The Gift of Presence and Deep Listening

People often share how being out in nature — a natural setting like a forest or the ocean — can help bring them into stillness. Into a state of presence.

What gets broadly overlooked is that we are nature as well — nature confused perhaps, but nature nonetheless.

And once we allow the morass of the mind's complexity and its compulsive thinking to drop away, our true nature of oneness and presence can be felt and known.

And as we realize this deeper truth and live as the radiant, still beings that we are, then those who may not yet have awoken to this essential truth within themselves will seek you out, recognizing you as a great wonder of the natural world — so that they, too, can remember who and what they truly are — and live more frequently, in presence.

And when you’re with others, remember that there is a great gift to being able to listen more deeply than one's normal listening state. To really be in a state of presence with someone.

To move beyond just listening to the words, to sensing the energy that the words carry. Sensing the energy that carries the words. Sensing the overall energy emanating from those we’re with. Aware, sensing.

The felt sense of awareness that’s prior to thought and interpretation. The direct experience of what's real.

From that space we are much closer to the whole of what is being expressed. Deeper than what gets filtered through the mind — interpreted, limited, distorted.

In presence, there’s no need to plan what to say because if something isn’t moving through us to express, presence is the expression. That’s what touches people.

Deep listening, in presence, brings warmth to those around us. It's intimate, connecting, unifying. The healing effect of being in Oneness and feeling so heard, seen, known is a most precious gift.