How to Be More Present

Something that has been bringing me so much joy, has me feeling so good, so healthy, so me is a practice of being more present.

I would guess that you, too, probably struggle with being present… being “all there when you’re there” or have at least one area of your life where you’d like to be more present.

That’s what this week’s episode is all about on The Embracing Balance Podcast. Today I want to share a few practices that have helped me be more present in my own life lately with the hope that you are encouraged to do these things to be more present in your own life.

Can I just say that this is the bread and butter of why I do what I do. Though I am not “there” with being perfect at being present… The more I work on this in my own life the more I am starting to see that this may be one of those areas where I’m always learning and growing. And that’s OK! I love learning from and about myself and I want to encourage you to do the same. But while I love helping women feel free and calm around food and confident in their bodies, I love even more what that freedom brings… the ability to be present with the things that matter most to them.

So, like I said a second ago, I have been experimenting with some things in my own life to help me be more present. This all started with this realization that I wasn’t as “there” as I wanted to be when I was with my kids. I was “there” but not really there if that makes sense. And it felt icky. When I was with my kids I was always thinking about or doing something else… my work, new ideas, what I needed to do that day, spending time scrolling social media.

Boundaries help us by “budgeting” our time and energy for what we actually want to spend it on.

So, I set out to create some boundaries for myself in these areas with this goal of wanting to be more present. And I was determined to stay within them.

I set boundaries with my work and “momming” (which was hard with working from home but has been so good!)

I set boundaries with social media.

And what I found was… I can do it! I know that sounds silly but I have tried to be more present in my life in the past and didn’t stick with it like I would have liked to. So this time I gave myself specific boundaries to help me be more present and was determined to stay within those boundaries because I knew what it would do for me… it would make me feel soo good!

I am by no means perfect at these things and staying true to my boundaries, but I’ve found (and share in this episode) some specific mindsets that have really helped me feel so much more present and it’s felt so good!

What areas do you crave more presence?

So, I want to ask YOU… What areas of your life do you crave more presence? Is it in your home? With your family and friends? With your work? And what things are keeping you from being present?

A lot of the women I work with talk with me about wanting freedom from always thinking about food, that food is something that keeps them from being present the way they want to. I had a client once who talked about wanting to go out with her kids and all get ice cream together and she wanted to just enjoy the ice cream but more-so, enjoy being with her kids and making this memory together, instead of thinking about the calories and fat and having to “make up for” eating the ice cream. What would it look like to be fully present and not always thinking about food? For food not to be something that keeps you from being all there with your family?

So, I want to lead you through a way to find more presence in your life. And it starts by acknowledging both the area you want more presence (name that area… with your family, your friends, your work, in your quiet time in the morning) and then identify the things that are keeping you from presence (is it social media, your relationship with food, alcohol, unrealistic expectations of yourself, overthinking decisions or situations). What is keeping you from presence?

And then ask yourself, what boundaries or actions do I need in order to have presence? Do I need to have specific times where I use social media and have discipline with only being on during those times? Do I need to put my phone in the kitchen to charge at night instead of by my bedside and use that as its docking station most of the day so I don’t always have it next to me at every moment? Do I need to work on making peace with food so that I’m not always thinking about it (check out the episode 2 wks ago for how to start with this)? Do I need to work on my relationship with alcohol and maybe give myself boundaries with when and how much I’m drinking? Do I need to practice giving myself grace for unrealistic expectations? Do I need to let go of overthinking and embrace the unknown and just let life happen sometimes?

I want to invite you to explore this area of presence. I know I am and have so enjoyed the freedom that more presence in my life has given me. I am right there with you with struggling to want to do all the things all the time. But I also know that each and every one of us craves some calm in our lives, and it’s so good for us, to have moments where we can just be. So I invite you here… I invite you to just be and explore even why it is such a struggle to just be. I’m still learning about this for myself so we can learn here together.

Come tell me on Instagram one thing you’re doing to practice being more present!

Click to listen to this episode on Apple, Spotify, or Google.