Presence & Well Being

The idea of Presence & Well-being causes us to consider the physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual areas of our lives.

Many of us are tormented by the unrest we experience within. Much of this unrest is derived from perspectives, emotions, values, beliefs and judgements, about who and what we think we are. This unrest is both responsible for and the cause of the negative effects from over extension. The relentless sense of demand on us, makes it increasingly impossible to stop and so we starve ourselves of the essential ‘nourishment’ that is the sustaining essence of presence.

Trauma and unresolved difficult life experiences can also be a considerable block to realising presence and well being. Destructive behaviour, depression, anxiety, inadequacy, insecurity, anger and fear, which can result from these unresolved difficulties, and so shape the way we think and feel about ourselves, in relation to the world around us. The identification with how we experience ourselves can be very powerful and prevent us from being inwardly at rest. Who we think we are and our conditioning can keep us hanging onto, or avoiding the torment of our history through memory and or intense stress and anxiety in anticipation of an uncertain future.

Presence is one of many words used these days to describe and metaphorically capture ‘what remains’, when we interrupt the thought processes of our brain. Human beings have been conditioned to psychologically identify with and invest in both the past and the future.  Presence points to what lies beyond this psychological obsession.  Our memories from the past and anticipation of the future shape our perspectives, beliefs and deepest values, creating destructive internal scripts that ensure an unhealthy momentum in our lives. It is this exaggerated momentum that continually takes us beyond our natural limits. These unhelpful patterns of thinking and feeling need to be identified: deconstructed, diluted and dissolved, if we are to create any possibility of knowing how to stop.  The idea of stopping for many is either an impossibility or terrifying prospect: a conditioned reaction from a life time of compulsive activity, which remains a continual threat to well-being.

Presence restores and nourishes us in the same way sleep and food does and so is an important consideration, when seeking to find life balance. As part of what is offered through the work I do, there is the opportunity for people to contemplate, how they might learn that it is possible to stop, and maybe ‘touch’ for the first time, the still presence that is our essence.