The Greatest Gift
What it means to be present is that you are fully and actively involved in the actual reality of the current moment. This means that you are fully experiencing whatever the current moment is trying to gift to you.
Why this is such a big gift to yourself, is that it is here that you are able to see yourself. You get to see and acknowledge everything that you are experiencing.
You get the honor of seeing the thoughts that bubble up and try to distract you with worry, anxiety, and negativity.
You get to intimately know your “shadows”.
You get to learn how to best understand and support yourself.
You get to build incredible self trust in seeing yourself and then CHOOSING the direction you actually want to move in. (Creation energy!!!)
Once you have mastered giving yourself this gift, you can extend it to your loved ones, which will make them feel fully seen, heard, important, understood, accepted, connected, and deeply loved.
And isn’t that exactly what we ALL desire to feel in our relationships?
So now that I have made it clear how important presence is, let’s get back to what it means to be present, so we can get into practice around that.
Being present is way more than just sitting on a cushion, meditating. It is bringing the essence of meditation into your daily life!
It is bringing your full attention to the activity that you are choosing. It is stepping outside of the auto-pilot that we tend to get stuck in, when we are doing something that we think requires little focus.
If you are taking a shower, you are feeling the water wash over you; you are listening to the sounds that the water makes; you are feeling the temperature of the water and the air; you are smelling the soap; you are delighting in the bubbles!
If you are driving to work, you are looking around like you have never driven this road before and you are very interested in what you can find on this route.
If you are playing a game with your kids, your phone and other distractions are away, and you are watching and learning more about your kids and excitedly responding to everything that is going on.
Living life in this way also means that you are self aware of when it is time for you to take breaks in your day to unplug from the “to-do list”, and go outside and be present with the outdoors. Don’t think. Just sit there and take it all in.
This last suggestion is really a tough one for a lot of women. We get so tied up in the idea that our worth/value comes from how much we accomplish in a day, and we feel like we have to push so hard to get all the things done.
This is very masculine energy, and is why it feels so heavy, exhausting, and often makes us feel resentment and dissatisfaction in our lives. Staying present with ourselves and respecting yourself enough to step away for 10 minutes builds self trust, calm, and connection.
Doing this consistently will also really increase the feeling of being connected to something far greater than just you, and it will be extremely healing and inspiring.
What it means to be present is that you are actually living.
You are refusing to live a “Groundhog Day.”
You are coming out of auto-pilot.
You are putting an end to overthinking.
You are experiencing all the juiciness that life has to offer.
And it feels so good.
This is living life with flow, ease, freedom, and feminine energy.
You are a Queen.
You are a Goddess.
You are a Warrior.