This is Optimal Living Daily episode 3124, What Presence Feels Like, by Julie Morgenstern of juliemorgenstern.com and re-narrator Justin Mollick reading you blogs every single day of the year including holidays. Now let's get right to it as we optimize your life. What Presence Feels Like, by Julie Morgenstern of juliemorgenstern.com A friend once said that what she loves about travel is that every time you go on a trip, you are changed forever. She's so right.
We see and experience things when we go to places we've never been that simply cannot happen by armchair travel through a Google search. This summer, I had an extraordinary opportunity to go to Africa and it was one of those trips that changed me in ways I am still synthesizing. We started in Malawi where I met three young Malawi and women who have created remarkable organizations dedicated to keeping girls in school in order to help them become more self-sufficient. We next went to Botswana and Zimbabwe to go on a river safari and see the magnificent Victoria Falls.
In South Africa, I had the inspiring honor of delivering a time management workshop to 240 South African youth who are scholars with the Make a Difference Foundation. This was an adventure of a lifetime and I discovered so much along the way. Perhaps the most unexpected moment of the trip was during a morning drive we took along the Joby River that winds through the northern portion of Botswana. It was so quiet and everything around us was still.
We drove for quite a while without seeing any wildlife. As I looked around all I saw were trees, the steel river, the plains, and the rising sun. The scenery was beautiful but I was yearning to see what we'd ventured all this way to witness wild animals. As the animals were waking up we saw a single bird fly by itself to a little spot on the river where it landed to peacefully enjoy its morning meal and reflection.
The whole world in a single quiet moment. If only we took more time to pause and look around we would discover what is really happening in the moment. We will never discover everything there is to know and experience but if we stay present there's so much to find. Simply put being in the moment means that you are marveling at the newness and presentation before you.
You are just reacting not anticipating or worrying about anything. Free of distraction obligation or regret being in the moment means that you've escaped at least temporarily the clatter of voices in your head. There's an easy welcome desire to take advantage of each minute because there will never be another one just like it. Of course being in the moment is neither easy to attain or sustain but to boost our chances and get back to a presence when we slip into autopilot it helps to define what being present feels like.
Remarkably the moment feels about the same for everyone. Here are five ways you know when you're in the moment. Number one all senses are firing on five cylinders. Your sense of smell sight hearing taste and touch are extraordinarily keen.
You pick up on things the smell of coffee the heat of the sun they usually wouldn't get a second thought. There's a specialness each thing you encounter that wasn't there before. Number two the world is in high resolution. Ever sit at a tiny table in a crowd restaurant and feel like you and your dinner partner are the only people in the room.
That's precisely what being in the moment feels like. The sky looks a little bluer the grass a little greener and you notice the details of your everyday environment. Street signs the variety of flowers in your neighbor's flower boxes. The color of your cat's eyes.
Number three full engagement. Whatever you are doing commands your full attention whether you're at work at home with your children on a date or at the gym. Outside thoughts don't creep into your conscience as you devote 100% focus to your current activity. Number four time flies.
This fully engaged state means that time flies but in the best way possible. There's no anxiety about running out of time or time wasted. Curiously absent from your mind is a restlessness that usually has you checking the clock. Number five feel enthusiasm and excitement for whatever you are doing.
When you're in the moment everything you do is buoyed by a sense of irrepressible enthusiasm. From the smallest experience mowing lawn or going to your daughter's little league game to the largest getting married or having a child is exciting. You're able to be enthusiastic about every moment. I'm still processing the many ways in which my trip to Africa changed me but one goal I have is to carry the lesson of that memorable morning with a bird forward as I walk head on into fall.
To pay closer attention to the many extraordinary moments that occur every single day all around me. To not assume there's nothing exciting to see but to look out during my commute to the office and throughout my workday. To notice in every speech and workshop I deliver when someone in the audience connects with a technique that solves a very challenge they came into the room with and a breakthrough occurs. We're all that bird going out every day in search of what we need and when we find it how nice it is to be still and savor the moment.
You just listened to the post titled What Presence Feels Like by Julie Morganstern of juliemorganstern.com and I'll be right back with my commentary. Thank you to Julie. When I first saw the title of this article I was really only thinking about being present with other people for some reason. I'm not sure why that came to mind first.
Maybe it's because I've always found that to be really important in friendships. Being present, listening, all that stuff. It's really similar to what she describes in this post. Those feelings of being in the moment can happen in even the most normal or basic things like everyday conversations.
We can have full engagement with time flying, feeling enthusiastic with our senses firing on all cylinders. Maybe not all of our senses but the ones needed to be in that conversation at least. How great is it when that happens? It's really good times.
It's similar to that state of flow that we hear about which we can also find in so many different ways. Sports is a common example like surfing or skiing. I talked about this recently where you're concentrating so hard on balance and your environment that all you can do is be present or minds can't even go to worry or anything else. But the truth is that it happens with many other things too like work, play, maybe even in your stop at a grocery store.
You never know. So the one thing I want to emphasize that she did touch on is that you don't have to travel to another country or continent for that matter to experience these feelings. They're available wherever you are all the time. We just have to make room for them.
So find that flow today. Thank you for being part of the journey and sticking around. You listening and the authors letting me narrate their work is what keeps this all going. It really means a lot.
Have a great rest of your day and I'll see you tomorrow where your optimal life, no weights.