A lot of people’s mental issues and disturbances is because of the lack of being present. People are either stuck in the past or stuck thinking about the future. When people think about the past, they normally think negatively about it. It creates sadness. When people think of the future, it normally makes them anxious. I remember one time, I had to talk in front of a crowd of people and a week before I had to speak in front of a crowd of people, I was extremely anxious. The week leading up to me publicly speaking was so bad. I was nervous all week. I couldn’t feel my happy self. I remember having thoughts like: ” I wish I was that person so I don’t have to speak. If I were them I wouldn’t have to speak”. This was how bad I hated public speaking.
Everything is nerve wracking all the way up until that moment. There is things in life that make us nervous and anxious, like going on a first date, having a job interview, meeting new people, going to the doctors, and for most people public speaking is the top one. I realized when I was up there speaking in front of an audience that all my nervousness went away. When I was up there, I became present in that moment. I couldn’t think of the future or past, all I could think about what I was consciously doing in that moment.
I didn’t fully understand what being present meant and how powerful was until I had a lot of anxiety. 2 years ago I just discover what anxiety was and what it felt like to have anxiety. I developed generalized anxiety from never being present and always being nervous about the future and worrying what was going to happen. You know when you are young and realize that you have to become an adult now and you have to start growing up and make a life for yourself. You see everyone around you having their lives figured out and you are sitting there like: “what should I do with my life”? Most kids coming out of college experience this. Let me tell you this, no one has their life figured out. If they do and they tell you they do, they are just pretending and putting up a front. If you had life all figured out then your life would be boring and there would be no point of living. The mysterious part of life, and figuring out your life is what makes life fun.
Anyways, I don’t want to get too off topic. So I got rid of my anxiety just by becoming present. It’s very simple, you want to get rid of any negative feeling like anxiety or depression, then become present. Live in the present moment. Nothing bad happens in the present moment. If you boil it down right this second, nothing bad is happening to you. If you had a second to stop and just realize that nothing bad is having to you. Those negative feelings are because you aren’t present enough.
What Does Being Present Feel Like?
Do you know what it feels like to be a little kid with no worries? That is what it feels like. It feels like you are high or drunk. You are high and drunk on life. Everything makes you feel happy. You don’t need no drug or drink to make you feel this way, you just natural are. Just looking at a tree or hearing the birds chirping makes you happy. Music even sounds better. Everything is just better when you are present. It feels like an ultimate bliss.
How Does One Become Present?
There is 6 ways that I discovered through researching and experimenting with my research to help you become present and get rid of all your negative emotions. Each one of the steps help make me present. You might do one of the steps and feel present. But by doing all 6 you can feel present all the time.
DISCLAIMER:
BEFORE YOU START PRACTICING BECOMING PRESENT, I SUGGEST YOU PRACTICE GRATITUDE FIRST. JUST BY BEING THANKFUL FOR EVERYTHING YOU HAVE IN YOUR LIFE, IT WILL BE THAT MUCH EASIER TO BECOME PRESENT. I AM NOT SAYING YOU WON’T BECOME PRESENT WITHOUT GRATITUDE, IT WILL BE JUST HARDER TO BE PRESENT WITHOUT BEING GRATEFUL FIRST.
6 Steps For Becoming Present:
1. Mindful Meditation
If you read my other blogs, then you probably knew this was coming. Meditation will change your life. I do it everyday, and it really made an impact on my life. When you sit in silence with yourself, with no distractions, it will pull you into the present moment. When you try to let all your thoughts float by like passing clouds. If you really want to go deeper in your meditation then do mindfulness meditation. Where you focus on your breath and body parts. This was how Buddha had his spiritual awakening. Just by focusing on the in breath and the out breath. This fully makes you become present.
Then you feel like all your problems went away.
Most people I talk to about meditation, they say: “How am I going to not think of a single thought throughout my meditation”? That is impossible, we think over 70,000 thoughts a day, so it’s quite impossible to do so. By just letting your thoughts come in and go out like passing clouds, that is how you become present.
2. Feel Everything You Touch With Your Whole Body.
This step was the 2nd biggest way to how I became present next to meditation.
So how you can practice this today is just by when you are walking on the stairs, focus on each step and when you feel the step, also begin to focus on your breath, while focusing on your whole body feeling each step.
Another example of this is when you do anything, like let’s say drinking a beverage, feel your hand holding the drink, and then feel the liquid go down your throat and while doing that, notice your breath. People aren’t conscious enough. When people are doing things, they aren’t fully present doing things. They are driving their car but they are thinking about things they have to do later. Luckily for our subconscious mind being at work 24/7 or everyone would be getting into car accidents. Their automatic thinking is doing all the work. While their conscious mind(which is only 5% of your mind) is thinking about the future of the past.
So the way to become present right now is feel everything you touch with your entire body and senses. When you pick a flower, focus on it with your eyes, hear you pick it out of the ground with your ears, smell it with your nose, feel it with your hands when you pick it up.
Fritz Perls, a great, smart psychologist, said a saying that has stuck with me. That is: “Lose your mind and come to your senses”. This is how you become fully present.
I got this powerful technique from the book The Power Of Now By Eckhart Tolle. This book goes into my top 5 greatest books of all time. It truly changed my life. It help me become fully present and happy. It’s life changing. It was the best $15 dollars I spent. I felt like this book should cost way more than $15, it’s that powerful.
Get the book here by clicking on the link below!
You will find more ways to become present in this book and also he will help you get over any negative thing you are experiencing right now. It’s truly a life changing book.
3. Focus On Your Breath
You can do this right now to help you get back into the present moment at any time in the day. I always use this step, it’s key. There will be times where I will feel unease and anxious, because from time to time we all feel unease and anxious. Whenever I will this negative feeling, I immediately focus on my breath and I immediately come back into the present moment. Then all that negative feelings go away.
This is the simplest step of the 6 in the post. Focus on the inhale and the exhale of your breath. Breath work is key to becoming present.
4. Conscious Eating
This is something that everyone doesn’t do. It’s hard for me to do at times. When we are eating, we are looking at our phones or watching TV. It’s a bad habit. When you are eating, focus on your bite. Chew every bite, instead of just shoveling food down and not paying attention to what you are eating.
Not being distracted while you eat actually helps your digestive system break down the food better. Because your brain is distracted by technology while you are eating, your brain and stomach can’t communicate as well together. When they can communicate well to each other, then your stomach can tell your brain that you are full and you don’t need no more food, then you can stop eating.
The most important part is that it makes you present. Eating is almost a fully body experience, besides for your legs. You use your hands to get the food, you use your mouth to chew and then your throat to swallow. A lot of people aren’t doing this consciously, they are just watching their TV show while they eat. According to psychologists, it’s have been proven that we can’t multitask and if you do then what you are doing is mediocre. You use a lot of your senses to eat, so the more senses you consciously use, the more present you become.
This way is another easy to start practicing to become present, because we eat 4 times a day.
5. Practice Earthing (Grounding).
What Is Earthing (Grounding)?
Earthing (also known as grounding) refers to contact with the Earth’s surface electrons by walking barefoot outside or sitting, working, or sleeping indoors connected to conductive systems, some of them patented, that transfer the energy from the ground into the body. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3265077/.
Besides for grounding and becoming present from earthing, it also has many other benefits like reduced inflammation, decrease in stress, and reduced in chronic pain. There is many more benefits you can find on the internet.
To practice earthing, all you have to do is go outside without any shoes or socks on and walk on the grass, dirt, or sand. That is why most people at the beach feel amazing. They are constantly earthing and grounding themselves, feeling all the benefits of the earth’s natural energy.
When we make direct contact with the earth surface, our body receives an energy that makes us feel better, quick.
6. When Talking To People Feel Your Energy, Then Feel Their Energy. Listen To Understand, Not Respond.
This concept is the hardest one to master, that is why it’s the last one on the list. I am still trying to master this today.
People have auras, well all things have auras. An aura, acts like an atmosphere of energy surrounding a person. This is going to be the most esoteric part of this post. Have you ever was talking to a person and you immediately felt off and you felt like you wanted to get away from that person? That is because they have a negative aura and your energy doesn’t match their energy. You can feel this deeper when you become present when talking to people.
How you do this is when you are talking to people, is feeling your body without touching it, feel the energy going through your body, then try and feel the other person’s energy as they are talking to you. Picture this like a circle of alternating circuit. You are just exchanging energies. Then when the other person is talking, listen to them fully. Listen to understand them, not to respond. Most people even myself, fall victim to this. We are listening but we thinking what we are going to say next. We aren’t fully listening to understand that person.
This step will not only help you become present, it will improve the interactions you have with people. You will win more relationships just by practicing this step.
It’s a two step part:
First, feel the energy in your body, then feel you exchanging energies with the person you are talking to, like an alternating circuit, then listen to understand. This will help you become present in all interaction you have with people you meet and talk to.
Do at least one of these steps today. At least one of these steps will help you become present today. Doing all these steps will help you become present all throughout the day. These steps really helped me become present all the time.
If you want to learn more about becoming present and living more in the now then pick up the book The Power Of Now By Eckhart Tolle. This book I promise is life changing. Being in the now is the most powerful thing you can be. This is the best book for helping you be in the now.
Get Book Through The Link Below!
Pro Tip BONUS For Reading All The Way Through:
DON’T LOOK AT THE TIME AS MUCH. Anytime you look at the clock, you immediately get out of the present moment.
Wolf Wisdom Empire 