Being There

What is the most important thing to carry with you all the time?

I feel like the most important thing I carry with me is a sense of Presence. I work at keeping awake to wherever I am.

No matter where you go, there you are.

Confucius

Am I really where I am? Sometimes, I find myself just going through the motions. Perhaps the path I am walking or driving is so familiar that I do not notice anything along the way… and suddenly I find myself at my destination. I refer to this for myself as destination thinking. When my thoughts or feelings are “already there,” I miss the journey- the moment in which I actually exist and am.

Perhaps I am caught up in my thoughts or feelings about something or someone. Anything that keeps me from being “here” is a distraction. And so for me, just recognizing this state of not-being-here invites me to smile at this pattern in my life, bring my attention back to my breath (body), and then be present.

Are you missing out on NOW where you actually are in favor of an imagined-future or remembered-past? Take a brief moment to breathe and ground yourself here. Be in the conversation which is only available to us in this moment, whether the conversation is with another person or simply with reality now.