This Blog is a conversation with You about living the philosophies that we all read about. People ask me “how” I do what I do ... This blog is about just that. This is my experience of the ideas that I have heard, been taught and read about over the years I have studied My Self and others. May You step over the pot holes that I have tripped on; learn from my sharing and together we can “live in the world the way we want it to be” to use Ghandi’s words. Enjoy, Share and Grow – Together!

May 3, 2010

What is Presence?

I was recently reading an article in Oprah Magazine, March 2010 (click here and you can read it too, on line!). While reading the interview with Thich Nhat Hanh, I became aware of being present again.

For me, because of what I do, I am more often present than not present. Basically because I cannot do a reading and have my mind wander at the same time.  For me, when my work “tires” me, it shows because it takes more and more concentration for me to hold my focus.  If my focus leaves, I stop talking and a great pause ensues in the channeling I am doing. What is most interesting, and embarrassing about this, is that I am not even aware of it. I begin to speak again, thinking that I paused for a few seconds, when minutes have passed. Am happy to report it seldom happens.

But I digress.  We were talking about “being present”.
I first became aware of this idea – in a tangible way – with Tolle’s work in “The Power of Now”.  That book put words to presence in a way I had not known before.  That was when I realized that I am good at being present. I am also good at not being present, but I realized that my work required me to be present and then was grateful, yet again, for the work I am privileged to do.

So, I am reading this article by Thich Nhat Hanh, I realize that there is another layer of presence; a deeper level of being present that I had experienced before.  After reading the article, I took time to notice how present I was. Now I realized, as I washed my hair that I could even feel the creaminess of the lather on my hands, that I could feel the texture of the bath puff on my fingertips.  Presence became even more real for me.

But still, what is Presence? What is being Present?

For me, it is the absence of thought. If I am brushing my teeth, I am in my mouth and not in my thoughts. I am aware of the brush on my teeth.  As I have come to experience “being present”, it is about total concentration.  Not one moment am I allowing myself to be anywhere else, doing anything else, but the action I am in the midst of doing.

My first experience of this was after reading “The Way of the Peaceful Warrior” by Dan Millman - that was many years ago, before it was called being present.  In that book there was this wonderful exercise and I tried it and was wowed by the result.

The Master Teacher in this book asks Dan Millman to practice this exercise every day until he returns to see the Teacher again. The exercise, when I did it, was my very first experience of Presence!

Here it is. He was instructed that the next time he urinated – yes go pee – a very unconscious action that does not need attention to happen – well the next time he had to urinate,  as he took this action, he was simply to notice where his mind went. 

Well, when I tried it, amazing! It was the first time that I had ever experienced the wanderlust of my own mind. My mind wandered from place to place, thought to thought and I was truly amazed. It was my first experience of Consciousness – or Presence, and it was a turning point for me. I experienced the “busyness” of my mind and had never been aware of it before. Now this was long before Tolle and all his wonderful words, but the action is the same – presence!

Now at the time, I did not take it any further for I did not know “any further” existed. I just started to become aware of the thoughts in my mind and where they took me. I did not do this often. Once I finished the book, well the ideas left me as well. But then maybe not all of them left me, for I was changed.

As the Master Teacher explains in “The Way of the Peaceful Warrior” it is in those most unconscious actions that we can see just how far we wander, for we do not need to help our self to breathe, to chew, to pee.  At least, that is what I remember now from that book.

So, I discovered that being present can also be explored by simply being aware of what is in my mind and watching my mind work as I do something that I am so skilled at, that it does not require my attention.

So, I will suggest that to discover what “being Present” really means, take time during the doing of something that we are very skilled at – and notice what your mind does as you skillfully take that action. Now the peeing for me is the easiest place, but with your view of the world you may find another place to try this.

Perhaps the easiest way for me to understand what being present is – is by viewing myself when I do so not need to be present – again I offer you the exercise from Millman’s book.

And so I, too, from this experience found that there was even another level of being present that I had not experienced before. And again, as I always say, the view of my world changed in another way. A very present way!

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About Me

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Hi, my name is Donna Somerville and I am a full time spiritual medium and facilitator. What do I facilitate? You! You and your developing awareness of what You love, what fulfills You and how You sabotage Your Self. I do this, and have been learning how to do this since 1988. How do I do this? By having conversations, out loud, with Your Inner Self and recording those conversations so that You can “listen” in. I am a listener. Although people like to call them readings and channeling, I call it “listening”. I believe that my purpose is to, quite literally, become useless to You. My work is to “listen”, and then to show You how to do it for Your Self. I love my life! All of it.The ups and the downs. I feel it is a great privilege and adventure to be alive now, at this time and I want to experience life to the fullest. I am all about experience!