presence practices

The greatest act of will is to surrender the past to meet fully in the Present.

• G. Gerard

The intention of this Resource is to share with you a continually evolving set of practices that can be explored and engaged with to help yourself and others develop the capacity for being more fully present in each moment.   Here you will find activities “to do”; and, words to be contemplated and reflected upon, even read out loud to yourself or to another.  Some may appear “so simple” or “obvious” that you might be tempted to pass them by. 

I encourage you to experiment with them and reflect.  Yes, above all, pause and reflect, observe what is changing, becoming clearer, more alive as you “practice”.  New practices will be offered periodically.  Please check in from time to time. We invite comments on your experiences.  glenna@glennagerard.net

Noticing with Love

Hunting the Silence

Standing Presence (a Buddhist meditation)

Centering and Entering

Your Place

Sacred Listening

Self Observation

 A Day of Silence

Hunting the Silence

In their book Heart Seeds, WindEagle and RainbowHawk remind us of the importance of “listening to [our] own heart”. Then they use a wonderful phrase. “Learn to hunt the silence.”

In the deep pool of silence is stillness. Here we can discover what is true and the path forward. This practice is a gift from the Land, a most amazing partner in helping us to be present and listen.

One powerful way of “hunting the silence”, is to walk upon the Land. In particular there are places where the air vibrates with a profound silence. You can feel it. You can almost “hear the sound of silence”. When you walk in such a place it acts like a tuning fork, tuning you to the silence deep within you where the wellsprings of stillness and clarity are always present.

If you have visited such a place on the Land, make a trip there sometime soon. If you do not know such a place locally, perhaps you can ask someone who does. Create the time and space to visit this place.

Take with you a rock or object that you can use to symbolize all your attempts to date to fix/understand the situation you are unclear about. Before you arrive make sure that this time will not be interrupted. If you have a cell phone, turn it off. If you are traveling with someone it is best to walk separately once you arrive and make any agreements about meeting up before you go your separate ways.

As you arrive on the Land, offer a greeting to all the many forms of life that live there. Bring your intention and/or question to mind and offer it to the Land. Begin to walk, slowly. Tune yourself to sense into (listen for) where you are called to walk. Let the Land call you to a place upon it. Rest there. Place the rock or object that you brought with you on the Land. With this action, allow the tensions, concerns, the attempts to “figure it out” and any frustration to flow from you into the earth. Thank the place for carrying you for a little while so that you may rest and listen more easily.

Let yourself rest into the silence. Feel it meet and welcome you. There is no need to do anything. Simply notice. You may experience a knowing and a clarity dawning within you, like light rays at sunrise. Or, you may experience no specific knowing at this time. Either way, you have created an opening, begun a practice of “hunting the silence and the stillness”. Clarity will arrive. If not in this now, then in some new now - an hour, a day or a week of moments from today.

Thank the Land for its beauty, for the silence and for calling forth the silence and stillness within you. You may wish to record your experience and any knowing that arrives in a journal or in some other way that works for you.

return to top of page

Standing Presence(A Buddhist meditation)  

Stand, silent and still. Feel your feet rooted on the ground or floor. Feel the straightness of your legs and spine, the top of your head reaching towards the sky. Now begin to focus on your breath. No need to control or change anything. Simply become aware of how your breath moves in and through your belly and then out again. Standing, breathing, rooted, reaching. Know yourself as being of the heavens and the earth. Here in this moment you are the embodied opening of presence, listening and a deep knowing of what is so. Allow yourself to rest into this. If you have a question you are living into, place that question within the stillness and simply continue to breathe. Standing, breathing, reaching, grounded and open. When you are complete say a simple thank you for the moment, the renewal, the clarity, the groundedness. Step into the rest of your day.

return to top of page

Centering and Entering

You are about to enter a meeting.  You are going to meet a friend for the evening.  You may expect chaos, conflict, inspiration, joy.  All too often we enter “on the run”, some part of us still trailing behind and another anticipating what may or may not happen in the next moments or hours.  Our attention and “presence” is spread out, diluted, distracted, preoccupied.  So, before you enter, pause for 5-10 seconds.  This is your moment to collect yourself, to bring your awareness to a relaxed and fully centered focus.  From here you will more fully engage with whatever and whomever you are about to meet. 

Allow yourself to feel your feet upon the floor or the ground.  Let your knees flex slightly.  Focus your attention a few inches below your navel.  Take three slow, deep breaths.  With each in breath feel the life energy entering and flowing down into your pelvis, bringing with it an alert calmness.  With each exhale allow that aliveness to flow down through your legs and into the floor or ground beneath you.  Feel you shoulders drop, the tense spots relax as your entire body and being comes to rest Here, Now, in this moment.  Now, step in, enter carrying this calm alert awareness within you.  Notice what changes you experience as you engage with others from this centered and grounded place you have just created.

Make a commitment to practice this at least once a day for one week.  Center before you enter and engage.

return to top of page

Your Place

My friend Laura has a Place where she can go and sit and gather onto herself peace of mind, body and spirit. It is her fishpond.

This season's Featured Presence Practice is about Place and Sanctuary. I invite you to create for yourself a place that is private - for you alone. A place you can come to rest in where you will not be disturbed for a space of time. A place you can let yourself be completely without judgment.

Create for yourself a special place that contains objects which assist you in either making and/or receiving a deeper connection with your inner silence.

It might be a fishpond . It might be a chair in a corner of a room that looks out on a tree. It might be your meditation pillow in front of your altar. It might be a place to lie or sit under a favorite tree. It could be anywhere.

It is Your Place...a sanctuary of your very own that welcomes you and invites you to rest, relax and become quiet within.

Anytime you are feeling the need to "come to rest", for a clearing in the busyness - a pause - visit Your Place and rest for awhile. Let go of the trajectory that has brought you to this moment, welcome your own inner silence and listening, and allow what is needed for your vitality and clarity to arise.

                                     return to top of page

Sacred Listening 

For those of us who want to increase our capacity to listen more fully, to be present with another human being, to fully meet and understand another.  Try reading the following to yourself before entering the conversation or interaction.  Or, if you are about to enter a challenging conversation, one that is really important to you, and you want to create an environment of honor and respect, try reading the words that follow to one another before beginning. These words are from the writing of Glenna Gerard and the First Circle of Dialogue as Spiritual Practice at Miriam’s Well, 2005.

I bow with gratitude and reverence to the divinity within you and me.  Namaste.

I enter the circle to sit with you where we can see one another unobstructed and where all places are equally honored.

I bring myself fully present by letting go of whatever may be distracting me.

I release my need to be right and step into “Rumi’s field…out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing.”

I allow my judgement, prejudices, opinions, fears…to fall silent that I may hear you.

I stand still and saying HERE I open the door of my heart and bid you “welcome and come in”.

I invite you into the meanings of my life by revealing my thinking and feeling.

I ask permission to enter yours with reverence and without the need to change you.

I acknowledge our differences with gratitude for what we will learn from one another.

I LISTEN…

• To your voice and all that wants hearing within you.
• Within myself for what arises from our meeting.
• To my voice for clarity and integrity.
• For the whole that makes meaning that honors you and me.

I allow your speaking and meanings to come to rest within me.

I commit to those places, people and practices that help me center and come to rest at the hearth of my own internal and eternal home…so that when skies darken and our shadows howl, we may yet have a place to meet, and together, saying HERE, find our way.

return to top of page

Self Observation

Self observation is one of the most effective and reliable ways to develop a capacity for presence.  The aim is to create a shift inattention so that you are able to take in more

of what is present in any given moment, in both your interior and your external environment.

The simplest practice of self observation is to become aware of and follow your own breath.  This practice lies at the core ofmany meditation methodologies.  It is almost impossible to focus your attention on your breath and be anywhere other than in your own body, regardless of what is happening in your environment.

If you haven't tried this, take a moment and experiment.  If you have, give yourself the gift

of this pause.

Stand or sit wherever you are and simply shift your attention to your breath.  You need

not do anything with your breath, simply notice it and continue to follow it, in and out,

in and out. After a few moment or some 10-20 breaths, notice your experience of

yourself. What is different than before you paused to observe your breath?  What are

you more aware of?  Less aware of?  No need to make meaning.  Simply observe

yourself in this moment.

Another self observation practice is to observe what is occurring inside you, how

you are feeling, what you are thinking and how you act as you are engaging with your

environment.  An example.  You are at a meeting and someone is making a

presentation. Notice what you think in response. Whether you agree, disagree,

etc.  Notice also any feelings that arise within you.  The aim is to become aware of yourself as you are attending to something or someone else.  What is this experience of

observing yourself offer you?  What is different?

If you want a bit more of a challenge, set yourself the task of observing how you

observe.  Notice your own process of observation.  How do you observe? Observe

yourself observing while you are engaging with someone else.  Notice how this affects your experience of your own presence, and your interaction with the other person.

return to top of page

A Day of Silence

This practice is a powerful way to create a space of listening and discernment for yourself. It will also give you practice with exercising the "muscles of your Will" because it takes Will to complete this practice with impeccability.

Decide on your day. Inform others that you are going to create

a day of silence for yourself. You will not be answering the telephone nor checking e-mail. If you choose to be home you will not be answering the door, watching TV, listening to the radio or to music. If you are a reader, I would suggest you suspend reading for the day as well. In short, any activity that takes you away from listening to yourself.

Some people find it very useful to plan a trip to a special place where they can be alone for the day. A place that will actually help them to rest into the stillness and the silence.

Make sure you have sufficient food and water for your needs. Yet eat sparingly so that you do not become sluggish and go to sleep.

Have a journal or some writing paper with you so that you can record any insights, questions, images that come to you.

Some peope like to bring a particular question into the day or a reading or theme to meditate upon. Others prefer to see what emerges from the emptiness of no focused inquiry.

As you enter into your time, step intentionally in and offer a few words of gratitude to yourself for creating this time of stillness and listening.

If you find yourself restless simply acknowledge this, take a few deep breaths and experiment with resting into stillness. Or you might walk slowly paying attention to each footfall and to your breath. Most importantly, release any judgments about yourself and your restlessness. This is a time to connect with your own internal reality. You may find it a variable climate. That is okay. Simply notice what arises and continue to be with yourself.

At the close of the time that you have set aside, offer thanks for the time and whatever gifts it has brought you.

return to top of page