The Path to Embodied Presence

Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness. Today, I'm going to talk about a really simple way to embody more presence in daily life. So when I talk about embodying presence, I really mean a sense that you're fully occupying your body and your life, in the moment. So often our body is in one place, but our attention is off somewhere else lost in thought. So when we fully come home to ourselves and the body and mind are in the same place at the same time, something magical happens.

We're fully alive in the moment. But this kind of embodiment rarely happens on its own for very long. Most of us really take consistent and regular mindfulness practice to be able to embody presence ongoing in our lives. So when we're training in mindful living, there's lots of different ways to go about staying present throughout the day. One way is through body awareness.

So we can become more aware of what our physical body is doing in any given moment. For instance, we can be aware of when the body is sitting, aware of when we're lying down, aware when we're eating, aware when the body is walking, typing, when we're making tea. So when monks first arrive at a Buddhist monastery, they're often given this practice to notice and mentally note what position their body is in. So when they're walking, they might mentally note to themselves, walking. When they're sitting, they mentally note, sitting.

When they eat, they mentally note, eating and so on. Now you might think this sounds overly simplistic, right? But if you try this out, what you're going to notice is that it continuously brings the mind back from wandering and anchors you in the here and now. It's deceptively effective and powerful. So you can apply this to so many situations throughout the day, whether it's working out at the gym, hugging someone, having a stretch, all of these are opportunities to come back to body awareness. And the great thing about this particular practice is it doesn't take any extra time out of your life.

We can apply this technique to any situation. So I encourage you today to give this a try and just see how it goes for you, see how it feels for you. I think you'll find that you'll be much more aware, centered, and calm. Wishing you well with it. And as always, thank you for your practice and your presence here with us.

And inviting you now to begin to settle in for today's meditation.