Presence as Who You Are (Versus a Field or Tool)

When I first started practicing ‘bringing’ presence into my relationships, I related to it as a tool I could use. This is a super helpful shift, but still presumes ‘me’ as separate from presence, relationships, and the parts relating. Another shift: You are the presence that you’re drawing from. You are presence, but not only presence. Being presence rather than bringing it, the stuff you used to call ‘you’ can change rapidly in response to real-time feedback because you don’t fear annihilation. You identify with something always-present and un-threaten-able. You start to see ‘feedback’ everywhere, as everything, and appreciate it as part of you-happening.

Maybe you’ll find this as useful as I have. Check it out now, check it out next time you’re upset and projecting some old story on your conversation partner. Whatever you normally do to be more present—feeling into body sensations, looking at something on the wall, feeling your breath, doing math proofs—notice that thing you call presence isn’t different from your subjectivity and see what happens.

With love, Jordan