How To Become Present

In this article I’d like to give you some ways that you can become Present in the Now Moment as an observer.  When we’re in Presence and observing our mind, body and external reality we’re connected with the deeper Truth, of our Self (Soul).

To do this though you have to understand why you don’t experience your True Self in the first place, and the reason is that most people are primarily identified with the mind (ego) and that’s what they believe they are. Our belief in separation, and our identity with our ego as ‘self’ creates most of the issue.  Another aspect of it is also that we’re not connected to our hearts and the heart is the connection to the Soul, so no heart connection causes separation from our True Nature as well. So to get back home we have to reverse our course.

The first step in becoming Present is to realize that you are NOT your mind, and that you’re not what you think you are. Our beliefs are energy constructs that have nothing to do with our true Being, and they were formed in this life from pre birth, and for most of us in past lives as well. To become aware of how you’re “wired up” we need to become a “Watcher” or Witness of ourselves.  The mind is much like a computer.. what you put in, you get out, and if a code is written correctly, the program will functions as it should, at least on a day to day level, but if it’s not the program will malfunction. This is essentially what happens with our mind.. and why it’s necessary to see how we’re wired so it can be resolved.

The situation with most of us though is that we operate on autopilot, and while we may know on a deeper level that something just isn’t right, we will often say things like “well, that’s just how I am”. But it’s not you at all.. it’s a function of a construct in the energy field of “you”.  But by becoming the Watcher, or Witness you essentially disconnect from your identification with the mind and instead you watch it. You’ll most likely be surprised and maybe even shocked at what your ego is doing when you’re not paying attention. I know I sure was.

To become Present and watching you have to shift your perception from your thinking mind into your breathing body and heart, or your feeling nature. Meditation is a great way to help you in this process.. but you also need to practice it during waking hours, and a good way to start the day is to become still when you first wake up in the morning, and just observe everything around you, and at the same time to become conscious of your breath.

Being connected to our heart while being the observer is also a wonderful way to remain present because the heart is the center of connection to the Soul, and to our Spirit. I call it dropping down into the heart, and to do it all you need to do is to think about something you are grateful for, someone you deeply love, or something that happened that was very moving for you.  Doing this will activate the heart chakra, and it will help you to become Present and heart connected. Having our attention in our heart also changes the physiology of the body, so we’re far less likely to be triggered by outside events, unless of course we have a construct that needs to be resolved, and if that’s the case being in the heart might actually trigger it to come up and make itself known.

Another way to engage the heart by the way is simply to smile. I was heard a Qi Gung teacher say that SMILE is an acronym for Start My Internal Love Engine, and it does do that. But I digress, once you’ve opened your heart watch your “reality” and pay attention to what is in front of you at every moment. Give Life your full attention, whether you’re at a job or talking to a friend or washing the dishes. This act increases your energetic alignment with the Now.. and begins to align you with your True Self.. and it will bring you deeply into what I call Present Moment Awareness.It also enables you to see your internal reactions (bodily or mental) to what’s going on, and you will also be able to see what’s happening with others very clearly.

From here if your thinking mind pops up.. realign yourself with your body and the Now by refocusing your attention on your breathing for a while or on your heartbeat, and smile. The more you do this the more you’ll start to notice that your mind becomes more quiet.. and with time it becomes second nature to see thoughts pop up so they are no longer able to hijack you and take you out of the Present Moment.

With Present Moment Awareness and watching the mind and body you will become aware of how you’re wired up mentally and by bringing consciousness to those parts of your thinking mind that are keeping you spinning around, you will start to free yourself one pattern at a time until your mind/ego is fully integrated into Self.This is what self awareness is all about.

So the whole process comes down to being in the Now. The beautiful thing about this is that when we completely relax into the Present Moment, we open the door for Truth to arise (the fundamental Self), which your True Nature arising.. which will help us to become mentally and emotionally integrated. It works the same way for everyone also because we already are THAT.. but we don’t know it because we keep ourselves separate from it when we’re in the mind, but when we rest in the Now we will find that Self is revealed to us automatically.

Until next time..
Namaste’
John