The Art of Being Here: Choosing Presence When The World Wants You Elsewhere

I’ve spent a lot of my life rushing.

Even when I was still, my thoughts weren’t. But, that’s the nature of the mind. I was always somewhere else—ten steps ahead, six months in the future or stuck in the past. If you’d asked me how I was doing, I’d probably have told you what I was working on or what I was trying to fix.

Sometimes we don’t notice that we’re moving so quickly forward until we pause and realized the season has changed without us.

I used to think presence was taking a moment to pause, stop, notice. But what if presence isn’t just a temporary intermission—what if it is the main show?

Presence as Practice

It’s not a secret that the world doesn’t exactly encourage slowness. And I’m guilty of having a million computer tabs open at the same time (aren’t we all?). Because we’re praised for productivity, for always being in motion. Real presence feels like swimming against the current of the modern world.

Presence is a quiet and powerful rebellion against the way the world works.

Presence is not about perfection and not always peaceful or pretty. It’s being willing to stay with what is, what’s real. It’s feeling your heartbeat in your chest or noticing that your hands are cold or that your shoulders are climbing up toward your ears again (reminder: relax your jaw too). It’s witnessing your own life as it unfolds, without constantly trying to control it.

This isn’t easy – because: life, am I right? But especially then presence is a kind of sanctuary.

What We Miss When We’re Not Here

When we aren’t fully present, we miss a whole lot. We might think we’re skipping the hard parts when we run on autopilot – but we’re skipping the beautiful ones, too. I’ve missed so many small miracles while looking into the future to see what’s next, or back into the past thinking on things you can’t change.

Really noticing these small, ordinary, mundane moments of life, it isn’t flashy, but they’re the foundation, the structure of a meaningful life. They’re what we look back on later and realize—they were everything.

The Complicated Beauty of Now

I’ve probably mentioned this before, because I love it (and I’m thinking of getting it as part of a tattoo). Forever Is Composed Of Nows — it’s the title of a poem by Emily Dickinson. I want that as part of a larger tattoo to remind me to be in the present/live with more presence (as well as things that remind me of the impermanence of life - another of my fave topics/subjects to ramble on about!).

Some moments are in sharp focus and raw, some are filled with so much joy that it’s almost overwhelming, and others are beyond ordinary.

But presence doesn’t ask you to feel any particular way about it. It just asks you to be with it.

To breathe in the raw moment and become aware of the mundane one. To take in the joy filled one without interrupting the moment by immediately reaching for your camera.

It’s okay to have a strange relationship with being in the now. Some days you’ll be wanting to escape it. That’s part of being human. But even the act of noticing that desire to run away from whatever it is you’re going through is presence.

We don’t always have to like the moment we’re in. But we can choose not to abandon ourselves in it.

Little Anchors

I practice small ways to return to the moment. I call them anchors. You probably have some of your own.

Placing a hand over my heart and asking, “What’s here right now?”

Looking up at the sky and finding a cloud to focus on

Naming five things I can see, four I can touch, three I can hear, two I can smell, one I can taste. This is one of my fave grounding practices and one I often recommend.

Running when I have too much on my mind, like I want to literally run through my thoughts.

Taking ten breaths —a short inhale and a longer exhale (which activates the parasympathetic nervous system – our rest and relax system) and watching how they come and go like tides.

These aren’t big rituals, they’re just simple ways I can return to the now, return to the body and the breath. That’s why I love my daily yoga practice so much – because it’s my time to be in the present. As of writing that’s 3,437 days of yoga – almost 9 and a half years.

This Moment is Worth It

I’m not here to sell you the idea that being present will solve all your problems or remove all your pain – it’s not a panacea – nothing can do that. But I am saying that this moment is still worth being in – because it’s your opportunity to experience this moment just for you. It’s uniquely yours. This is the moment you are alive in, on the earth, where your story continues.

Even if you’re in limbo – waiting for something, or healing or wondering what comes next. This moment still belongs to you.

And it probably has something to offer you—if you’re open to accept it.

A gentle invitation

So I’ll leave you with this little mindful moment:

Take a moment and pause.

Feel your feet on the ground.

Let your shoulders drop.

Let your breath move in and out naturally, but you’re aware of it. You don’t need to do anything.

You don’t need to prove your worth by running ahead or digging through the past.

The world might be pulling you in a thousand directions but you’re allowed to just be here. In this breath, this moment. Now. So stay awhile and remind yourself that FOMO isn’t invited to this party. You’re not missing out. You’re being you.

If this letter found you at the right time, feel free to share it with someone else who might need a little wonder today.

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