Five Minute Practice of Presence

Take a pause to rest, reset, and connect. Wherever you are can be a place of presence.

Welcome! Taking time to pause and tune into ourselves is healthy, and offers a simple rest, reset, and connect.

Listen to this audio of a Five-Minute Practice of Presence, watch and breathe along with the video, or simply read the guidance. You can practice this wherever you are - no need for a candle or any special prep or anchoring symbol.

A simple practice

Go to a place where you can be quiet for five or more minutes (or even five seconds if that is what you have.) You can be outdoors, in your home, workplace, a bathroom, or in a car. Maybe you are traveling on a train, a plane, or a bus. Wherever you are—wherever you are—can be and is a place of presence.

• Make it simple. You do not need candles, incense, music, or a prayer shawl. No fountain, icon, chair, or prayer beads. Just you and however you can show up, right now. The cosmos is big enough for all your joy, your struggles, your frustration, your anger, your fear. Simply show up.
  

• Breathe. Inhale through your nose. Notice the texture and temperature of the air you inhale. Breathe enough oxygen to feel movement in your body. Feel your chest and belly expand. Take the biggest breath of your day.
  

• Exhale. Let go. Let go of everything that does not serve you or the integrity of the other. The universe knows what to do with all let-go’s. We don’t have to do anything except let go.
  

• Breathe in.

• Breathe out.

• Breathe out.

• Breathe in.

  
  Allow each inhale to be deeper, every exhale deliberate. You may feel energy move and shift in your body as your cells oxygenate.
  

• As you breathe, awaken your senses. Be present to yourself and your surroundings. Notice what attracts your attention and stay with that. While being present to what you notice with your awakened senses, simultaneously keep attention with your breathing.
  
  Continue for as long as you desire. What are you noticing, if anything?
  

• Draw in the deepest breath of your day. Perhaps the deepest breath of your life. As you exhale, let go into the present moment. Breathe in again with gratitude, and as you exhale, let go of everything, and be here, now.

Allow your breath to consciously companion you through your day. Begin each morning and end each night with this practice of presence, or whenever it tickles your memory to pause. You might pause and practice if you are experiencing stress, worry, or the desire to be present more completely to a person—maybe even yourself—a place, idea, creative spark, or to Spirit that some name God. Do you have an important phone call or presentation? Pause to gift yourself with a five minute, or five second break. You know what to do.

Open the present.

image: A Sunday evening pause at River Raven Sanctuary lodge, to breathe, reflect, then create a video for you, along with a beautiful practice of presence and reminder to me!

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I’d love to hear your experience and reflections! What do you notice in your body, in your mind? Are you calmer after breathing for a few minutes in a reset? Do you find it hard to tune into presence, and the present moment?

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