758th Week: The Importance and Power of Presence

ByNancy Napier

I taught a workshop the other day and was keenly aware of the importance and power of presence as it affects not only ourselves but the space and people around us.  This professional workshop focused on helping clients become more grounded and have the ability to re-center after becoming activated.  As we all came together for the day, I could feel the qualities of our combined presence and found myself emphasizing the presence of the practitioner as the main element in any healing process.

On a more general note, I’m also always aware of the importance and power of presence as we move through our everyday lives. There isn’t a moment that we aren’t radiating the qualities of our personal and collective presence, and our personal presence inevitably impacts not only our own experience but that of everyone we encounter along the way.

This got me to thinking of the ways in which we can become more mindful of the qualities of our personal presence, and of the importance of being able to notice when we radiate negative or hurtful qualities and need to make available the choice to reorient ourselves and “dial in” a different mood state, quality of consciousness, or focus of our attention.

For this week’s practice in conscious living, here are a few practices that may be helpful when you find yourself radiating or expressing qualities that don’t feel healthy to you, or when you find that you want to add something positive to a collective context within which you may find yourself:

  • Notice where you may experience tension in your body and invite yourself to soften.  Softening automatically reduces activation and stress in the body and your presence, when you are softer, will radiate gentler energies and qualities.
  • If you find that you are irritable or impatient, take a few moments to focus your awareness in your heart (an adaptation of HeartMath), bring to mind an image, sound, or other representation of something you love or for which you have affection, and then gently breathe in and out of your heart for a few minutes.  The radiating presence of an open heart is quite different from the radiating presence of a tense mind or body.

A personal practice I engage in at the beginning of each day is to focus my awareness in my heart, breathing in and out through my heart space, and mentally say to myself a number of times, “I choose love.”  I find that this brings me fairly quickly into a heart-centered presence that I would like to carry throughout the coming day.

  • Notice where you focus your awareness.  If you find that you are mentally chewing on some resentment or argument you had, or think you may have, with someone, notice what it’s like to deliberately, yet gently, shift your awareness to thoughts that offer you a sense of support, inspiration, awe, or some other positive state of mind.  This shift in state of mind will automatically shift the state of your body and emotions and, thereby, shift the radiating presence that you bring into your world.

Here, again, an internal statement or mantra that brings a positive state might be worth having in the back of your mind so you can pull it forward at times like these. The statement might be something like, “A part of me is irritated but I am fine and I choose equanimity,” or something that resonates as true for you.

  • If you find that you are constricted and tense over situations in your life, or about your life in general, notice what happens if you take on a gratitude practice, allowing yourself to bring to mind two or three things for which you are grateful, no matter how seemingly small or insignificant. Gratitude has a distinctly different “tone” and radiating a quality of gratitude can powerfully affect the quality of your presence.

A close companion to gratitude is a practice of generosity.  You might explore this, as well, and notice what qualities it brings to your presence.

It’s helpful to remember that the world around us is all about energy and frequencies, and the different qualities your presence radiates are frequencies that can be shifted if you discover you don’t like what is moving through you into the world.

There are other practices that you can choose, as well, such as Lovingkindness, Tonglen (about which I’ve written quite a bit recently), breathing exercises that help you to settle, and more.  The key thing isn’t which practices you choose. Rather, the important thing is that you develop the capacity to sense the quality of your presence and then have the option to choose to shift to a different quality or add some qualities you’d like to carry in and with you. 

As with all these weekly practices, there’s no right way to do this one.  Instead, my intention is to offer you an opportunity to become more consciously aware of the importance and power of your personal presence and its impact on you and the world around you.  Please remember to bring along curiosity as your constant companion and to pat gently on the head any judgments that may arise, allowing them to move on through without your having to respond to them or do anything with or about them.

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Walking across Central Park one morning, I watched a dog wiggle and waggle in anticipation of chasing a ball. His attention was absolutely fixed on the ball in his human companion’s hand. Nothing else mattered. Nothing else registered as the ball was finally in the air and he ran after it with great enthusiasm. This got me to thinking about how powerfully the focus of our attention affects what we perceive and how we engage the world. Read More “Week 628: Where Do You Place Your Attention?”

762nd Week: Accessing and Nurturing Qualities from Nature

762nd Week: Accessing and Nurturing Qualities from Nature

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As I write this, I’m sitting in Central Park, as I often do on weekend mornings, attuning to the trees that have become my companions.  I notice that I am resonating with their steady, still presence and that their steadiness and stillness, even their expression of presence, is moving into my body-mind experience.  As I sit here, I absorb the qualities I experience in them and I find that access to the steadiness and stillness in me is enhanced by their presence. Central Park has been, and continues to be, one of the most important gifts in my life for over 35 years now, and my gratitude for having access to the natural life of the park is boundless.     

This got me to thinking about how powerful it is to spend time in nature and to absorb the qualities that may not be easily accessible in urban life.  When I look at the large rock outcropping off to my right, I think of its solidity, its constancy, its steady presence.  When I hear the sound of the locusts that populate the park at this time of the year, I think of the freedom to express.  When I think of one of the small waterfalls up in the northern section of the park, I am touched by a sense of flow.  These are all projections, perhaps, and yet they offer me an experience that I find both strengthening and nourishing.

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886th Week: Radiating Frequencies as Service and Subtle Activism

886th Week: Radiating Frequencies as Service and Subtle Activism

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I’ve written many times about the importance and impact of the frequencies/ energies/qualities we resonate with, and which we radiate as we move through our daily lives. It’s equally important to notice the qualities that affect our body-mind experience—that impact our moods and thoughts, along with our physical sensations. Equally important are the qualities we spontaneously and automatically contribute to the world around us in every moment. This process is often outside our conscious awareness—the fact that we constantly affect the world around us with the energies we naturally radiate as we move through our everyday activities and interactions. 

When we remember that we live within a context of collective consciousness (if this is an idea that resonates with you), we can remind ourselves that in every moment we contribute to and draw from this collective, most often outside our conscious awareness. We also aren’t usually aware of the ways in which our own thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations are also affected by collective consciousness. For example, if something is happening in the world that creates a lot of fear, any fear we may hold as individuals is amplified by the collective experience of this same emotion. If we are in a group of people expressing deep love and support, our personal experience of comfort or well-being will also be enhanced.

This presence of collective consciousness is the field within which subtle activism finds its impact. It is within this context that practices that invite us to radiate love, compassion, kindness, and other positive emotions finds its place. Also (again, if this resonates with your own belief system) there are many forms of collective consciousness, from our global human family to Nature itself, from the smallest, most intimate environment to earth’s varied landscapes and grand natural wonders. We are connected to, and affected by, all these collective fields of consciousness, even as we are usually not conscious of these connections and their impact on us and ours on them.

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879th Week: Coming Back to Center

879th Week: Coming Back to Center

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During challenging times, it’s more important than ever to be able to move through whatever feelings might arise and eventually return to center. When we embrace the idea of our inevitable wholeness, where we make room for everything that is part of our body-mind being as human people, it helps to be able to cultivate a strong and reliable center as our internal home base. This home base becomes a place to reorient ourselves when we are activated without having to do battle with or banish what we feel.

For many of us at this time, there are feelings of grief, disbelief, and anger over issues that reflect societal inequities and injustice. In this week’s practice in conscious living, there’s no request not to feel whatever you are feeling. Instead, there’s an invitation to orient to your grounded center in addition to what you feel so you can carry with you a place to land and rest when you need to do so.

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