I recall a story, possibly apocryphal, about President Obama who had (has) the capacity to give his undivided attention to the person or situation at hand regardless of the thousands of spinning plates moving around him. In the story he was on the campaign trail and literally moving at pace, yet managed to stop and be really connected with a constituent – fully, undivided, in the moment.
This is one aspect of presence – our ability to be fully present with another, to bring our whole, undivided self to the present moment. Undivided not just on the mental level but on the level of our whole energetic being.
Developing the capability to radiate and communicate with full presence is a skill or more precisely a practice, on the one hand and a quality on the other. The skill part is a dedicated training to bring our full attention, to put away the technology and the mental juggling, to genuinely value the interaction offered in that given moment.
Presence as a quality is much deeper. It’s an expression of our accumulated wisdom, our emotional and psychological development and our core values. It’s our beingness.
Our full presence communicates our love for others, love in the sense of affiliative love, or sisterhood and brotherhood – of being part of the same ‘family’ and feeling a profound connection with the other that goes beyond momentary differences or conflicts. We feel the potential for connection, and this opens the channel for our better self to be present and to communicate…or radiate.
When we are truly in a state of presence, we open a portal to give and receive in a way that can generate alchemy – the transformation of a lower substance to something higher.
Sometimes we name this charisma, or charm as though some magic potion has been applied and in one sense it has. Presence is indeed a magic balm, but it can’t be bought or manufactured like a potion – it is the direct result of hard work and selflessness.
When we truly find ourselves in the fullness of someone’s presence, we don’t feel the tyranny of influence or control. We experience presence as a channel of mutual and open communication in which truth, love and possibility can emerge into new creations – true presence is creative.
True leaders are called upon to cultivate this presence – to open themselves to greater levels of loving awareness – of self and others. Imagine if we all took steps in this direction just what we would be able to create in our world.