Presence Building Boot Camp: An (East Van) Workshop in Self Care

Date and Time: Sunday, Feb 12, 2023

1:00pm -4:30pm

Cost: $85 plus tax $89.25

Registration: Click below.

What is presence?

See if you can just sit with that question.

Presence

What is it?

Try savouring the question a little longer.

What is presence?

Do you notice something opening inside of you?

Do you a sense a space opening up between you and the question?

Do you feel as though you are being magnetized toward something?

Hmm…what is it? Presence.

Notice how I am evoking it right now?

Presence.

So what’s happening? What am I doing?

And seriously now, what is it?

Well, to answer that let me first tell you what it’s not.

It’s not a thing you have.

Why do I say that?

Well, waaay back in the ‘olden days’ of my dance and theatre training, people used to talk about presence as if it was a thing you had. “That actor has so much presence you just can’t take your eyes off him. etc, etc” And even though we were training our voices, our bodies and our minds every day we didn’t even entertain the question that we could train our presence. It was kind of like the way we talked about ‘talent’ back then – you either got it or you don’t – and tough luck if you don’t!

But what’s the truth about presence? What is it? And why should we even care if we ‘have’ it or not? My mentor Dr Claire Zammit describes presence this way, “It’s not the qualities of a person, it’s the quality of attention that opens up presence.”

And she goes further to describes presence a “a quality of attention that activates and opens a field of connection” – A space within us, on a feeling, sensing, or ‘being’ level that welcomes and includes our whole selves.

I know, I know, it sounds abstract. Indecipherable. Unattainable.

Yet the truth is our presence magnet is constantly in operation. Whether we are aware of it or not, we are being energetically pushed and pulled and are magnetizing and repelling persons and situations all the time.

Think about last time you watched a sunset. Or looked up at the full moon on your drive home. Or when you caught the smiling eyes of a baby on the bus or at the cafe. Think about a time you felt like you just had to pause, pull over, slow down and take something in – this is you in a field of presence.

So what happens when we aren’t attending to our capacity to ‘be with’ ourselves and others in this way? What happens when we spend our days strategizing, controlling, narrating and scheduling all of our experiences instead? And what happens when we aren’t consciously cultivating our ability to evoke a field presence for others to feel welcome, safe and listened to inside of?

I think you already know.

We end up feeling like a disembodied head ‘zoom-ing’ through every appointment and meeting disconnected to a source of energy and motivation greater than ourselves. We become overwhelmed, shut down and reactive. Consequently, instead of drawing the love, connection and opportunity we want to us, we unconsciously repel it.

So how do we build the power of our presence and magnetize greater level of wholeness in ourselves and in our relationships?

Well, at Presence Building Bootcamp of course!

Seriously. I mean it.

Because although there are many ways, I believe the single most effective way to build presence is through connecting to our bodies. Why? Because it’s through our bodily senses that we perceive and experience what’s actually happening and become present.

So join me if you can on, Feb 12th 1:00 - 4:30 at Green Room and give yourself the opportunity to explore through serious play (yoga asana, breath, somatic awareness, dialogue, and reflection) what it is to create a field of presence and how, with our attention itself, we can evoke an experience of connection and wholeness inside of all that we do.