What does it mean to be present? 

If you ask me, being present is being mindful and aware of what’s going on in your life, beneath the surface. This means that whenever you have any kind of challenge, you are faced with a difficult situation, you need to understand why you’re going through it. You need to understand where it’s coming from and most importantly, what do you need to learn from the situation that has presented itself to you?

This is the single most important question to ask yourself whenever you encounter something you fear or find particularly challenging to deal with. 

What is it that I’m meant to learn from this fear or challenge? 

Whenever I’m faced with any fear, what I do is go straight to it. For example, if I’m afraid of speaking in front of a large audience, I would actually go and put myself in the situation where I have to speak in front of a large audience because that’s the way I’m going to conquer my fear. 

No, I’m not a stickler for punishment, but there is real merit in facing your fears.

Along the way of confronting my fears head-on, I will likely learn and gain more confidence in myself. I might learn to handle nervousness and to overcome it, and probably also learn to believe in myself. There are so many wonderful lessons that can come out of any challenge.  

What’s Your Story?

We all have a story. We’ve all come with some kind of inner narrative. I call that a program or a life pattern, like a theme that seems to repeat over and over and over again.

The way to get any pattern or loop to stop is to learn what you’re meant to from that situation. For example, if you’re constantly in relationships where you are taken for granted, perhaps you feel neglected, not noticed or appreciated. That should direct you to check if what is going on out there in your relationship is stemming from what’s happening within you. 

Are you paying attention to yourself? Are you neglecting yourself? Are you appreciating and acknowledging yourself? 

If something is happening in our external world, it’s a mirror of what’s happening internally. And to understand what is surging beneath your surface will require you to be very present to yourself so you can try to understand what is transpiring inside of you. 

So I would look at that and I’d ask myself— “What aspect of my relationship with my self is being mirrored in my relationships with everybody else?

It’s very important to ask questions. We tend to go through life on auto-pilot. We never stop to think: "Why?” “Why is this happening?” “What am I supposed to learn?” “What am I supposed to gain?”

Just stopping to ask questions through a process of inner reflection will help you to get in touch with the ‘why’ of what’s happening. It will help you resolve those challenges and you will feel so much lighter, no longer carrying the burdens of your pain.  

You have to be like an investigator. You’re searching for the deepest truth. You’re searching for your inner motivations and you’re trying to understand yourself better. 

That is, after all, what we’ve come here to do.  To understand ourselves. To develop and grow into the best we can be. To experience everything our life has to offer us and to enjoy it while we’re at it.

So, why not start today? Ask yourself those questions. We all have a story, and it’s time to see if can unravel yours.