
Not only will you be less stressed, but your increased energy and greater clarity will help you make better decisions and enjoy greater balance.
You will also be calmer, more relaxed and happier with who you are and what you do every day.
And isn’t that, after all, what it’s all about?