We’ve all heard this saying before about being present. You’re here reading this now, so is that what presence refers to? It depends on your mind state actually. Our minds are very good at multi-tasking and doing some things on autopilot. The question is more as to whether or not your complete attention is on your current experience. Let’s dive more into what I’m referring to.
Let’s Take a Closer Look
So, how’s it going so far? As of writing this I’ve been in India for 2.5 weeks so far. Every day I’m cultivating a deep sense of presence and connection in the morning asana practice & prayers. The rest of the day I’m exploring that sense of presence & connection continuously. This can also be referred to as mindfulness. Honestly, some days are easier than others to stay present. What does that even mean though, “staying present”? For me it’s about the breath.
By keeping our awareness on the breath and how it truly feels moment to moment, you cultivate presence. Truly FEEL each sensation as the belly fills with air and empties. It’s a practice just like doing yoga, learning to drive a car, or learning any new skill. The more we learn to cultivate being here, right now, the easier it gets. One clue about not being present is noticing when you have thoughts about the future or the past.
If you’re curious to learn more about full & conscious breathing, check out my video here.
Sending Your Energy Away
We are naturally inundated with thoughts, virtually all of the time we are awake. Thoughts are about the past or future, judgments of ourselves or others, thoughts of worry or fear. The practice is to notice the nature of your thoughts. Realize most of them are taking us out of the present moment and sending our energies elsewhere. In Qi Gong the saying goes: “Where your mind goes, your chi flows.” If you’re making plans or thinking about what someone said because it affected you, then you’re sending your energy away.
If you notice you’re having these thoughts, (like I said, it’s virtually all the time) then simply return to the feeling of your breath. Notice what’s actually happening around you, birds, or wind, construction, cars, talking people, everything.
By noticing the present moment, you begin to FEEL your heart beating. Eventually you skillfully notice emotions as they arise without attachment to them. Perhaps you’ll begin to sense energies around you and within you. You may even experience that all of these sensations come with the feeling of joy & gratitude for simply being aware. This is also our natural state of being, of being tuned in to ourselves. These days this seems so obvious now that I’ve been exploring the cultivation of presence.
Merge with the energies all around you, for they are always there and waiting for you to come home to your heart.
~Atmaram
Don’t Stop Thinking Though…
Of course there are plenty of times where thinking is useful and necessary. Noticing a car coming and deciding whether to step to the left or the right is a simple example. But you’ve noticed the car in a present state and you go back to this presence once the “job“ of thinking is finished, back to the breath and how it feels.
This is not an easy practice. We’ve been entertained by our minds for our whole lives and we thereby allow the mind to be driver of our experiences. The mind can talk us into and out of so many crazy things in the name of “if this thing outside of me would change in this way, then I’d be alright.”
Michael Singer does an amazing job of explaining this pattern of how the mind works very well in his series “Living From a Place of Surrender.” Check out a short video of Michael explaining this here. I’ve been exploring the way of living where consciousness is the driver, instead of the mind. The observer as some call it, notices how reality actually “is” and not how my mind tells me it is. This is the practice.
Overall I’d say I’m doing very well with the practice. In fact I’m very proud of myself for how far I’ve come! The effects are most noticeable while I’m chanting mantras as each one has a unique effect (which also changes every day depending on my energies.) More on mantra chanting in future posts!
My Experiences With Mindfulness
A common sensation is a feeling from the center back of my head, like a rope is attaches at my tailbone and “something” pulls me up from my head. There’s other feelings too like calmness, peace, strength, lightness, seeing light, tingling, heat, feeling the connection from my heart to my hands, enthusiasm, happiness, centeredness, grounding, and certainly a few more too.
Today the experience was a bit different than it has been so far. Today the feeling of pulling was very light and soft. Applying the practice of feeling the breath in and out and observing this sensation in my head came more easily today. Many thoughts came as they always do, but it was easier to notice that I was thinking and to just let go of each thought.
Some thoughts clung on for longer than others as my mind indulged itself in following the string that unravels a sweater. No worries though, I just noticed simply that I wasn’t present and adeptly came back to the breathing and the feeling in my head.
This feeling stopped being a pulling up sensation and it turned into a fuzzy-warm light that was just “there”, no pulling up, just “there” (kind of hard to describe.) My body was breathing itself, my eyes relaxed and calm as if I could almost see through my closed eyelids. I would guess that I was seated within the root of consciousness itself. It seems I’ve found some kind of deeper experience. It’s important not to cling to the experiences though, because then we establish expectations and these will kill the experience before it even begins. Just noticing how things are is the practice.
In Conclusion
My experiences are my own and will almost certainly vary from what you will find when you try. That’s the beauty of mindfulness and present moment living, it’s all about the journey. Even by cultivating presence for a few moments each day, you will certainly begin to feel the benefits.
If you become excited at the new experience, simply notice it and come back to the feeling of the breath. If you stay with the excitement or begin to tell yourself a story about it, the sensation will end altogether. These are just my observations and if you’re still reading this, I encourage you to explore your experiences as well.
For more explorations into presence, mindfulness, & meditation, check out my meditation section of this blog.