Steve, every now and then I think about your statement "Practicing the presence " and how to make it more a part of everyday life. I think you said it nicely, when you said it is about experiencing God's presence in our life. There are so many ways to experience God in our life, starting out by thanking God for the blessings that we have, a good way to start the day.
Interesting comment about the thoughts of people around us and how their/ our thoughts manifest into reality.
I came across this comment by Eckhart Tolle
"All negativity is caused by an accumulation of psychological time and denial of the present (moment). Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry - all forms of fear - are caused by too much future and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness and all forms of non forgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence".
So it sounds like the way for more postivity to enter ones life is not to spend too much time dwelling on the past and the future ..... is this kind of what you mean by practicing the presence, the focusing on the present, kind of like ~ live for the moment ? of course, with God in our lives.
Into Blue
Hey Into Blue Yes this is 'kinda what I mean by practicing the presence' 
these r interesting checks and balances (errors due to omission) shown upside down (instead of practicing in the present finding out y we we do not.) In this way we can see how much we r practicing the presence. Good reminders by Eckhart Tolle and Into Blue! Instead of thinking about God in the present u have showed us why we don't...Because we find ourselves spending so much time thinking about the past and future. The mind is always going anyhow so why not think about God while this is happening?
Practicing the presence is also doing something for someone else. When we do this there is not as much resentment, regret and sadness. We just keep on being loving in the present. We can also have an interview with God. Bring more questions to God and being sincere with him.
i heard a story at service about a monk who used to go to baseball games and a lot of kids would b there early to get jobs selling refreshments. They only needed so many kids to do it so a man would choose certain kids. He did not get chosen. It took sometime to b noticed. After a while the man noticed he was there a lot and started choosing him. If we warm a pew enough divine mother will finally say who is this person who keeps coming back?
It is also important to think of God when u r not free to do so. Like when u r challenged by a lot of work. In these cases he loves us more. i have found myself loving a person(s) during heavy duties. When u love someone u think of them all the time. Perhaps God gives us people to love to show us that if we can think about them when they forget about us; Maybe we can think about God..... who does not forget about us.
Jitendra
