PRESENCE/QUALITIES
What does it mean to be present?
Presence is the capacity to stay in contact with what is actually happening: within yourself, between yourself and another, and in the world around you.
The qualities
Not a checklist to achieve. Ways of describing what becomes possible when we are genuinely present.
- Attention
- Noticing what is actually happening rather than moving automatically.
- Awareness
- Knowing what is happening within yourself, between you and another, and around you.
- Receptivity
- Allowing something unexpected to be noticed instead of immediately filtering it through expectation.
- Embodiment
- Being aware of sensations, movement, breath, tension, rhythm and physical impulses.
- Curiosity
- Meeting what is happening with interest rather than immediately deciding what it means.
- Patience
- Allowing time for something to reveal itself without forcing an outcome.
- Non-reactivity
- Creating enough space between what happens and what you do next to have a choice.
- Responsiveness
- Not simply observing, but allowing what you notice to influence how you respond.
- Openness
- Being willing to encounter something you did not expect.
- Discernment
- Keeping apart what happened, what you experienced, and what you made of it. All three are real. They are not the same thing.
- Boundaries
- Recognising that presence does not mean merging. Another being remains another being.
- Acceptance
- Allowing the present situation to be what it is, without requiring it to become something else.
And one more
Choice.
Presence creates a little more room for choice.
I notice what is happening.
I notice what is happening in me.
I notice what is happening with the other.
I don't have to react immediately.
I can choose how to respond.
