Presence and Pivot


Being able to redirect your path is a unique skill. Often we summon so much energy to set a direction in the first place that it can feel particularly hard to pivot. The more momentum we have behind us, the more force we need to bring with us to create a change. But that force doesn’t have to come with a bang. We can spark transformation through deep attention to what’s true right now – through presencing.

In this episode of Design Yourself, we begin by creating a shared understanding of what it means to presence. We expand our discussion by exploring three simple ways to practice this way of being. Finally, we close things out by investigating how presencing showed up in a backpacking adventure in the wilds of the Adirondack mountains.

Ideas Shared

Tools to Practice Presencing

  1. Get into your body. Breathe deeply. Wiggle your toes. Find a physical center. Run. Walk. Move.
  2. Connect to your surroundings. Tap into all all your senses. Listen to the sounds around you. What are the layers of noise around you? Look out to the horizon. Then bring it back to 100 feet. Now 10 feet. Now 10 inches. Now 1 inch. What are the scents around you? The textures?
  3. Ask yourself: What is true, right now?