Most people would say it’s hard to be present because of the distractions, time limitations, and what’s at stake. Even among those who regularly practice being present, few can maintain a state of presence all the time. This is likely true for you too. However, there’s no need to despair or feel defeated. Instead, you can aim to be more present. In this way, you can reap some of the benefits of being present as you adopt some of the positive attributes undergirding of presence. To do this learn how to be more present most of the time rather than fully present occasionally or in certain situations.

How to Define Presence

The type of presence we talk about here is specific. It’s not just being focused on the here and now. Primarily, it requires you to adopt an equanimous frame of mind that is calm, clear, comfortable, nonjudgemental, compassionate, open, and patient with yourself and others. This is a lot. But each aspect of this mind frame affords you certain benefits and thus has merits on its own.

In concrete terms, you’ll be in more touch with your inner state and true values. In addition, you’ll be more objectively observant and empathetic, a better listener, and better able to navigate difficult choices, conversations, and situations.

How to Be More Present

The point of this blog post is to give you practices that contribute to building presence. From each practice, you derive a variety of benefits. For example,  grounding and breathwork will help you slow down and stand firm. Taping into your insides and centering will help you stay in touch with your inner truth and sense of self.

While being more present may be your goal, don’t disregard what each presence practice can offer you such as greater personal connection, balance, stability, and well-being. These are all great benefits too and whichever practice you adopt as a routine behavior will certainly enrich and empower you.

Blending the Embodied Mind and the Thinking Mind

What Is the Embodied Mind

The embodied mind, also referred to as the body-mind, is the collective experience, memory, and wisdom derived from and flowing throughout your body. It includes what you perceive through your senses and what’s held within your subconscious. Combined with your executive functioning and other aspects of your thinking and analytical mind, it forms your whole mind.

How Embodied Self-Awareness Relates to Presence

The normal state of being in the modern world is to observe and conclude with the thinking mind. But what if it was quieted and other senses were elevated or favored? Those other senses could be proprioception, interoception, hearing, touch, etc. Since these are all bodily senses, the body-mind becomes more prominent.

You can appreciate how different your awareness, perception, reflection, assessment, and decision-making will be if you follow your body-mind rather than solely your thinking mind. Also consider how many more personal resources you’ll have access to if you work with both your body-mind and your thinking mind: in other words, your whole mind.

In a way, this is how being more present benefits you.

12 Ways to Be More Present

1. Slow down – In Western societies daily routines are animated and extremely full, which results in frequent interruptions and a scattered focus. It’s also challenging to be intentional, open-focused, and reflective. To slow down, prioritize, alter (such as delegate), and eliminate tasks. Everyone thinks they can’t, but most can.
2. Ground and center – Grounding and centering are essential to being present. They help you manage your focus, mind wandering, and distractions. Centering also cues you to what is important to you at the moment and to your core.
3. Be the “watcher” – Step back from fraught moments, pause for an instant, and watch instead of participate. You’ll note you can be more objective and less reactive toward your circumstances and interactions. Create a phase (cue) to recall and remind you when you’re being drawn into situations and encounters that make you feel uncomfortable and pull you out of balance. The cure alerts you to take a step back and observe.
4. Toning your nervous system and chakras – Toning the chakras and nervous system restores balance within your subtle energy and your neurological systems. The rebalance reduces vigilance and surveillance, hyperfocus, and reactivity.
5. Breathwork – Numerous breathwork techniques offer a range of different outcomes. Box breathing can reduce your heart rate, and Starchaser’s free guided meditations can ground, relax, and clear your mind. The techniques contribute to building presence.
6. Heart connection – This enhances compassion and empathy but doesn’t necessitate agreement or capitulation on your part.
7. Get more and better quality sleep – Sleep deprivation taxes the whole mind and makes grounding, centering, focusing, and processing more challenging.
8. Eye movement – Shift your eyes, not your head, from side to side without fixing your focus on anything in particular. This short exercise simultaneously engages both brain hemispheres – one related to thinking, the other to inner sensing.
9. Maintain interminable curiosity – Curiosity helps keep your focus and heart open. You’ll expand your awareness and notice more opportunities.
10. Tap into your inside – Turning inward puts you in touch with the whole sense of an experience. It includes heartfelt and intuitive impressions as well as gut feelings. Your internal sense is a reflection of your authentic self.
11. Practice shifting your frame of mind – Regularly practice these or other presence skills and learn to easily shift toward being more present upon your cue.
12. Ready yourself – If you know an impending situation could be potentially, triggering, or off-centering, set the intention and use one or more of the above ways to instill presence. In other words, show up with presence.

When you can trust the subtleties, you perceive and relinquish the natural inclination to challenge them with your thinking mind. You’ll be able to notice, listen, and commit based on a much subtler level and access body-brain resonance and action.

Practice Being More Present

Maintaining a state of presence is an endeavor. And, to be present even when confronting particular strong personal triggers can be hard and even impossible. Sometimes, you’re bound to lose focus or fail to achieve your desired state.

But, you can still benefit from the process and improve your control of your frame of mind or state of consciousness through regular practice. No wonder many people say they “practice presence.”