Coaching practices for How to Be Present

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For How to Be Present, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• I’m nodding along in conversations but my mind is already somewhere else
• Whenever I try to be present I end up grading myself
• I’m almost never actually here
• I’m hardly ever actually here
• I live almost entirely in my head, totally cut off from the neck down, and when I try to get present I just end up thinking about being present

Practices that may help

1. Cultivate presence
   Be fully here — undivided attention is the rarest and most flattering gift you can give.
   The Charisma Myth, Made Practical
2. The attitudes of mindfulness
   Cultivate the inner stances — non-judging, patience, beginner’s mind, acceptance, letting go — that make attention healing rather than harsh.
   Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
3. Entering the present moment
   Drop attention out of past and future and into direct sensory contact with now.
   The Power of Now, In Practice
4. Contact with the present moment
   Bring flexible attention to here and now, instead of being lost in past or future.
   Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Made Practical
5. Feeling the inner body
   Sense the subtle aliveness inside the body as a stable anchor for presence.
   The Power of Now, In Practice
6. Give full attention to the present action
   Do what you are doing completely — not while managing the past or planning the future.
   The Stoic Discipline of Action
7. Absorb the present — slow down and attend fully
   Pause whatever you’re doing and engage all your senses with the experience that is happening right now.
   Savoring the Moment, Made Practical
8. Bring contemplative attention to ordinary moments
   Practice full presence in mundane activities as a form of sacred attentiveness.
   The Perennial Philosophy, Made Practical
9. Do the task in front of you, fully
   Treat each present action as if it were your last, with full attention and no half-measures.
   Meditations, as Marcus Practiced It
10. Anchor attention to the present moment deliberately
    When the mind pulls to past regret or future worry, redirect to what is actually here.
    Psychological Flexibility, Made Practical

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