How To Be Present

Hi.

Welcome to my website.

I’ve decided to put all my content here, rather than write a book, because I want to disrupt the way we approach spirituality. I am not here to give you the answers or tell you how to be in life.

I am here to help you to learn to be present in your own experience.

Experience is inherently messy and complicated. So rather than distill everything down to a neat idea that progresses through a book that you can read in a logical order, I created this website for you to use more like a choose your own adventure.

I want to put you in the driving seat, so that you feel empowered to show up for your life and engage with the different aspects of your experience. This page is here to give you some guidance about where to start with my website and how to navigate it.

Probably the most important message that is weaved throughout all my content is that there is no one solution or answer. Life is hard and there is no final way to escape this. This is an invitation to connect deeply with all aspects of your experience, without shying away from certain parts or having to hide aspects of yourself.

One of the strongest philosophies you will find running throughout everything is that it is through facing our challenges, vulnerabilities and darkness with a strong and open heart that we create clarity and the capacity for joyful presence in life.

The best way to engage with this website is as an invitation to connect with the full spectrum of your being. To learn to meet experience with courage, compassion, clarity and joy; for the benefit of you, the people you love and all beings.

“Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.” Khalil Gibran

The Structure

Everything I share is created on the foundation that each of us is a body-heart-mind-soul.

From a technical viewpoint of experience, all of these aspects of ourselves and our experience arise interdependently together. In simple terms, this means that if you took one of these parts out, our experience as humans would no longer exist.

It’s not possible to experience a mind without a body. It’s not possible to experience a heart without a soul etc. Every part relies on every other part to arise in experience.

A good place to start is by feeling into the different parts of you and getting an understanding and felt-sense of what each of them means to you. This will give you an intuitive and conceptual base from which to work with the content that it is here and this will allow you to go much deeper, much quicker.

As a general overview, the body is about the physical reality that we find ourselves in. The heart is about how we feel and connect to things. The mind is to do with clarity and how we understand life and ourselves. And the soul is all the parts of experience that are ineffable or abstract to these things.

The purpose of my content is to help you feel into and connect with these different parts of yourself with more clarity, sensitivity and depth.

Where to Start

I’d always recommend starting with an intention setting exercise. This helps you tune-in to what is important to you in life and practice.

I would also recommend reading my short dictionary. It has some brief definitions of words that I use a lot in very specific ways that will help you understand my writing with more depth and clarity.

If you’d like to know more about me and my journey, I’d recommend reading my poetry book, which tells the story of my awakening.

Understanding

If you’d like to get an understanding of the context and frameworks that will help you be more present in life, then I’d recommend reading through my writing.

It is presented in an order that I think will be most helpful to read it in and the posts are numbered so that you can work your way through it, more like a book.

But each post is also written to stand alone and has a hopefully clear and descriptive title, so you can also follow your intuition around and just read what feels important to you at the moment.

Awakening

If you want to get an understanding of the different aspects of our being and what it means to awaken them, then you can look at my whole being framework.

If you want to find out which area of experience you are most drawn to, there is a quiz to help you identify which area of awakening to focus on.

Practicing

If you want to focus on practicing and becoming a healthy and embodied version of yourself in the world, then start with the practice guides.

If you’re looking for somewhere to start your practice, there’s a quiz to help you identify which area of practice would be most beneficial for you.

Darkness and Sincerity

Shadows can be incredibly deeply-rooted and hard to shift. Especially when you are reading content, rather than working with someone one-to-one or face-to-face.

We hold ideas that certain parts of ourselves or experience aren’t welcome and this can be very ingrained. These beliefs will shape how we interpret everything. It is worth bearing this in mind when you are reading my content.

Know that your darkness is very welcome here. Depression, anger, hatred, pain, disdain, anxiety, stress, fear, violent thoughts and feelings and all the other aspects of ourselves that we often hide away or repress are all parts of the human experience.

We need to learn to connect with these parts, as well as our more beautiful parts, so that we can be whole and real, with ourselves and each other.

Underneath or inside every shadow is a little bit of gold – a healthy part of us that wants to come home and be integrated into a heartful way of being and it is through going to these places that we are able to uncover and connect with it.

It is through this process that we are able to unlock deep and lasting states of pleasure, connection, clarity and resilience in life.

Group Work

I’m a huge believer in the importance of friendship and working in groups to complement our contemplative practice.

Learning to communicate openly and sincerely with people about the full spectrum of your experience from a place of owning your own projections is one of the most powerful things you can do for coming into presence.

Also, life is collaborative and we only exist in our relationships, so bringing this aspect into practice means we are more likely to make lasting and meaningful change that carries into our daily lives.

Group work can be within a formal practice environment, but it can also just be done with friends.

I have collated and created a wide range of practices for helping people to learn and practice connecting in this way.

Teachers

I’d recommend building your spiritual library as if you are collating a team to support you in your growth.

The content that you read and listen to is like an extension of the people you engage with in the real world. Find people that feel inspiring in a real-life way, the sort of people you would like to be around, rather than some authority figure who is telling you what to do with your life.

Hopefully I can be one of these to you.

Remember to Have Fun

The path can be hard and taking it too seriously is incredibly counter-productive. If you can find some people and practices where you feel you can simultaneously engage with your growth and development seriously and have some fun with it, then you are onto a winner.

Enjoying the process of spiritual growth and finding it rewarding is half the point anyway.

“One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”

Albert Camus

Good luck and Godspeed.