Dear friend,
I’m on a quest to deconstruct the art of presence and understand where it really comes from.
There’s one question that keeps me up:
How do we measure presence?
These days, we measure everything.
Our sleep, our workouts. Heart rate. Stress. Steps.
Naturally, I started wondering whether presence could be measured too.
But the very moment I start asking myself, “Am I present enough?” …I’m probably no longer present.
It’s almost like sleep.
You can’t force yourself to fall asleep. You create the conditions and sleep happens.
I think presence works in a very similar way.
You don’t command it.
You invite it.
When I drink my morning coffee without reaching for my phone. When I’m grilling fish with friends. When I’m staring at the sea. When I spend an hour looking at the stars. When I laugh so hard that I completely forget about time.
I’m never thinking: “Wow, I’m so present right now.”
I’m simply there.
Maybe that’s the whole point.
Over the last year, we’ve talked about movement, protecting your inputs, slowing down, gratitude, perspective, and presence.
I now realize those weren’t really lessons about presence.
They were all exploring the same question:
What creates the conditions where presence becomes more likely?
And I think that’s where our attention should go.
Better sleep.
Fewer interruptions.
Movement.
Time in nature.
Morning coffee without a phone.
Long conversations.
A meal that lasts two hours instead of twenty minutes.
None of those things guarantee presence.
But every single one of them can increase the probability of it.
Maybe that’s what we should become better at measuring.
More importantly, maybe that’s what we should become better at creating.
Because presence isn’t something you force.
It’s something that quietly appears when enough of the right conditions are in place.
This Week’s Cue to Pause
Don’t chase presence.
Create the conditions where it quietly appears.
Truly yours, this moment.
Armando