How Present Are You?

Last week I was challenged by my coach to be fully present for a whole day. Easy I thought. Even better, I’ll one-up it to be fully present until I meet with her the following Friday.

10 days of being fully present. No problem, my ego thought! This will be a walk in the park.

Well…not even 24 hours in, I fell off the fence. And it’s all good.

I have times of complete focus. When I’m with clients, there’s nothing else in the world. As it’s meant to be.

When I watercolor paint, I’m fully immersed in what I’m creating. The same when I work on my new book.

Or standing on a bridge during my river walk. Fully engrossed in watching a hummingbird flit in front of me, catching bugs. Her chirps, the shimmering green of her body, the quick bite of her breakfast.

But continuing my walk, my mind would wander. The things to do, the people to reach out to, Eckhart Tolle’s book “The Power of Now” which I read years ago, even writing this. Each thought taking me out of being fully present in my walk, and in my body.

We think we can multi-task, yet less than 2% of the population is truly effective doing this. It robs us of more time than we realize. Called context-switching, just trying to do two things simultaneously can rob us of 20% of our time. It’s no wonder why it feels so hard to get things done.

Being fully present is a gift you give to yourself.

I shared this in my FB community and invited the members to join me in this challenge.

Some directly accepted. Someone shared they were resistant, and being present in that!

The changes in the world have disrupted much around us. There’s a lot of noise out there. And as one member shared, even 1 hour being fully present is a thing.

It’s fascinating to see how present I really am, even when I “think” I’m present. Even thinking about how what I’m doing is going is taking me away from what I’m doing.

Your invitation is to join us in this challenge. To be fully present for 24 hours. OK, start with one hour and go from there. The beautiful thing is that when you notice yourself wandering and falling off of the proverbial fence, jump back on, and jump back in.

There is no such thing as perfection, in life or in this. We learn by doing.

Let me know how it goes for you. I’ve posted my progress in the group and you’re invited to join us.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ReclaimingYourEnergeticSelf/