Steve, Practicing the presence is easy to say, harder to do. I find I tend to forget about this practice while overwhelmed by daily worldly duties.
Do you have a specific strategy to take the mind back to practicing?
My response is that I agree. Because we are in body consciousness and have a physical brain, it is a challenge we face daily; rising above that type of consciousness. As long as we are in that consciousness we will always be pulled away from practicing a higher consciousness. All we can do is to remind ourselves as much as possible that we are following a routine way of looking at the world and not at the way that beings with soul consciousness are existing. Doing this, we will slowly have more and more elevating experiences that keep our awareness in practicing a higher level of conscious awareness. We will find ourselves making choices that support our practices and avoid those people and things that do not. It’s somewhat akin to the idea what came first, the chicken or the egg? They come together; the higher the consciousness the more we practice the presence, and the more we practice the presence the more our consciousness changes. So if we desire something enough we will find we take steps in that direction, whether it means changing our friends, changing our environment or changing ourselves. Your question proves you are serious about finding and reminding yourself, as my response is proof that I too struggle with the problem and attempt to be an expert on the subject, which sadly I am not. 😂 so my strategy is reading your post over and over, perhaps it will sink in, if I too ask the question enough. Why do I forget when I’m overwhelmed? Because I do I read about others who have that challenge. I’m in good company! Sometimes I get discouraged and just lay around and do nothing, knowing that I am discouraged with myself reminds me to practice the presence. I mean it’s the only solution to my problem unless I want to be miserable. Misery seeks its own company and I really don’t care to attract it to myself. So I go back to meditating and practicing the presence. I am unable to change the world. All I can do is change myself.
It is also helpful to pray for others and help them in their spiritual journey. I certainly am praying for yours, and those others here supporting our journey. Without opening our hearts to a larger group of people it is difficult to accomplish our own expansion.
