Gratitude correlates with presence. When we’re grateful, we’re present. And if you’re regularly grateful, you might also assume that you are more present than most.
Continue reading “Gratitude”Gratitude
Pain Is A Portal Into Presence
We have a very destructive relationship to pain. We tend to numb and avoid it. Running from pain is a different kind of suffering than facing it. Continually numbing pain with screens, pills, drugs, or alcohol is true suffering compared to feeling it.
Continue reading “Pain Is A Portal Into Presence”Awareness and Exercise
Any growth that we want to cultivate (whether that growth is health-related, career-related, emotional, or spiritual in nature) must be rooted in mindfulness. It must.
Exercise is a great example of how this applies.
Continue reading “Awareness and Exercise”The Value Is In The Experience—Not The Dogma
You can reach altered states of consciousness in deep meditation: Spaciousness. Expanded Awareness. Silent Calm. Simple Unconditional Beingness. Deep Presence. Love.
Continue reading “The Value Is In The Experience—Not The Dogma”Presence Is The Difference
Nearly a decade ago, I had a dream that stuck with me over the years. It showed me that Presence is the difference. Life is not about where we think we need to go. Or where we think we should be. It’s about being in this moment.
Continue reading “Presence Is The Difference”Progress without Presence
The over-emphasis on progress in society is troubling because often people and groups do dubious things to get to some idealised destination. Clear examples of this can be found in every area of life. Health: Take a pill to lose weight instead of taking the difficult path of persistent lifestyle changes. Education: We want more students to pass. Let’s lower the standards. Business: Let’s aim for money without adding value. Politics: Let’s aim for quotas without considering competence.
Continue reading “Progress without Presence”State Of Consciousness Matters
Whenever I draw something, there might be a part of the drawing that is repetitive and “not fun”. The challenge with these parts is to stay present and avoid just-get-it-done mode.
With drawing, parts with low variability and high repetition—like say the wing of a bird—can evoke restlessness and carelessness. But rushing screws up the drawing. This is always the case. Rushing is the enemy of good work. So is carelessness. I know that if I want the entire drawing to be of a certain standard then I need to be present for the boring parts, the difficult parts, and the enjoyable parts.
Continue reading “State Of Consciousness Matters”No Progress Without Presence
Years ago I wrote a post about how we should favour process over progress. In that article I make the argument that we should not aim for predefined goals to get to some predefined top of the mountain. We don’t always know how long something will take. And we don’t know how the journey will look, so our best strategy is to settle in and focus on what we are doing in the moment.
People—especially large institutions and organisations—fixate on progress to the point where they no longer realise that their checkbox approach has nothing to do with real work. Peter Thiel makes a similar point in Zero To One. Here’s a quote:
“In the most dysfunctional organizations, signaling that work is being done becomes a better strategy for career advancement than actually doing work.”
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Create From A State Of Presence
I once heard Brandon Sanderson (author of The Way of Kings) tell aspiring writers that they should not think of their first novel as the product. Instead, he said, you should think of yourself as the product. His argument went something like this: The first book that you write won’t be good. No matter what you do. You don’t have enough skill to make it good yet. But each story that you write, makes you a better writer. And so, even if your first stories are not publishable, you can rest assured that you are becoming a better writer by writing them.
Continue reading “Create From A State Of Presence”Presence
Every success holds within it bitter disappointment.
Every failure holds triumph.
No state contains only good.
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