Finding Presence: What is Presence
Many of us search for a sense of peace and well-being. Presence is often presented as the goal of meditation or spiritual inquiry, but what exactly do we mean by being present? Why is presence a practice we cultivate?
Join Lorraine Goldbloom for a special event Finding Presence: What is Presence that will explore the nature of presence and how it can serve as an anchor in our everyday lives. Life continues to challenge us, but being able to find our way back to a center of presence can radically change the quality of our experience.
Presence is the ability to be with what arises in an attentive, open, and receptive state. It's the loving presence we bring to interactions when we participate without distraction. The special quality that arises when our mind, heart, and body are aligned in the current moment. It's staying with what's happening, in the here and now, without checking out. No matter what happens. Presence is the ability to be fully present come what may.
Most people are not actually present for their lives. We’re distracted by worry and fear. Anxiety and stress have us ruminating over the past or lost in possibilities of the future. We can’t appreciate what we have because we’re cataloging our dissatisfactions with life as it is. Our mind is constantly telling us stories about the state of things. As a result, we don’t taste the food we eat, hear the words spoken to us, or allow our emotions to emerge spontaneously. We operate from conditioned reactions rather than authentic interaction.
How many of us can say we’ve been truly present for the greatest joys of our life, let alone the millions of mundane moments? But if we are not present, where are we? How can we fully participate in life when we’re lost in the stories of our mind that have no basis in reality? The present moment is all we have. Yesterday is gone and tomorrow is not promised. Life is an unending process of becoming, but who are we if we’re not here for it right now? How can we continue to grow if we’re stuck operating from default patterns?
The key to the greater joy and peace we seek is presence. For most people being truly present is not just a mindfulness technique. It's a moment-by-moment practice that can feel profoundly challenging. Life will always bring us new reasons to check out. Presence requires being with the truth: the emotional resonance of our experiences, the physical reality of our body, and the consciousness playing through our minds. It asks us not just to accept life as it is, but how we are in the present moment.
Presence is opening ourselves to love, and the magic and mystery of creation. When we are fully present, when we are with life as it arises, we recognize that there is something greater emerging through all of us. And being present for that is the reason we are here.
In Finding Presence: What is Presence we will discuss how changing our relationship to our issues can create an opening to presence. Lorraine will describe the unique process of finding presence she has developed over the last decade while teaching VortexHealing®. She will offer a structured, guided meditation to bridge your awareness into what is blocking your ability to be present. We will conclude with a deep healing to help anchor awareness into the heart of the ongoing presence that resides within all of us. This powerful session will facilitate an ongoing practice of finding presence that will enable you to experience peace and joy that is naturally arising in every moment.
Wednesday, September 14
7pm to 8:30pm
$40.00