Presence Should Be Your #1 Priority (SunnyK)

Let’s say you were really stressed out or anxious right at this second, and let’s say another version of you is next to you, extremely happy and joyful.
What is different and similar between you two.
Obviously one of you is having a better time, is enjoying himself, while the other is suffering. But you’re both still the same person with the same personality right. But the emotions of fear, the stress and anxiety, or love, the joy and pleasure are layered on top of what you really are.
I read a book recently called the Power of Unwavering Focus and it gave a really good frame for this, It said to imagine you are a ball of awareness, and whenever you feel an emotion, your ball goes to that room of that emotion. If you’re happy, it goes to the happy room, if you’re sad or angry it goes to that room.
Most people can’t separate themselves from their emotions, and thats where suffering and problems come from.
Someone who get’s angry and can’t see that he’s in that state or can’t separate himself from it, won’t take the walk, lift the weights, meditate until the emotion goes away. That same person might be violent, they might say something they regret, and their body is not healthy in that state, its actually very unhealthy to be in a stressed out, angry, or fearful state.
Someone else though who feels desires, lust, hunger, wanting too many drugs, alcohol, or other pleasures, won’t be able to separate themselves from it, they’ll indulge day after day, and never be able to develop discipline, they’ll be at the mercy of their emotions.
These are the problems with not being who you are at your deepest most easeful levels.
This must be your number one priority.
Do you want to be weak, at the mercy of mere feelings, emotions, thoughts? Do you think the higher performers in the world are?
If you get money, fame, you get your dream girl, you go to your dream vacation, if you don’t have the skill of being absolutely present and joyful, easeful, and authentic, you won’t really enjoy it, you’ll be wasting your precious time.
I traveled to a bunch of countries that i enjoyed, but had periods time where i didn’t because I was in my head, thinking too much, worrying too much, if only i had the skill of presence of being my most easy going self, would I have made the most of that time.
So how do we practice and develop presence?
There are 3 methods I recommend
You have to start meditating every single day.
Meditation is setting a timer, closing your eyes, and focusing on your breath going in and out.
When you do this, you will start to have thoughts, images, and desires to stop meditating pop up in your head.
You have to notice the distraction, and bring yourself back to the breath, every time you do this bringing back action, you are getting better at being present.
Start with 5 minutes, and work it up to 20 minutes daily, and you will see a huge difference
The second method is to journal every single day.
If you have lingering thoughts, fears, or just stuff you haven’t been able to think through or process completely, you will start to feel stressed. When you journal, you get to process all of it and after the fact, you will feel much lighter and more present.
Start by just writing down whatever you’re thinking in your notes app on your phone. Instead of going on social media, try to jot down how you’re feeling, what you’re thinking about, and you’ll be surprised by what gets written down.
The final method is daily gratitude journaling, but everyone misses one thing when they do this. I do it every morning, I write 3-10 points of what I am grateful for. It could be my laptop or books in front of me, or it could be my dog, friends, family, nature, but the most important part of this practice that everyone doesn’t do for some reason, is that you have to feel the positive emotion when you do this.
I would write that I am grateful for the warmth of the sun on my skin, and when I write that sentence I literally imagine the sun on my skin, and I imagine myself being filled with warmth and the positive feeling around that, its kind of a visualization, The reason you have to do this has to do with some complicated stuff around emotions and the subconcious but we don’t have time for that so trust me on that, write 3-10 points of gratitude every morning and see how much more present you’ll feel.