I have been aware of practising conscious presence for a number of years now and had thought I had a handle on it (so to speak). Over many sunrises I became aware of different qualities I held within myself as I was doing things and this seemed to bring a whole other dimension to conscious presence that I had not really pondered on before.
My Conscious Presence was now starting to become more rich and fuller. This was a revelation for me in that I could clearly see that prior to this finding, I was actually practising Mental Awareness and not Conscious Presence.
Mental Awareness is the art of having one’s mind focused on whatever the task at hand is and not wandering off in any other direction toward a future or past event that leaves us more drained of energy than we really need to be.
Mental Awareness is just that though: I found myself still living in my head while my body was carrying out its function, even though my thoughts were in line with the function and my breath was gentle. As I went about the activities of my day there was this mental note taker making sure that I was ticking the boxes of Breath, Mind and Body. There was still a disconnection from my body.
Enter Conscious Presence: I found that being aware of my qualities made a great difference. I pondered on the idea and word Consciousness, and I could feel that it held much more than an awareness of my mind – it had everything to do with my whole body, every cell of my body.
I found that deepening my Presence was necessary to being more aware of my different qualities and to deepen my qualities I found that being aware of the consciousness through my whole body allowed me to feel and embody the quality.
I could now feel Conscious Presence through every particle and space of my being; as my breath draws it in, it feels like I am being filled with the Love of God and I found this makes all the difference. I feel into the word Consciousness and it invokes an all-encompassing/spherical quality. It is so much more than mental awareness.
In staying Consciously Present (as much as I can) there is no more note taking, I am able to feel me and just be. I feel my exquisite female qualities, Love, and the Divine Angel that I Am being more embodied and Lived. It feels more a Beauty-full connection between God, Soul, Myself and All.
With Love and Much Appreciation to Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.
By Dianne Hetherington, Angel of God 🙂 , Brisbane, Australia
Further Reading:
Meditation, Mindfulness, Conscious Presence – Are These Really the Answers to a Better Life?
Checking Out – Are We Sowing the Seeds of Our Own Dementia?
Walking in Presence and Without Pain
The Truth about Serge Benhayon 
Yes this is one that I find gets me everyday. When we are off with other thoughts whilst we are in the activity of doing something, then we are definitely in the mental space.
Conscious presence is very much different, and even as I write this comment, I can feel where my fingers are and how my thoughts can drift in and out, if I don’t bring my presence to what my body is being asked to do. The simple thing is that if I don’t consciously move my body, something else will move it instead, then what is being delivered?
We are far from perfect but when we make a choice to be aware of our bodies more, then we will live on this planet earth much more lovingly and caring of everything. We are far from this, but it isn’t to say it isn’t possible either, it starts with the one and then it filters on…
The shift from being only in the mind to holding a deep presence of the body is such a huge and massive shift and yet so subtle and simple. Yet at times appears difficult especially when we are stuck in the mind and trying to get into the body.
Yes Henrietta, it is the mind that makes everything seem so arduous, when the body brings the simplicity of it all. We just need to be with our bodies more and it will definitely communicate louder and louder, and then it is that, that impulses us forward.
The body’s particles speak loudly and beautifully and it is such a simple experience to settle into communication with this physical expression of our inner most. Listening to the body particles on a deep level is like having speed dial to multi-dimensionality, and the depth of who we are. But when the head takes over it is like something comes between like a veil …and though we get a sense of it (the body and its particles), it is still something separate, something not really lived and breathed, and we miss out on the depth of what is there.
Thank you Dianne – this is great as it is a very good reminder that there is a distinct difference between actually feeling and connecting to the body versus thinking we are connected to the body. It might seem silly to state this but so it is and whilst the approach is mental it does not allow you to percieve the fact that you are not feeling your body at all but simply makes you think that you are feeling the body. This is actually quite disturbing to realise, especially when you reliase this yourself and can feel how incarcerating it is to be stuck in the head and not actually feel the body in full.
When I do Esoteric Yoga or lay down to bed often I can get a sense of my level of self connection. The more connected, the more still within, the deeper I feel myself sink. Less connected, the mind is racy and the body has a tingle or a buzz within it that is disturbing.
Thank you Dianne, I enjoyed reading of what you discovered as I feel I was locked into ‘getting it right’ regarding my approach to conscious presence which was quite functional, instead of truly enjoying my whole being and my body being together… and how fun and light that feels! Approaching anything with seriousness can be a way to obscure the truth.
Great reminder to keep things fun, not allowing seriousness to take over.
Being aware of the quality of being conscious with our bodies highlights how anxiousness need not be a part of our lives no matter what we are doing.
Connecting with our quality does support us to be consciously present, ‘ found that deepening my Presence was necessary to being more aware of my different qualities and to deepen my qualities I found that being aware of the consciousness through my whole body allowed me to feel and embody the quality.’
So true Dianne, it is not the moves we make but the quality of our movement.
This is such a great explanation of the difference between mental awareness and conscious presence, energetically two very different ways of being that have us moving and living either from a part of us or all of us.
There is something prescriptive and mechanical about the tick box approach often used in mental awareness, the driver is still very much the mind and it’s not really interested in connecting with and feeling the body, but more in controlling it, and still being in charge. Conscious presence is a whole body feeling, fully embracing all equally without being driven by the mind.
“I pondered on the idea and word Consciousness, and I could feel that it held much more than an awareness of my mind – it had everything to do with my whole body, every cell of my body”. This is such a great article which is much needed with the proliferation of modalities and techniques that teach you to be present but are still doing this from the mind. Until your whole body is engaged, there is no true change or evolution.
Unless I am connected to and get a sense of the bigger picture – multi-dimensionality through the connection to my body, bringing the qualities such as joy then I am not living in conscious presence. Conscious presence is the expansion of who I am – love in all my glory as opposed to the controlled focus of the mind where I think I am connected to my body and I am not… there is much I am exploring here in my day and reading this blog today is very timely. Thank you Dianne for sharing.
This is a beautiful “I pondered on the idea and word Consciousness, and I could feel that it held much more than an awareness of my mind – it had everything to do with my whole body, every cell of my body.” I do agree concerning our whole body and it is clear that every cell vibrates and connects with something much grander and expansive than just our physical form.
‘I am able to feel me and just be’ and this sums it up, that to be consciously present is not a tick box exercise but one that embraces all of us, in each and every moment no matter what. There’s no trying or controlling just feeling us and all we are and observing, and there’s an understanding of all we are connected to and part of, a bigger wider whole.
Distinguishing between mental awareness and conscious presence is hugely significant and I, too, have found it very profound to make the distinction and with it bringing a whole new and grander dimension to life.
It is great that this topic has been discussed and shared, so more people are aware if they are practising mental awareness or conscious presence.
Well said and it is the difference between words spoken and words lived.
Thank you for a great sharing showing the difference between mental awareness and conscious presence, one is just a mental exercise that can tick the box the other has to do with our qualities, feeling ourselves from the inside out the love we are in every particle, a whole body intelligence.
Awareness is not mental. It belongs to the whole body.
Never thought about it in that way but so true Eduardo.
Yes, the ‘whole’ no part left out or not part of being consicoucely aware, the hands and toes are as much part of it as the head and heart, it incorporates the delicate follicles and cells. The breath we breathe is absolutely significant to how we perceive and feel life and when we breathe consciously aware and gentle we can feel connected to the all.
This blog just brought me straight back from being in my head into my body, simply re-turning to the marker of connection with my body, I have left myself with before I went in my head. This is what I have practised and still do with being present as it all started with the Gentle Breath Meditation by Serge Benhayon. This is where I learned the difference between motion and stillness. And how to be more present with my movements, instead of constantly being in my head. So every now and then when I loose my presence, I sit or stand and do some Gentle Breath Meditation. It truly works, and feels so good to be back in my body. I recommend it to everyone. See: http://www.unimedliving.com/meditation/free
We can be very focused mentally, but still ignore our bodies. No wonder we can feel more drained as we allow our minds to override our body.
I agree with what you are saying here Diane and have also experienced this for myself. There is a big difference between just living in the present and bringing my whole presence to the present moment.
Bringing my whole presence to the present moment, ‘I could now feel Conscious Presence through every particle and space of my being; as my breath draws it in, it feels like I am being filled with the Love of God and I found this makes all the difference.’
When the whole body participates, then we can recognise its previous absence in retrospect. We can feel its richness and wholesomeness in confirmation.
Once we experience the grandness of conscious presence and how expansive it is, why would we ever go back to the limited and reduced way of using mental energy to get through life?
When we are focused on the task at hand without the distraction of the mind pulling us back and forth to the past and future life is so much simpler.
‘There are no rules, things to do, or ways to be, there is only the willingness to love’.It has been a slow process for me to be consciously present I think most of it has been mental awareness with the missing ingredient of love , thank you for sharing the difference between mental awareness and conscious presence.
Thank you Dianne for this clear distinction between ‘doing’ and ‘being’. Learning to re-connect to my body was initially very challenging as my mind had always been very active in ‘functioning’ in a way that brought little awareness to the physical body and its constant communications to be more aware of the disregard I was living in.
Attending Esoteric Yoga sessions (The Yoga of Stillness) was a pivotal point in re-connecting me back to my body through conscious presence and a bridge to return to know (remember) the innate stillness within.
Read more about Esoteric Yoga –
http://www.unimedliving.com/yoga/about-esoteric-yoga
When we are doing mental awareness and it usually is a doing, a coldness in fact, and there is a separateness in how we treat the body, a lack of willing to be in the body; bringing quality in changes it, it becomes about how we move all of us and there’s no separation, a very different feeling and quality!
Deepening our conscious presence attunes us to the rhythm and pulse of our particles as we make every move.
We are in permanent movement. For that reason, we are accustomed to it and do not necessarily pay attention. It is only when we introduce quality into the equation that we connect with ourselves deeply and we can learn from, and enjoy, our own beauty.
It is beautiful to feel how conscious presence involves the whole body and being, encompassing our universality and multi-dimensionality bring this quality to all we do, whereas mental awareness is isolated in the mind through which the awareness of the body and being is generally over-ridden and disregarded. I agree that with conscious presence that feeling of connection to all of who we are and are part of is far more confirming.
It is so profoundly different to experience the connection with one’s body and one’s heart, and then to feel again the dense unforgiving unconnected feeling of the mental plane
“In staying Consciously Present … , I am able to feel me and just be.” To just be, as simple as it sounds, is absolutely groundbreaking in a world where doing and achieving is all that counts.
When we allow ourselves to feel our presence it has a grace and innocent majesty that opens and expands
That is beautifully said, it confirms the absolute naturalness and simplicity being ourselves is.
Thank you Chris and this is some thing that is spoken from experience and has the capacity to inspire deeply.
“I found that deepening my Presence was necessary to being more aware of my different qualities and to deepen my qualities I found that being aware of the consciousness through my whole body allowed me to feel and embody the quality.”
This sentence absolutely holds an acceptance and appreciation of self that we all desperately desire, what it also offers is that it is up to each and every one of us to do for ourselves. The quality of and the qualities that we bring to this world are not to be underestimated, as each of us, living them brings about true loving change in ways that we may never know.
I still find myself very much in my head, trying to work things out, pushing myself to focus on what needs to get done and leaving myself exhausted at the end of the day. I love what you share here about bringing it back to the quality of what we are doing and our own natural qualities as this feels instantly easier, like I’m letting go of a heavy burden I am carrying ‘to get it right’ in life.
There is such a deepening happening, constantly when we choose to be in and with our body, the love I feel, simply expands and in the expansion, I am asked to live it even more. How this looks in life is not to be thought of, for to live the love I am, there are no rules, things to do, or ways to be, there is only the willingness to love.
‘There are no rules, things to do, or ways to be, there is only the willingness to love’. I love this as this takes the pressure off being perfect, needing to get things done and all the doing that we can fall into. I so often fall into doing and miss out on all the love that is there.
Letting go of rules, of ‘shoulds’ and expectations that we put upon ourselves and so willingly accept from others without question opens up space for what truly needs to be done, and a much more gentler and loving way to be with ourselves.
Staying consciously present all the time is still a work in progress for me, it is a whole body experience so I am aware of my body and all around me at the same time.
Being present and aware of our body and its movements, with all we are doing, helps us to be aware of the quality we are living in, ‘I found that deepening my Presence was necessary to being more aware of my different qualities and to deepen my qualities I found that being aware of the consciousness through my whole body allowed me to feel and embody the quality.’
As I have continued to practice being present with my movements my awareness and experience of it has changed. It feels like something that can continue to deepen.
I am not sure we ever come to an end and ‘get there’ as it feels very linear to me. One of the blessings Universal Medicine has brought to my life is a reminder we are going home, returning to the love we walked away from.
Rereading this blog again gave me the awareness that conscious presence is simply an awareness from our body and has nothing to do with what we call our intelligent mind. Instead it is the intelligence of our body that starts to speak loud and clear the universal mind it naturally is connected to.
Reading your blog today Dianne i found myself to really being able to grasp the depth of what you are presenting here. I now can feel mental awareness and conscious presence to be from complet different worlds as conscious presence connects to every cell of our body and with that with everything our bodies are connected with while mental awareness keeps us trapped in our small wandering mind instead.
The HOW factor is a big deal and allows space for the awareness of the energy that is actually moving us. How we move and how we are with ourselves etc. are all keys to establishing a relationship with our true and divine quality.
When I am in mental awareness there is that running commentary of everything I am doing. In conscious presence there is no chatter or commentary. Only me and that quality in the body that at times feels greater than the body. That presence feels so much richer and more settling than the chatter of the mind which I am increasingly feeling disturbed by.
Indeed Leigh, the chattering mind is actually very annoying and I am questioning why do we keep choosing this while we know conscious presence provides with entering that space of stillness within.
I do wonder that too as I have felt the expansiveness of conscious presence and the restriction of mental awareness. First thing that comes to me is that we have invested in the mind being our safe place when in truth it is not. Can we let go despite everything we’ve invested into this lie?
So actually what you say leigh, is that we may have an investment in the mental mind and in that are under valuing conscious presence, the bodily mind. What could be the reason for this investment as it does not sounds to be very wise thus must serve another purpose the purpose of individualism perhaps?
Under valuing and under appreicating I would say. Or at least I can say this from my experience, Rather than trying to fight the individalism what about upping the appreciation of what conscious presence brings to the world
Mental awareness is the observer being there with all you do, but detached from it, where conscious presence is you feeling it all from the inside and the quality with how you are with this. It feels like we fill ourselves up when we are in conscious presence.
There is a very distinct feeling between body presence and mind presence. Body you are in communion with God the mind your in separation.
I’ve often thought that by thinking about my body, I am connected to it. Only to realise that this isn’t it. The less I think about what it should feel or be like to connect to my body and just feel whatever is there, whether it’s temperature change or a numbness or whatever, the more deeply I feel connected to myself, and to everyone and everything else.
Ahh I get it… mental awareness is the ability to drive a car and be focussed (I remember driving my car and be off in another world sometimes forgetting I was driving a car) and conscious awareness is a state where we are deeply connected with ourselves.
I like your exploration here Dianne, thank you. It makes it clear for me that the more we practice conscious presence the more it becomes a bodily experience than a task from the head.
Add an awareness of our body to being present in what we are doing and it adds a whole new dimension, especially as I find being aware of my body helps me know what needs to be done next, whereas if I decide with my head it can lead me into trouble.
Beautiful explanation of the difference between mental awareness and conscious presence. “I could now feel Conscious Presence through every particle and space of my being; as my breath draws it in, it feels like I am being filled with the Love of God and I found this makes all the difference.” Staying in connection with my body, not just trying to stop my mind from wandering off, makes all the difference for me..
I have found when I am occupied by my thoughts I easily forget things and easily make mistakes. But when I am aware of my body and my movements staying in conscious presence I feel the joy in what I do.
So true Chan Ly, when I am not in my body I am far more likely to forget peoples names! I don’t know if it is related but it is an experiment in the making!!!
I remember when I was experimenting with mindfulness and I never found any benefit from it at all as the mind chatter came back pretty thick and strong after trying it. Learning about conscious presence from Universal Medicine events has had a profound impact in my life and allows for a deeper connection with my body and an exquisite feeling reminding me of the oneness we are all from.
Thank you Dianne. Just reading this I can feel that my mind baulks at the idea that it is not the sole receiver of consciousness. When I allow my body to lead the way I feel far more steady.
I read this afresh this morning and could feel there was yet more to learn from what you have written. What I am finding is the lessons we learn in life are not linear, we don’t learn something and tick it off. The repetitive nature of the sun going up and going down offers us an opportunity to bring greater quality to how we are doing what we are doing. A mental apporach has a timeline, conscious presence feels more like and expansion of the quality. There is never an end but a constant deepening of awareness to be accessed.
Love this dissection of the ways we can be present, it is being present through our body that we live full conscious presence not when we choose to be mentally aware of our movements.
Recently I’ve noticed how my mind can say it understands whats going on in life, yet to address the more challenging parts it doesn’t have any answers, only excuses, justifying and/or blaming. My body however seems to understand life far more than my mind, handling my life over to the feelings in my body is currently a slow process but every time I do the end result leaves me feeling supported in being more my lighter self.
I’ve found conscious presence becomes like a forever waterfall once its taped into. It’s a connection to the all that allows one to feel our connection to it, and how delicious it feels. I’ve also found it like every other aspect that we re-connect to, it takes a bit of mental help but once the foundation is laid it becomes a flow.
I am still learning to be in conscious presence more and more throughout my day. I find I am in a huge percentage of my day in my mental awareness. Reading this blog and your comment Kim are awesome reminders to be in conscious presence as much as possible.
I love how you describe the difference between mental awareness versus conscious presence. Having been a ‘head’ person I realise I often get caught up in the choice to stay with my body rather than an awareness of my quality. Great to re-read your blog today Dianne.
If we check out and disengage from life we then have no say over what we breathe in or allow into our bodies; that feeling that we’re so ‘out of it’ that the things we’re eating, choices we’re making and attitude is so far off what we’d naturally do it doesn’t make sense comes about because we essentially hands the reigns over to whomever or whatever wants them.
My mind is rather wayward and has a habit of going for a walk alone so needs a bit of discipline to be brought back to be with the rest of me, as the mind is very much a part of being consciously present after all.
‘I could now feel Conscious Presence through every particle and space of my being; as my breath draws it in, it feels like I am being filled with the Love of God and I found this makes all the difference.’ Such a beautiful description of the expansiveness of Conscious Presence as opposed to the mind control of mental awareness. The current prevalence of mindfulness appears to answer our innate need for connection but will never be the solution so blogs like this are so needed to break this consciousness and show that there is a true way of being with our body rather than our mind.
Ouch I can so relate to being a ‘mental note taker’ and the constant chatter in my head to try and keep me on track with being present with whatever activity I was undertaking. I often berated myself with self-talk like ‘there you go again wandering off in your mind etc’ and even though I could feel that there was something off about the way I was attempting to control what my mind was doing I did not share this with anyone else for a long time. As I have gradually started to feel more in my body I have naturally let go of the mental gymnastics and focused on the quality of my movements.This is still very much a work in progress for me but it is awesome to feel the expansion and flow when I truly connect and have no need to be in my head because I can feel what is the next true movement.
You describe very clearly Dianne, how mental awareness is in fact not it, and that we can consider that doing so is all that is needed, but we miss out, when we make it about quality then it’s a whole other dimension, it’s not just about having my mind with me as I type this now, but feeling the quality I hold just now as I type and that opens up a while other space and way of being. Thank you, I have clearly got to feel the difference now with mental awareness and conscious presence.
Me too monicag2, I also appreciate how it expands to a whole different dimension that is incredibly real, practical and vital. What an offering.
So interesting to read how we can feel deluded into thinking ( there’s the clue) we are in conscious presence, but actually have mental awareness rather than feeling the quality we are in – true conscious presence. Great to re-read your blog Dianne.
To feel and move my body in the qualities that I am getting to know that are the real me is indeed confirming yet there are many steps I need to make to live in the consistency of being consciously present. A timely read blog and comments to support me to build on my relationship towards being consciously present with my body throughout the day. Thank you Dianne for sharing.
I love what you have shared here for the incredible power of conscious presence cannot be denied when it allows you to deepen not only your presence but a quality that can be embodied…. To feel like through every particle you are filled with the love of god as you breath in is just stunning and a gorgeous way to feel connected to both yourself and the whole together.
Great sharing Dianne, I have found that conscious presence brings me an awareness of my body, my surroundings and an awareness of others, and the more I live life through this presence the more expanded my awareness becomes.
Beautiful distinction Dianne and worth exploring further. Feeling here, with mental awareness, is struggle.
Hmmm. Distinguishing mental awareness from conscious presence is one thing I have not actively observed in myself and my day but your wise tip Dianne of confirming and bringing our qualities to our presence is definitely vital in this process and a practice I know I really need to bring alive in my day.
Wow I had never really understood the difference in this way but what you have shared here is a very simple and practical explanation of the difference between the two.
Mental awareness has a frontal focus which keeps us in our heads and therefore disconnected from the body. It’s an arrogant observer that may judge what it perceives. Conscious presence has, as you say Dianne, an all-encompassing/spherical quality which is a whole body experience so we are aware of our body and also of everything around us at the same time. There is a sense of allowing and receiving what is there without interpretation, filtering or reaction. There is no tension in it, no judgement and no imposition. There is a clarity that knows the truth of the situation.
I am now so inspired to look more deeply into the qualities I hold, and to love myself enough to connect to these qualities every single day. I am so glad we are regaining the love we need to be feeling for ourselves, in order to connect to these qualities.
Dianne what you share here about the qualities you hold is GOLD. Feeling how lovely we are is everything. I am so blessed to be ready to appreciate my qualities much more deeply now, and this allows me to connect more deeply to conscious presence.
I love how it feels to be deeply present in my body- when deeply connected to myself the feeling is exquisite and lovely. I sometimes shut down my awareness though as I feel things i don’t want to feel. It has felt ‘easier’ to live in my head so to speak. I am slowly relearning how this has actually harmed me, and am ready to commit more fully in how I now choose to live with myself, because that supports me and everyone else around me.
Hello Dianne and nice dissection between the mental and the conscious thank you. “Conscious presence” is much more then a thought or an image, it’s a more than whole body experience. How does it look? It looks whatever way it needs to look and we need to have the flexibility to see it this way. We have many images of life and many of them halt the ‘what is needed’ and we set it up that way. More and more we realise that life isn’t about getting married, mortgages, work and yet it is all about that at the same time, confused? Life is about being conscious in it, present and deeply so. More so this is an ever expanding process that has no stop point, just another point of depth to go to. When does it ever end? It’s a never end.
Presence has nothing to do with being in the mind, but all to do with being in the body.
Thank you Dianne. Reading your article I felt myself connecting to a deeper conscious presence and connection with my inner being.
“Mental Awareness is just that though: I found myself still living in my head while my body was carrying out its function, even though my thoughts were in line with the function and my breath was gentle. As I went about the activities of my day there was this mental note taker making sure that I was ticking the boxes of Breath, Mind and Body. There was still a disconnection from my body.” You have hit the nail on the head for me, the more I try to be present I am in fact in my head. I still try too much to be me, in this I’m gone, I’m disconnected from my body and my heart. People can say, just feel, it’s easy, but if you have lived life hardened and in the momentum of living from your head, it can feel some what tough at times.
I found that the more consciously present I became the more conscious I became of not being present.
It is very different to be around someone who is mentally aware to someone who is consciously present, you feel much more held in the latter.
I love how you speak about the quality of oneself, to get a feel of and start to live from one’s true quality. It brings a lightheartedness and flow into the practice of conscious presence.
With conscious presence mind and body move as one.
Dianne, your distinction on clarifying the there is that mental awareness but not true presence is great. As you say ‘there is no more note taking, I am able to feel me and just be.’, what I feel and understand reading today is that we stay the observer in mental awareness but we remain afloat from our bodies without feeling them whereas in conscious presence we are embodied and claimed in our bodies, in fully connection with them.
A great sharing to read again Dianne. I am reminded that I continue to grow in awareness as my connection to my body grows.
We don’t know what we don’t know. It is beautiful how there is more for us to surrender into and the process keeps deepening and we keep renewing how deeply settled we are in our body. And it allows us to appreciate where we are at as it is at this moment when we can see what we had before was not it.
It feels like mental awareness is more a task while conscious presence is a whole body experience.
Interesting distinction between mental awareness and conscious presence.. I can be very focused on a task, and push through to get it all done, but if I’m not consciously present, I do this at the expense of my body – and end up feeling drained and sometimes resentful afterwards – and all because I chose to push through without paying attention to how my body was feeling. What I’m learning to appreciate is that it’s about quality first – when I do things with my whole body aware and aligned to what I’m doing, I actually have more energy afterwards, and there’s a joy in completing whatever needs to get done, rather than a frustration and resentment in ‘having to’ do it. And knowing the ripple effect of what I/we do matters, there is a call to be present in everything I do.
Lovely to re-read this blog this morning, and be reminded of the stark contrast between mindfulness and conscious presence. By bringing the whole body into the equation we are quite naturally more of ourselves… so simple.
It is only through our bodies that we can live the Light of our Soul, as the activity of our minds is determined by the quality of connection we hold with our bodies. The union of our body and Soul is the vehicle through which the oneness of God is embodied, magnified and earthed – through living who we Divinely are.
This is an excellent point Carola, it is indeed only through the body that the light of the soul can be lived. I lived for 37 years with no understanding of this, and no concept of the relationship with the body I would one day work consistently to slowly develop. My whole focus in life prior to becoming a student of Universal Medicine was to simply grasp as much as I could mentally. I gave no thought to the body at all and didnt see how it could possibly support me in any way, let alone be my greatest guide to how to live soulfully on earth.
The effect on others when we are consciously present is Massive! To reflect to another that there is another way rather than being checked-out is priceless
Understanding and discerning the difference between conscious presence and mental awareness is absolutely essential now… Because under the guise of something that is meant to be reconnecting us to something vital and enlivening is not doing that , but rather keeping one on the hamster wheel of the mental process.
it really is such a great relief when we finally discover that there is something much more then mental awareness, which then becomes quite two-dimensional, as opposed to the multi dimensionality of conscious presents
I hadn’t considered the difference between mental presence and conscious presence. Thank you for the simple questioning – I will be more aware of this as I head off to walk the dog!
Dianne, I love the way you have so clearly defined the difference between conscious presence as being a full bodied quality and mental awareness, which only keeps your mind-full.
I have found that mental awareness keeps me focused within whatever job I am doing at the time, and conscious presence brings an awareness of all of me to what I am doing and everything around me to.
I remember when I first started becoming aware of conscious presence I would find that I had actually been very good at using mental awareness instead, the chatter in my head was still going on, and it took some time for me to be able to find conscious presence from within myself which meant moving from the quality of my body first.
I agree conscious presence is a whole body awareness, it’s when you feel every cell of your body communicating to you, very different to just focusing with your mind on something, which more fosters a disconnection to the body, rather than building a relationship with it.
There is indeed a world of difference between a mental platform of awareness, and the delicious connection with the intelligence of our bodies that can be the foundation for a whole new paradigm of awareness.
We are so used to living in parts – mind being engaged in one thought while the body is doing something else overriding what it is feeling – actually that’s what we get trained on at school and at work. Having our whole being at the same place at the same time feels totally expansive – and we have been missing out on that on our personal level, and so has the world.
The difference between mental awareness and conscious presence, is a body away.
Yes agree Jenny, the connection to our body is key in feeling this truth.
The quality of us in our body rather than the mental quantity our mind is forever tempting us with.
Once I began to understand and master conscious presence, I found it opens up to us an ever deepening ever expanding quality which lives inside us always, but rarely do we make space to allow that connection. It is that quality that then becomes our movement and our body starts to change as we bring that quality more and more into our lives.,… then our lives start to change also.
Bringing conscious presence to my body has completely changed the quality in the way I move – a forever deepening experience.
Beautiful exploration Dianne, mental awareness is just one step, but nothing without the quality of our true presence and the awareness that comes with it.
Dianne, I know the mental awareness you speak of so well and indeed there is much about this now with the emphasis on mindfulness, yet it misses the quality of the presence which is exactly what conscious presence brings, it is so much more than mental awareness with our bodies, it is living and embodying our bodies and quality is key, when I approach doing things with a tenderness for instance how I am in my body is completely different and I feel true fullness and connection in all I do.
Conscious presence invites an opportunity to be aware of the detail in our movements, not just the focus of the mind.
Thanks Dianne, you’ve explained the difference really clearly and brought to my awareness the fact that I do focus quite heavily on mental awareness. What you say makes perfect sense.
Being aware of my qualities does make a huge difference, bringing awareness of all that I bring supports me to appreciate myself and in this self-appreciation there is expansion and more presence.
Your sharing on conscious presence as being a “whole body” experience Dianne feels like the missing link to me, now I understand on a deeper level what conscious presence is and feels like. Much appreciation and thanks Dianne.
I found the first step in conscious presence was when I started to become aware of just how un-present I was. I then put out an inner call to be present. This is something I have been developing over years now and continue to deepen my awareness of. Lately I have been becoming more aware of how it is not only something that involves my whole body, but is also very much affected by how I move on a 24/7 basis.
Thank you Dianne for a beautiful sharing, I have been tricked at times, to think that when my mind is with what I am doing I am in conscious presence. It is so much more that just the mind paying attention but a whole body experience. As I sit here pondering on the words written I feel the beautiful flow of love flowing through every particle of my being.
Thank you Dianne, yes pretty slippery the mind is, I speak from my unfolding experience as I am learning to come from my body and not my head.
Yes I can relate to this and how when we allow ourselves to be in our essence, we can be in our stillness with grace.
I find conscious presence is a dropping in and a surrender, and when I surrender it allows me to be in my essence and out of my head. the more I live in concious presence then the deeper the connection with myself becomes.
Around 30% of GPs in the UK medical system recommend that people have some sort of mindfulness/meditation… It really is mainstream now. And yet the extraordinary difference between true conscious presence and just giving the head full of monkeys in our head something to play with is profoundly different. Imagine if conscious presence was on the NHS!
Indeed cjames2012, I imagine it would cost relatively little to administer and save the NHS millions.
Well Debra stress-related illnesses costs the UK economy over £6 billion a year… And that’s just the UK yes you are right would cost relatively little to administer… Just a few right choices 🙂
Again the Allegory of Plato’s Cave springs to mind… We have here is something that seems to tick the boxes are becoming conscious and aware and yet it is not… Is occupying one-dimension of a vast sphere that needs to be felt and embraced understood and connected with, and then we find the well which to drink which will truly satisfy the hitherto for unquenched first
Beautifully said Dianne, I agree there is a certain quality that comes with conscious presence that is exquisite and connects us more deeply with God, humanity and ourselves.
As a very perceptive psychologist said to me once… what this process of reconnection with conscious presence, through the doorway of the gentle breath, is doing, is taking mindfulness out of the mental plane and back into the body… And this is what should be taught to every psychologist.
Yes I have experienced the very big difference between mindfulness, which is still very much up in your head, and conscious presence that comes as a whole body awareness.
And it is this whole body awareness that is so important, and yet it is just the start… Imagine that, something so amazing is simply the start of the reconnection to who we truly are.
This shows how cunning the mind is. Even when we think we are ‘there’ we can still be locked in our minds and not truly in our body. The difference is seemingly very small but the quality is millions of miles apart.
“Enter Conscious Presence: I found that being aware of my qualities made a great difference. I pondered on the idea and word Consciousness, and I could feel that it held much more than an awareness of my mind – it had everything to do with my whole body, every cell of my body.” A simple awareness of words such as these bring huge changes to our everyday world. Encompassing the all in our bodies only serves to help us feel the all around us too. The world would be a different place if we stopped to understand a few key words which mean so much more than we care to dismiss them with.
I find if I mention being connected at the moment often people will say “oh like mindfulness” which i find interesting as my experience is that with conscious presence is that it has very little to do with my mind being full and much more with a deepening connection to my body.
– I also have felt conscious presence as expansive and spacious, a full embodied presence… through every particle of my being. Very different to a mental exercise that feels limiting and quite controlled. Beautiful blog Dianne.
I too feel conscious presence as an expanding, a stillness and steadiness in my body. A long way from the turmoil of mental activity that is very limited and exhaustive.
An awesome blog and follow on comments. I feel my bodily presence becoming more solid and expansive as I read. Healing and inspiration abound here.
Feeling our body when we move and being aware of our movements is a great step for any time that we have been so disconnected from our body and living in our thoughts. Which is what we actually get taught at school. Once this is developed there comes a point where we question what is the quality in which we move, and what is the quality in which we hold or honour ourselves. When we bring quality to the picture this also allows the quality of our thoughts to change. If we choose to move in a gentle and considerate quality, ensuring that each breath and each movement is in honouring and respect of the gentle beings we are, then there reaches a point where there is no way we can have negative of self bashing thoughts, because we hold ourself in a respectful way that doesn’t allow this. Being with our body and choosing a quality in this presence is super powerful and one day the whole world will appreciate this and will be able to bring great change to nations.
Great blog Dianne. The use of the mind actually plays a very important part here, doesn’t it. We do need to make a mental choice to be present – to feel our hands as we type, or our feet as we walk for example. But that is merely a starting point, and from there, if we go into ‘trying’ or ‘forcing’, clearly we’ve lost it!
But all great steps to take… I remember when first introduced to the concept of conscious presence by Serge Benhayon, that I really DID have to think about it – and keep returning to thinking about it, because I’d find myself spending whole swathes of my day immersed in this or that, and losing an indelible connection with my own body. My head could be on where I needed to go, or what was next to do, or stuck dwelling on an ‘issue’, with my body left ‘merrily’ (not really..) running on auto-pilot…
So, the mental choice to return to feeling and connecting with my own body was – and ever-remains – a tool I will never belittle or let go.
However, to be truly consciously present, from that initial mental choice, we then allow the body to be what informs us. The more present with my fingers typing for example, the more they will guide me about ‘how’ I’m typing, then how are my arms, my posture… What is the quality, effectively, that I am ‘doing’ anything in? I am with myself in what I’m doing?
It’s been my experience also, that from this the magnificent fullness you describe can be truly felt as a bodily knowing. Through being consciously present and committing to allow this fullness of being so deeply with our own bodies, and not allowing the mind to run roughshod over our bodies, taking us every which way but here and now – we can indeed go deeper. We can experience the qualities of our true, divine being – in and through our bodies – such as our own inner stillness.
But without our initial choice, and without a committed and lived way of building upon our ability to be so present, we are missing out on this – the truth of who we really are, known and lived in and through these bodies of ours.
Who would have thought? (in a world so dominated by the mind’s drives and need for control)
A very clear expansion on an already pumping blog Victoria. I was feeling while reading it that the mental choice and intention to be present is a necessary foundation from which to understand and feel the quality of this presence to then deepen it. In a session yesterday I connected to the tenderness and absolute preciousness that is within my body at all times, and now I have a more solid understanding of the quality I can bring to each movement through presence, yet mental choice still needs to be there to choose to move like that.
It’s putting the mind to use in its ‘rightful place’, isn’t it Rachael. The conscious intent is an important step to ‘keep touch’ with our bodies – essential in fact, that the body can open up its infinite wisdom to us. Whether by feeling the precious amazingness (how beautiful that you experienced this) or the impact our way of living is having upon us, and the ‘ouch’ moment it may bring – it’s all there, in our bodies. The ultimate guide to living harmoniously (or not).
Absolutely to both of you! There are steps to be taken and techniques to be implemented that need a choice. Like how to pick up and put down our keys or fill a glass of water. This simple act then serves as a reminder, a calling back, in times where we are less present. Slowly it becomes a more familiar way of being and I become aware of how jarring it is to the body when I don’t bring that much attention to the detail of how I am doing what I am doing.
A great sharing and addition to this blog Victoria.
Bringing my awareness to my quality, to how I am typing on the keyboard, the quality with which I am speaking, the way I am moving feels like a constant. I still find that during huge chunks of my day, I have lost myself in doing and focused mental awareness rather than trusting my body to guide with what is needed. It feels very supportive to read this blog and these comments today, as I can feel the pull to get into doing, feeling that I have so much to get done in a limited time rather than bringing it back to the quality and by doing so bringing awareness to my movements. After all, it is through the quality of my movements that I get to feel the exquisite qualities of my body, so why wouldn’t I want to do that?
I find beautiful the invitation to explore awareness. There are different degrees to it. No doubt. Feeling your qualities as you go is a deeper state compared to what is called here mental awareness. Feeling your qualities (the more divine ones) and feeling qualities that are external to you, feeling that you also are it, is an even deeper level of awareness.
Thank you Dianne for so clearly presenting the difference between conscious presence and mental awareness, it has made me much more aware of the quality I am in when practising conscious presence.
I agree Brendan, I am more aware of my body and able to make more loving choices as I apply and deepen my concious presence. As the concious presence brings a level of stillness, this stillness gives more clarity.
It is a great point you bring to our awareness by identifying the difference between Mental and Conscious Presence. For me the former is me doing something while with latter I am an observer – what a difference.
It’s lovely to be able to come back to this and have another read as a loving reminder.
Dianne, your blog has given me much to consider. Thank you for sharing.
Conscious Presence has many levels as it is not only a mental awareness in the sense of observing but it brings a body of expression, a quality present in and with the body as the result of a way of living.
I have experienced changes to my self-confidence and ability to handle any situation that comes my way with a sense of willingness to learn and an openness to other people. Choosing conscious presence in our days brings more learning and more love and joy and of course healing to every part of our lives.
There is a beauty and a synchrony to life when we are in connection and consciously present of our bodies and all that is felt; from here we are an expansion of particles throughout the interconnectedness of the universe and no separation to anything or anyone exists. This feeling is not only profound, it is actually very normal when we make the choices and actively bring our awareness to our true and expansive nature.
I totally relate to the tick boxing all the things that I needed to do whilst I was mentally present in what I was doing. This blog totally exposes the mental doing and after years of working on this and realising it is a process of learning and forever deepening that when you are truly consciously present in what you are doing – feeling all of you – then your experience is completely different.
Thank you Dianne for sharing your revelation, we are each of us an integral part of everything and are as such connected to everything and feel that connection to everything, it is our growth or expansion to consciously become aware of all that we feel is to be present in all that we are.
Yes, it is the presence of feeling and living and consistently deepening that connection and expanding our awareness of the all that we are.
Brilliant exposé on the difference of quality between awareness and consciousness, – and bringing in the presence. You have taken conscious presence to a deeper level for me, thank you, Dianne. Connecting to out inner most and living in conscious presence brings ripple effects into all areas of life.
“As I went about the activities of my day there was this mental note taker making sure that I was ticking the boxes of Breath, Mind and Body. There was still a disconnection from my body.” This is so true, Dianne, if we have to think about it we are disconnected from ourselves and nothing has changed. It may feel as though we are present, but unless, as you say, we are feeling that in every cell of our bodies, we are not consciously present. I find that I can suddenly be moving with that quality you mention and have not thought myself there. The choice has come from a deeper place inside me. The way that we come to that choice is through continual and consistent attention in making choices that respect and nurture ourselves. Without that self-love we cannot come to a place where the fully conscious presence is felt.
Awesome blog Dianne, Just saying the words ‘conscious presence’ has the ability to bring you back to your body. It make you feel very aware of the whole space you occupy, and simply not a ‘head on legs’!
what legs??? 😉
If I have lots of different thoughts about what I am doing as I am doing them I may think I am doing them well, but the quality of the work I have done will feel very different. We have learnt to complete tasks from a functional awareness but this falls very short of a task done with every cell of our body enjoying the movements the rhythm and harmony of what ever job or task is in front of us.
Diane, you have explained with great clarity the distinct difference between conscious presence and mental awareness and the two are miles apart once both have been experienced. Mental awareness is not ‘wrong’ but once the depth of conscious presence is felt in the body, it feels a very different experience.
Thank you Dianne for your fabulous blog. I have never really considered the distinct difference between conscious presence and mental awareness. But after reading your blog I realise that there is quite a difference. Mental awareness allows me to only go so far, see so much, learn so much and understand to a point. With mental awareness a lid goes on to cap how aware I can become. Conscious presence is all about the quality of our presence in all that I do. I feel this it is much more expansive, with no sense of any kind of lid or cap, but a way of being that offers a great deal of understanding and awareness of ourselves.
Mental awareness is driving a F1 racecar… Conscious Presence is being the racecar and knowing what is possible.
Ha !, love that analogy, indeed presence comes with and from the body.
Your blog is a great reminder to fill myself with the love of God regularly. Whenever I feel my body bathing in this love I know I am capable of so much more but that part of me is still resisting to surrender.
There is such a sweetness in this sharing, especially about conscious presence – feeling our qualities…as we bring more attention and feel these qualities they are felt more and more strongly as our connection to our body deepens…that is my experience…i used to meditate for hours on end, and also be very focused on awareness. At times i felt moments of expansion, but i now understand, it was mental awareness, completely disconnected from my body, nothing changed…only that i went further and further from my body…so i began to loose confidence in being in the world on a daily basis, i just wanted to hover in the mental realm of so called awareness….but living conscious presence is exactly that, deepening connection to the body, it becomes a whole awareness, and there is a confidence to life, because our connection with ourselves, God and the all is felt!
I love how you have put a name to it Dianne – mental awareness! I mastered mental awareness very easily as it suited my box ticking and doing in pursuit of conscious awareness. Fortunately I can say now I found the true way and have made conscious presence part of my every day.
Mental awareness is actually empty as opposed to conscious presence that comes from the body. Presence is just that, it presents a livingness, a fullness, an emanation of what one is living.
For me it is the same with the conscious presence Alex and I love it how you describe it – sweet short and clear.
I love reading your blog Dianne. ‘I could now feel Conscious Presence through every particle and space of my being; as my breath draws it in, it feels like I am being filled with the Love of God and I found this makes all the difference.’ It feels exactly like that and the joy this brings is beyond words.
Iljakleingjes, yes, this is inspiring and i also have felt this as i deepen conscious presence daily in my life, it brings me closer to who i truly am, the quality of love and the all…it is also very practical as i attend to my daily life with this quality, that is supportive, builds confidence, and life becomes natural more joyful.
Thanks for the reminder Dianne – it’s easy to think you’re doing the right thing in being present but it’s so important to also choose the quality you are when being present.
Mindfulness is very popular at the moment , yet it doesn’t offer the joy that conscious presence does . When people enjoy being in their bodies they will naturally take greater care of themselves , it simply makes sense.
Agree Felicity, when “people enjoy being in their bodies in conscious presence”, all else follows as a natural consequence and miracles can happen.
I was drawn back to explore your blog further Dianne and discovered exactly what I needed
“I found that deepening my Presence was necessary to being more aware of my different qualities and to deepen my qualities I found that being aware of the consciousness through my whole body allowed me to feel and embody the quality.”
I am using so many ‘tricks’, telling myself that I am consciously present where as I’m starting to be aware there’s still control in me. Being consciously present feels very light, delicate and appreciative. The level of appreciation is huge. For the first time since a long time I am actually starting to feel that there are indeed 2 currents running through my body and that it is truly up to me which one to choose. And that when I choose the loving current, that the other current still exists. Rather than fooling myself that it will never ever come back. How utterly ignorant I have been…
“…..I found that being aware of my qualities made a great difference.” This line alone gave me such insight into conscious presence Dianne. Up until reading this blog I too had confused mental awareness with conscious presence and to be honest it felt like a struggle. Conscious presence feels totally different, simple and actually quite easy if I choose it. I can see that I need a foundation of appreciation for my true qualities in order to maintain it. Thank you.
Thanks for explaining that Leonne, the difference between being in the head and in the body.
I really appreciate it. Much comes from our self appreciation, it’s so simple, it’s so easy, yet for much of my life I felt unappreciated by others and therefore decided I couldnt appreciate myself. Crazy! Now I know if I am feeling out of sorts, I need to go back to my personal qualities and how awesome I am, like everyone is awesome too, and then being me feels amazing again.
“a Beauty-full connection between God, Soul, Myself and All”.
I can really feel Conscious Presence in these few words. Your sharing Dianne has highlighted for me the difference between feeling mental energy and divine energy in my body- it is a choice.
Yes Anne, it is a choice a choice that takes us away from our body and life and into our head, or the choice that brings us in connection to our bodies, living a quality of life that is one of value and love…it actually changes our whole life…as we become more committed to life…
Beautiful Dianne. It is so great to make the difference between the two.. awarness can exist with a certain coldness, stiffness and disconnection, whereas if we introduce qualities it is much warmer, loving and spherical. We can get so used to dissect things, without bringing true honesty, connection and intimacy to our situations. Thank you for bringing this confirmation and making me stop to check in with the quality of my presence right now.
Yes Luz, well said – we can still be present in harsh movements that create tension and hardness in the body. Yet bringing or intentionally feeling the natural quality we have when we are connected allows a fluidity to our movements and a harmlessness that communicates love beyond words.
Thank you Dianne. The way I feel it is that mental awareness requires a lot of practice, something to master while conscious presence, although not easily achieved, is deeply felt, spherical, effortless and is the result of living according to the Way of the Livingness.
The quality of your presence is the first thing that people notice about you. Your ability to be able to look into their eyes, meet them and connect is directly related to your connection with yourself. I can relate to the mental awareness as being a good first step but still about mental notes on the body not feeling it from the inside. I also agree that the word consciousness is bigger than self and all encompassing. Team up consciousness with presence and you build a very special quality that everyone can connect to. Thank you Dianne for deepening our understanding.
Thank you Dianne. A great reminder to bring a deeper awareness about conscious presence, more in every moment. Then the cells of our body can vibrate with the conscious presence we bring.
I love what you have highlighted in this blog Dianne and what particularly resonated with me was your last paragraph;
“In staying Consciously Present (as much as I can) there is no more note taking, I am able to feel me and just be. I feel my exquisite female qualities, Love, and the Divine Angel that I Am being more embodied and Lived. It feels more a Beauty-full connection between God, Soul, Myself and All”.
This is just beautiful and very inspiring.
Thank you Dianne for distinguishing your experience of the difference between mental awareness and conscious presence, I can feel and understand what you describe and am impulsed to deepen my conscious presence.
I like what you have noted regarding mental alertness and even doing the task at hand but not being conscious of what is really happening at a deeper level. Good to distinguish between them both so clearly.
As a child I loved to observe nature in a precise way. In this I was able to feel unity with everything around me. I was fascinated about the beauty and wonders of nature. Now I have moments where I find back to this feeling of amazement about myself and life around me in remembering how concsious present I was like a child.
Yes of course Kerstin, we were all conscious present as children though we would not have called it that we were just alive with vitality. Being naturally playful curious and alive is another way to describe conscious presence. How do we lose that presence? How great it is to reclaim it as adults and develop it further?
It is fascinating that when we are born we come with everything we need. There is nothing that we seek just content by being us and in this we have the conscious presence that feels so natural. Later we lose sight of this and start to think we are not enough and then get caught in thinking what we need is outside of us. We lose the presence of ourselves and life is no longer easy and fun. Returning back to our natural ways is where it is at.
I see mental awareness as a bridge back to that child, kerstin,, and as each new level of awareness deepens, the simple joy of being deepens too.
Thank you Dianne for sharing your experience of the difference between conscious presence and mental awareness. I continue to work on being consciously present in all that I do, but I can feel the distinct difference between when I am focusing my mind on a task and when I am completely with body in what I am doing.
Yes there is a big difference Lee agreed.
There is something even more important again than conscious presence… the quality we are consciously present in.
For example, I can be very consciously present of my body, what I am doing and the feeling that I am doing it in say anger. But this is a very different proposition to being very consciously present of my body, what I am doing and the feeling that I am doing it in joy. There is a fundamental qualitative component to conscious presence that makes a huge difference to the end experience.
Hear hear Dean and when your not aware of this and haven’t felt it you are bemused to what it is people are going on about. Well it was like that for me anyway. Once I introduced the Gentle Breath Meditation as presented by Serge Benhayon it was here where I started to feel this presence and connection that felt true. Here is where I feel the stillness that gives me the opportunity to feel the joy and to be able to take this into my day and practice conscious presence in this quality. It’s the best tool I have been given and its free!
Great sharing Dean, thank you for bringing in the quality. That is, the quality of energy we choose to align to.
Thank you for pointing that out Dean, beautiful.
Lee the same here, I am either trying and focusing with my mind or at one with my body and what I am doing. The interesting thing is being focused with the mind is what is seen as most important in society at the moment and at work and allows you to function very well compared to being all over the place – yet its only when true conscious presence is introduced does the entire way you are doing something change and there is no longer the assault on the body. Thats what I’ve been noticing recently.
Thank you Diane for sharing your experience, it’s a great support for understanding and taking conscious presence to a deeper level.
‘I could now feel Conscious Presence through every particle and space of my being; as my breath draws it in, it feels like I am being filled with the Love of God and I found this makes all the difference. I feel into the word Consciousness and it invokes an all-encompassing/spherical quality. It is so much more than mental awareness.’ So true Dianne, conscious presence is a completely different experience.
A great blog Dianne, I love this bit, “I could now feel Conscious Presence through every particle and space of my being; as my breath draws it in, it feels like I am being filled with the Love of God and I found this makes all the difference. I feel into the word Consciousness and it invokes an all-encompassing/spherical quality. It is so much more than mental awareness”.
Thank you Dianne, for your rich and joyous writing. Feeling exquisite female qualities, love, harmony a beautiful connection to God and nature – what’s not to love?
Exactly Jo, “-what’s not to love?” Conscious presence brings us to a connection with quality that is with God and nature…
I can relate to this comment Dianne, ‘As I went about the activities of my day there was this mental note taker making sure that I was ticking the boxes of Breath, Mind and Body. There was still a disconnection from my body.’ As the depth and richness that comes with the whole body experience deepens, it’s easy to look back and see the mental awareness was so superficial. But it’s all part of the journey, without any criticism, once conscious presence is felt within every cell, the connection is palpably divine.
It’s amazing how many things we can allow to take us out of our conscious presence. When I start to feel an intense feeling I can allow myself to get emotional and then I can get all mental about it trying to justify to myself the way that I’m feeling. This is a merry-go-round of stuff that I can ride instead of choosing to maintain my connection with my body and the quality of my presence.
I have definitely been caught on that merry-go-round too, I can end up very confused and muddled, yet when I’m connected to my body, then there is an effortless simplicity. The difficult feeling is a dead give away to not get caught by.
This is beautiful to reread and appreciate the importance of conscious presence in my body and how much more i am becoming aware of this and how lovely it feels inside .Thank you for this great sharing and all it reminds me by reflection each day.
Thank you for this sharing, I have found mental awareness has a lot more control going on to stay on track, where as conscious presence has a free open flow where the whole body is just connected and felt in what ever is being done, conscious presence is an opening to deepen ones self in stillness, love and connection to God.
Yes that’s right, in conscious presence the feeling of beauty in the body is exquisite – no one would ever want to miss out on that.
Committing to conscious presence in my day has been a building process which started with commitment to an exercise program including connective tissue therapy exercises, gentle breath meditation and gentle movements and stretching with my breath and presence. I feel that this alone is a gift that I can bring with me wherever I go.
The mental awareness feels like a stepping stone towards the conscious presence; it’s a great start, being totally focused in the present. But expanding this presence through the breath into the whole body and feeling this as I go about my day is divine. I feel that I am a particle of the Universe and I feel God within me. This is what I come back to when I can feel that I am out and disconnected.
Its interesting emmadanchin, this hasn’t been my experience. The more I use mental awareness the further away from conscious presence I get.
Dear Joel,
Can you elaborate on how that feels for you?
Thank you Diane… this is a beautifully clear distinction between Mental Awareness and Conscious Presence.. one that so few have any awareness of let alone put into practice.
TYPO with name in last comment should be ‘Dianne’
Developing a deeper understanding and awareness of my whole body has been supported through practicing conscious presence. As you have shared Dianne, it is super powerful.
What an eloquent and clear explanation of the difference between conscious presence and mental awareness. I had not considered it this way before but it makes a lot of sense.
The feeling of being absolutely present in a moment, feeling your chest rise and fall, feeling the delicateness of your eyelashes and the tiniest movement in your body… Is exquisite. I LOVE conscious presence…
Indeed Meg, this is divinity within details.
This is a great description of the difference between mental awareness and conscious presence. Its seems that mental awareness does things at the expense of the body, and the conscious presence has absolute respect for the body. Seeing that the health, vitality and wellness of the body is what keeps a person living, i know which one i would choose!
Yes Joanne, I would agree, conscious presence is for me a wide eyed expansiveness, a taking in and understanding of the whole, mental awareness feels more one dimensional and quite restricting, possibly even harming to our bodies, not appreciative of the capacity our body has to guide us with great wisdom.
Conscious presence is like the gateway to heaven, once we step through with our whole body it can lead the way to love, stillness and joy. From conscious presence, there is something more solid from which to make choices from, especially loving choices for the body, there is more space in the heart for understanding and allowing ourselves and others to be where we are at and living from rhythm becomes natural. Most important however is not what conscious presence opens to us but keeping ourselves open in the body to conscious presence.
I agree Deanne, it is keeping ourselves open and committed to the best of our ability to be in conscious presence that is fundamental in order for us to live with the love and understanding for one another, just like living heaven on earth.
The grand clue given in this blog about conscious presence being a whole body experience really does drop the focus away from the mind when the thoughts can be surrendered and more awareness allowed for the body. This body connection may even inspire the awareness to surrender some holding and hardening in the body that can lead to a more open heart.
This blog embodies the quality of sweetness and gentleness that you are describing in your deepening presence, thank you for such a beautiful reflection.
Yes, I can feel that too, the sweetness, gentleness and lovely authority. It is beautiful to receive a example of what it is like if someone is writing from the body.
‘In staying Consciously Present (as much as I can) there is no more note taking’ To stop all the note taking that can go on in our heads is a precious present in itself!
Thanks to you Dianne for sharing your experience and wisdom on this vital part of my evolving practice to surrender back to me and to feel me in my fullest.
“I found that being aware of the consciousness through my whole body allowed me to feel and embody the quality.” This is so simple Dianne and, it works for me!
“The simple things are often the best!” That’s what my grandma used to say. Reading your comment Barbara made me smile, because that’s “simply” it. The simple things mainly work best!
Dianne, this is so wonderful to ponder and observe in ourselves. For me when you describe mental awareness, it feels it is still about the self and the ability to improve our lives, which of course is not a bad thing at all. But conscious presence takes us to a deeper level of embodying and being impulsed from love, God and the vibration which we all are from and connected to.
Getting back to your blog Dianne today just leaves a thank you. This “awareness” should be shared all over the world. That true presence comes from the heart not from meditating two hours or doing sports till we collapse. It is the beauty of simply being.
There is such a beauty and power to simply being with the moment and feeling the connection to the all and God.
I agree Jennym. Being surrendered to this simplicity to me feel wide spread all over and a compact me at the same time.The all and one. Aware and free, loving and out of any needs, demands, protections or hurts. What may come deepening this? Looking forward with every step!
Very True Christinahecke
“I could now feel Conscious Presence through every particle and space of my being; as my breath draws it in, it feels like I am being filled with the Love of God”. Thank you Dianne for the inspiration in these few words. They give a whole new depth to Conscious Presence and confirm that we can forever deepen our inner connection to God.
These beautiful words of Dianne’s really struck me too Anne, and as I was reading them I could feel the expansion in my body, the spaciousness and my place in the universe.
Yes Anne, it is the forever deepening that keeps us connected and in residing in God’s breath.
Just shows us, that without a lived sense of connectedness with our own bodies, we are missing out on the knowing that God is truly immanent, rather than something to reach for outside of ourselves.
Profound, and such simple truth that should be confirmed and expanded upon from the day we are born, rather than given no educational standing at all.
The choice to feel and accept our divine qualities is key to staying in our body. We can have so much fun allowing all these qualities to be seen and felt, regardless of all that is going on around us.
Thank you for the way you explain the two ways Dianne, having the mind focused on the task at hand is no small feat and when this segues into conscious presence what you describe is wonderful and demonstrates how we lessen our worth when we settle for mental awareness.
It’s that connection between me, God, my body and everyone. Conscience presence feels like knowing we are part of the universe.
Simply put Amanda – this is what it is for me too. And when I am connected to the all my body is aligned to it’s natural state of being and it is the most incredible divine feeling.
When there is enough love in our bodies we can finally let in so much more. It’s endless.
Beautiful Dianne what an important sharing of the truth of conscious presence and I love how you offer this as your connection to God ,Soul ,Yourself and all. How beautiful and loving and what a foundation for us all to honour , treasure and build on ourselves too. ‘And with it i am finding I am able to just be me’ exquisite to feel and know.
This is profound..”As I went about the activities of my day there was this mental note taker making sure that I was ticking the boxes of Breath, Mind and Body. There was still a disconnection from my body.” l can relate to this experience. l know l need more presence drawn to this truth for my own life.
This is the difference between trying to control or to choose to surrender – isn’t it?
That is spot on Sandra. A lot of control in the mental awareness activity, compared to being in conscious presence.
Dianne, thank you for your blog which has helped me to deepen my understanding of conscious presence. I used to do 10 day Buddhist retreats where we developed acute mental awareness by noting everything the body did, particularly the breath, but you are right in that it was ‘still a disconnection from my body’ and left me feeling very cold and empty. What kept people going was the amazing insights that were revealed at times but they were not fully embodied and tended to make students feel special, thinking they had achieved another step towards enlightenment when actually they had just gone further into separation.
There is much out there in the sense of talk about mindfulness and being in the moment etc. But in my experience, not much of it actually connects us to the body which is the real instrument that has to live with the consequences of our choices and actions. However, what Serge Benhayon presents with Universal Medicine, regarding conscious presence and awakening the body through the ultra simple Gentle Breath Meditation is THE REAL DEAL! Such simple techniques when applied with the real intent to feel the body and put the body first can work amazing wonders as I have experienced first hand. This stands alone as the most simple and amazing technique, and not as taught by others for many have attempted to copy this Gentle Breath Meditation, or many will say ‘oh yes, I can breath gently’ without actually trying it the way Serge Benhayon teaches it. ! This is worth checking out and may save you lots of money and time from trying out other things: http://www.unimedliving.com/meditation/on-meditation/gentle-breath-meditation-tips-for-beginners.html.
It seems quite funny that we can think we’re being present, but we’re in fact just being mentally aware. It goes to show that there is very little mental energy consumed when we’re consciously present – for it’s a more bodily experience of life than anything else.
Thank you Angel of God. This is truly beautiful and supports us all to take conscious presence to a deeper, whole body level.
This was a great blog for me as I feel I am oscillating between mental awareness and conscious presence a lot. While mental awareness is a great step away from being checked out during a task it still isn’t encompassing all that can evolve from being fully connected with conscious presence. Something to really feel into for me. Thank you.
Thank you for pointing this out Dianne. There are definitely deeper levels to allow in conscious presence, it’s ever evolving. And I love that you talk about it not being a box ticking exercise.
Any choice that doesn’t truly feel right in the body can only be a mental aware decision. That justifies choices even the body says no.
I love the explanation of conscious presence being a full body experience of being right there in connection and the with it empowerment , rather than when not in conscious presence how we can get drained of our energy and tired.
Conscious presence is a whole body experience with the absolute knowingness of our innate qualities within us, when we live this way to the best of our abilities we create a flow in life that allows us to surrender and live by impulse of what’s there to be done and we can let go of the control from our minds.
Beautifully put Francisco.
Absolutely, I am saying a big Yes to being more in the flow of life and feeling what there is to be done. It is a much more effortless and joyful way to live!
I can really feel this flow as I read your comment. Thank you Francisco.
All my life I have never really understood the meaning of harmony, I’ve done satisfaction, relaxation and bliss but when i begun to practice conscious presence as presented by Serge Benhayon, a steadiness, a balance appeared in my life that I knew were the rock bed of true harmony.
“It feels more a Beauty-full connection between God, Soul, Myself and All.” This feels really solid to me and a beautiful description of Conscious Presence, Dianne.Thank you for sharing.
Love this blog Dianne .. I have been continuing to ponder on the difference between conscious presence and mental awareness – there is a big difference! I love how you describe it as a FULL feeling all over your body – the mind-is-one-with-your-body. It is not separate doing its own thing. Conscious presence is the mind and the heart ‘one and the same’. Great pair if used together, instead of the mind running the show from the ‘same old stuff’. Love it !
Well said Rik. Clearly, letting our minds ‘run the show’ hasn’t stood us in too great a stead, has it… Well worth bringing these simple tools to our every day and truly getting to know our own bodies again – for in being truly with our bodies, we can connect to the exquisite fullness of who we truly are. So simple, and deeply amazing to have been deepening in this and experiencing this since bringing Serge Benhayon’s teachings on conscious presence to my life these past 8 years or so. The richness is beyond measure.
Yes Ric, when our body and mind are working together there there can be a great harmony in the way we live.
What a gorgeous lesson in what conscious presence is really about … A very enlightening blog, thank you Dianne!
Thank you Dianne for sharing the difference between mental and conscious presence. With conscious presence you are going to a deeper connection with yourself.
It feels like at some level there is always a mental awareness but as you present Dianne that doesn’t mean we are present. In this sort of checked out state we are missing so much of what is there for us to feel and realise how naturally clairsentient we are.
It feels for me like mental awareness was a bridging tool we have used to reconnect us back from the waywardness we were all in but now we have moved into a different cycle we are being asked to go deeper and with this comes a full commitment to conscious presence.
This is a great way to express all of this Tracy. Dianne has nailed something so very important for us to deepen and contemplate.
Yes Elizabeth, our clairsentience is natural when we are aware of our whole body. It is such an expansive feeling.
I love how you have shared the difference here Dianne. I can see that’s being present is step one, but essentially why stop there when you can feel that being aware of how you do things makes your body feel lighter, the space around you, well, more spacious and time immaterial because it simply expands!
It highlights that we can always keep evolving and taking things deeper. Step one was and is needed to bridge ourselves back to reconnecting and then from there we can begin to truly feel the depth of the love that is available when we have conscious presence.
I love what you say here Tracy……so true. There is a never ending depth of love, when we choose to have conscious presence.
Beautifully described, I feel ‘conscious presence’ is expressed from the whole of us, not just our head. I appreciate how you have highlighted this through your personal experience. Imagining we have control of our thoughts, and not feeling the quality of them in our body allows for untruths to dwell. I know this for myself, feeling the quality of presence in all of me, as much as I am able has allowed me to deepened my awareness, wisdom, connection and well being.
It feels for me a whole body experience and through that my body has the wisdom of what is needed in any moment.
Dear Dianne I can feel your words in my body. Thank You from Angel to Angel 🙂 with love
I agree Nadine, these words can drop us into the body and conscious presence. It is quite magical to read something like this as so often words on the page are just concepts for the mind.
When I stretch my mind to be aware, it does seem to become an exercise in how to be in control of my surroundings. Whereas when I am simply with the presence that I am, and love this presence with all my heart, then everything around me is simply known.
Beautifully shared Shami. Through being consciously present, we deeply support ourselves to have a relationship with our bodies where we can know our innate stillness and quality of who we truly are within. No going outside of ourselves, no ‘stretching’ beyond – it’s all there within us. We are at One.
Indeed Victoria – home sweet home.
For it feels like with “Mental Awareness” I try to control and my connection with me stays on the surface. With “Conscious Presence” on the other hand I feel a deepening in my connection to me, an observation of what is going on (without withdrawing or separation) and a surrendering to what shall be.
I too can relate to this surrendering Sandra, not as a doing or controlling activity but as an allowing and an opening to more of whom I truly am.
The word ‘surrendering’ perfectly describes the feeling of dropping into conscious presence. Surrendering to all that I am within the whole.
Mental awareness is like looking through a telescope backwards at life, it is small and far away, it is tunnel vision. Conscious presence is the Hubble telescope, that opens up our views of everything everywhere. We can see the past, present and future.
I love Dianne how you have explained conscious presence in relationship to God. This has offered me an ‘a ha’ moment of taking conscious presence to another level. Thank you.
Indeed Donna, to appreciate that when I embody conscious presence I not only connect to my inner most but a relationship with the all and God is a big ‘ a ha’ moment. It completely debunks that I am alone and unsupported.
So beautiful Donna and Dianne, yes. Through Serge Benhayon’s teachings on conscious presence – including via the modality of Esoteric Yoga – I’ve come to deepen my relationship with God and the Soul in ways words cannot describe. The key has been – come back to the body, and be deeply with the body in all things. The richness of the relationship with the divine is then beyond measure.
Thank you for sharing the difference Dianne, about mental awareness and conscious presence. There is a huge difference between the two, as you have clearly explained. You have inpired me to deepen my conscious presence and fully embody it.
Yes I have been inspired too.
You’ve opened me up to the idea that there is a difference between conscious presence and mental awareness Dianne.
Reading your post makes me realise that if I am really honest, I don’t practice conscious presence at all. Mental awareness is something I have to work extremely hard at. In fact, I probably ‘try’ too hard to have my mind focus on just one thing, creating so much pressure for myself that that is probably the very reason I am unable to focus my mind.
I am absolutely aware however, that there is more practise required around simply allowing things to unfold, rather than the strict control I more often than not have over everything I do. I believe a little more of this will assist in the building of conscious presence, which I feel will become effortless once I let go.
Very true Elodie. All there is to do is BE. Thank you
With Love Dianne
Beautiful honesty Elodie. There feels like such effort with mental awareness, but an allowing that takes place with conscious presence.
This has been my experience exactly Elodie. The deepening has ‘no end’, and it is in letting go of any ‘trying’ (forced from the mind..) that we can truly be present. The mind is an amazing tool we have – from which we can choose to be aware and with our bodies in what we are doing, but once chosen (e.g. feeling my feet when I’m walking), it’s all about ALLOWING (great word!) the awareness to be fully experienced from and with our body.
These are steps we can always come back to, and if attentive (in my experience), the deepening true connection and presence with the body is a given. Things will certainly throw us off at times, but ever-there is the foundation of our choices to come back to, to re-connect ourselves, so to speak, isn’t it…
This is an important sharing Dianne. I love how you expressed conscious presence to be a Beauty-full connection between God, Soul, Myself and All. Once we have reached this marker the choice becomes fairly easy.
Indeed connected to our bodies in that way (consciously present = body and head together) there is no choice necessary as we just know what and how the next step is.
Indeed Sonja with conscious presence, all is infinitely more simple.
You have pointed out such an important difference between conscious whole body presence and focusing hard to control the mind. So many of us have done this when first learning to meditate. It feels lovely to lie or walk in conscious presence and feels so difficult to try and ‘ make the mind present’ .
I feel you have it there, Belinda Jane: the mental awareness is often about merely controlling a situation whereas presence is an openness and surrender to all that a moment brings. Yes – very different in nature and in quality.
Absolutely agree coleen24. And once you have experienced both it is very easy to appreciate the difference.
That’s exactly what mindfulness is -a complete control that is coming from the head. As you say, it is all encompassing, Conscious Presence, and is impulsed from your inner heart and the body. The stark opposite.
Exactly Belinda Jane, trying to ‘make the mind present’ feels awkward and difficult and brings in issues of control. Conscious presence is actually divine, bringing the body and mind together in harmony can only be joyful in truth, and it certainly does feel lovely to lie or walk in conscious presence – I agree!
Very true Jo. I can feel at the moment how much I am trying to stay mentally aware and alert, but my body is yawning, restless and quite tired. I feel that with mental awareness I can observe my body but not see any of the consequences, i.e. falling asleep on the lounge.
Thank you so much Dianne for sharing your evolutionary experience of conscious presence. I found it extremely helpful the way you described the difference between mental awareness and conscious presence.
So did I – it makes it so much clearer the difference of the two and I have been playing with it more and more and can definitely feel the difference. I find it incredibly interesting that they are consider one and the same but the opposite in what they do and how you feel. Mindfulness is something that I see being used promoted and encouraged by all different business yet when I can feel the stark opposite results it makes me question how it has so many following it.
I agree Natalie. I’ve also observed a marked growth in Mindfulness in all contexts: workplaces, schools and colleges. Thanks to Dianne we are having this conversation and sharing how Conscious Presence differs to Mindfulness. Conscious presence, and I am still a student, is much more about the quality of being we bring to our bodies and everything we do.
So true – I recently attended a presentation about mindfulness and I could feel how this is used as tool or technique to try to fix all the harm that has been done throughout the day. This is starkly different to conscious presence which develops a connection with the body throughout the day in such a way that you are aware of any harms and then have the choice to allow these or not.
The growth in mindfulness is interesting. It does seem to provide benefit by way of stress relief. If we are simply seeking relief for our stress that’s ok. But there is no offering with this. No offering asking to feel who we are and where we are from.
It’s a very different experience, isn’t it Natalie. Being ‘mindful’ we have the quality of ‘mental awareness’ of which Dianne speaks – and oftentimes not in relation to our own bodies…
In conscious presence, we are with ourselves in full – yes, there can be an initiating awareness if you like, a choice to be with our body, but from there, the experience and feeling is via and from our body itself. As many have commented here, in that there is a ‘fullness’ of you, a lived embodiment – very grounded and real.
I agree Tamara Flanagan, the way the difference between mental awareness and conscious presence is described is in a true game changing way.
This is truly brilliant Dianne, this blog inspires me to explore how and be aware of being mental aware or conscious presence. I do feel the difference between the two and therefore know that I am still also a lot mentally aware instead of consciously present. This is something to go deeper with in my everyday living.
There is such a quality of coldness and emptiness to the mental awareness that you describe Dianna1975. In contrast conscious presence seems to hold a quality of warmth and gentleness that I can keep embodying.
I agree diana1975. This blog has given me pause to reflect on whether I am being consciously present and with my body or using my mind to be mentally aware of what I am doing. Conscious presence is a more whole body connection and experience.
Thank you Dianne, yes it feels like mental awareness may be knowing what you are doing, but in conscious presence there is a richness of you that is expressing through. As we begin to choose to be more consciously present it is interesting to note the bombardment of thoughts! Which we can choose to listen to or not.
Beautiful Arianne! “yes it feels like mental awareness may be knowing what you are doing, but in conscious presence there is a richness of you that is expressing through” how gorgeous, and yes once in conscious presence and to feel a bombardment of thoughts is well…awful. I agree with you whole-ly, conscious presence is the awareness of all of you and the qualities we bring, not just our mind.
I have found the same thing Arianne with the bombardment of thoughts. It’s almost like at that point our mind is saying “choose me” and “mental awareness is the way”. I have found though that this is a slippery slope as mental awareness can take us to many a path away from the “richness” that we each bring, and offers only a pathway to thinking.
So gorgeous, Diane. And oh so true! Conscious presence is felt all over and mental awareness is a form of control.
Boom. So well said Christinahecke.
Great to read your blog Diane. I realized how much the mind wants to control and that we can fool ourselves if we are not honest.”In staying Consciously Present (as much as I can) there is no more note taking, I am able to feel me and just be.”
To me your blog is exposing Mindfulness. It requires a lot to stay present with ourselves, observe the world as it is and let it completely be, while feeling amazing yourself at the inside. Conscious presence is a constant choice. And the only way to develop is through more and more honesty, made possible by self-acceptance and dealing with whatever life’s presenting / revealing / exposing. Life is indeed Beautiful, but there’s also a lot of ugliness that I didn’t want to see for a long time. The difference now is that I take whatever happens, less and less personal. And if I do, I am much more aware of it. Which also gives me the possibility to choose differently, meaning having a choice to return to my heart and body. As in before I didn’t even feel that I have (and always had) a choice. That’s Beautiful!
You hit the nail on the head here Floris. Indeed the difference between mindfulness and conscious presence is ginormous and one could say they are worlds apart in their true quality and where they leave us in regards to the quality of how we truly live. It is revealing how much we are actually pulled by our spirit to be in mindfulness and be fooled into thinking it is conscious presence what it could not be further from the fact.
Falling into the rhythm of God with my body movements is the most exquisite experience. The stillness that comes from this motion is totally divine. It leaves you feeling completely full with no needs or wants.
This is lovely Mathew. To me it’s as if the body is walking itself inside the moment, completely connected with everything around and enjoying what is. There’s no sense of going anywhere or having to get anything done, yet things happen in response to what is needed and they fall into place according to divine timing.
It’s only now after a few years of practising conscious presence that I understand how un-present I was before. Wow what a God-send. It is the only way to get a tangible feeling of the essence inside us.
Jinya the same here, Whilst before bringing an awareness to conscious presence I understood I was frantic but I had not fully appreciated how un-present I was. Yet with a mind always ahead or dwelling on past mistakes I allowed no space there for me to be present and enjoy the fruits that it brings, the connection and the warmth of me.
As you say Dianne, mental awareness and conscious presence are worlds apart. There is no true connection to the body unless we are in conscious presence.
Gorgeous blog Dianne. I can totally relate to this shift, and you description is very apt. The mental awareness phase felt like a necesary focus, but it came with a feeling of trying, whereas with the deeper conscious presence there is a letting go and an ease, a naturalness and more of a flow through everything rather than the stilted mental effort of the earlier steps. I love your line: “I could now feel Conscious Presence through every particle and space of my being; as my breath draws it in, it feels like I am being filled with the Love of God”.
Super beautiful Dianne – opened up a whole new world. I can really understand what you mean between the difference of conscious presence and mental awareness. As the latter seems like you are still going through the motions. Of life, not really feeling. Conscious presence however, brings awareness and like you said, the whole- being aware of all that’s going on around you and happening for you.
I too have experienced a shift in my understanding and practice of conscious presence. A deepening into my body and away from the mind, a fuller richer experience that requires no thought, just connection and feeling. Thanks Diane.
Hi Dianne, reading your Blog I could so relate to the finite differences and it was a joy to read how someone describes it. I decided to ponder on what consciousness presence means for me, and what better place to ponder nurturing myself in the shower. I was aware to keep coming back by feeling any part of my body – which part of it was having any sort of ache or pain … and when feeling this pain, feel as much of it that was actually there to feel. It was very confirming and a focus for my mind. I did not have to figure something out. It was about the feeling and my body – I WAS LISTENING.
Also to add to this awareness, if there was no feeling in my body I am in my head, and it was time to stop and be with my body.
Thank you for this blog Dianne.
Thank You Dianne Hetherington for your take on this much needed subject. I don’t understand mental awareness so I will not comment on that. But I do understand and Live what I know and can feel is Conscious Presence as presented by Serge Benhayon.
For the past ten years I have been making choices to develop more stillness in my body and actually feel the “being” that lives inside me which has a steady pulse that is hard to put into words. To deepen this connection I bring it Back to Basics and make it simple and practical. So an example would be I choose to pinch every spinach and lettuce leaf when I make myself a salad. My focus is with me and my body and my mind is aligned with the task my body is doing. There is no room for anything else to enter my mind but if something comes in I can instantly feel a disturbance. So in that moment I know I checked out and was Not Consciously Present. No big deal – I increase my focus and get back to the job in hand an get on with it.
By the way I have been doing the pinching leaves thing for around 6 years now as it helps to get me back to me.
It’s awesome to really distinguish between the two, I’d never thought about but something to really take notice of
A great blog making the distinction between these two things and highlighting the potential for the mind to trick us into settling for something less than real conscious presence.
This is a significant difference that you have here differentiated, Dianne, between mental awareness and conscious presence. By doing so you have contributed greatly to the understanding and practice of conscious presence, which is invaluable to practice.
Thank you Dianne for presenting the difference between mental awareness and conscious presence. When I am running on auto pilot I am in mental awareness; there is no consideration for my body and it feels very limited; it is exhausting! However when I am in conscious presence my mind and body are one and I can feel all of me and the expansiveness this brings. My qualities are felt strongly within my body and there’s a purpose in every thing I do.
Great and important distinction between mental awareness and conscious presence Diane, thank you. I Love the description of feeling every particle of being as we breathe in the Love of God, how beautiful and how deeply this allows our connection with all of life. Awesome!
This is a great discussion there is so much out there about achieving ‘mindfulness’ and as you have explained so well because it is something that you have lived in both experiences there is a vast difference if no complete opposite of what mindfulness and conscious presence are. This is a massive expose of how we manipulate words and a concept to be. The question that can be asked is why are there words or an understanding of a practise that is designed for us not to be who we truly are but instead encourages and keeps the intelligence at play, instead of checking in and seeing what the quality of our being is in? If we allow the mind it will dominate the quality of our being overriding the inner-heart impulsing us in accordance to our original state of being.
This is a very confirming piece of writing to share with the readers of this blog Dianne. I can see how sharing blogs like this actually goes a long way to confirm what others are experiencing too.
Yep super true Oliver. And can give people an “aha” moment as well. Broader understanding in general.
Great Article! I loved the way you’ve explained Mental awareness vs conscious presence. Yes, feeling the value brings the whole body back into fullness. Thank you for sharing!
Hi Dianne, thank you for this great blog and explaining the difference between „mental awareness“ and „conscious presence“ – this was not so clear to me.
I very much like the sentence „It feels more a Beauty-full connection between God, Soul, Myself and All“ – There is no attachment to anything when I am in conscious presence but connection with All.
Hmmm, how many of us have lived as slaves in own created mental consciousness and been totally disconnected from our bodies.
It is great how you have described the difference.
Thank you.
I can raise my hand to being chained to my own self-created mental consciousness that had used the body only as transport device for it. It is amazing to be with myself now.
It is beautiful to observe that there is always a deeper level to connect to, a knowing of eternity.
Wow Dianne, I never even knew there was a distinction between Mental Awareness and Conscious Presence. I can relate to how you described Mental Awareness as being with breath mind and body but still from the mind, and it is ordinary. As opposed to conscious awareness where my mind is with me while I feel my breath and my body. There is a distinct quality and presence that is exquisite, and now that I have words to describe the difference I will not settle for Mental Awareness.
Yes, I get that Brendan. There is no ‘brain’ anymore – no more than there is just a gallbladder or big toe. As human beings we are our whole body, and our intelligence is equally held therein.
‘Mindfulness’ is a buzz word these days but it’s still about the mind running the show. The power of our bodies cannot be underestimated. Bringing our minds into alignment with our bodies rather than the other way around is the way to go – the body is infinitely wiser and speaks of the soul. The mind, unless aligned with the soul’s purpose, produces chatter.
Perfect Victoria, and boy do we have to work at times to turn the ‘chatter’ off so that we can come back to our bodies and be consciously present.
Agree fully with you Victoria. Mindfullness does not ask us be responsible with our choices.
Well highlighted Matthew, Mindfulness doesn’t ask for responsibility for our choices. I feel it’s responsibility that brings quality to the purpose of the things that I do.
I love your reply Victoria. As you say ‘Mindfulness’ is a buzz word but still about the mind whereas our bodies are wiser, connecting us to the wisdom within and the soul’s purpose. This is such an inspiring blog Dianne, thank you.
Well said Victoria, I absolutely agree with you.
Very well said Victoria. You’ve drawn a very clear picture of the difference between the two.
Dianne this is a great and helpful blog and has helped me understand conscious presence with a new depth. It feels like something we more ‘be’ than ‘do’.
This is an essential reminder not to be ‘ automatic’ about how we move our body at all times…as you can be when you are being mindful. Also when you give the mind a ‘ box ticking’ mode there is no ‘correction’ or feedback about the quality of how we do things.
Whereas when we are in Conscious Presence there is a much deeper embodied awareness of the grand and beautiful qualities we are and then can express and move with consciously.
Thank you Dianne for the words : ” I could now feel Conscious Presence through every particle and space of my being; as my breath draws it in, it feels like I am being filled with the Love of God “. This reminds me to be more dedicated and appreciate what naturally flows to us always.
Reading this has made me ponder on the imbalance humanity has at the moment – So much focus and accolades goes towards having and developing great minds. But what good is a great mind if it is trapped in broken body that then gets consumed with dealing with health issues? We need to redress the balance, rather than being manipulated by the marketing teams that manipulate the health industry.
I love how you talk here Dianne about quality and how this must be felt through our body and not as a mental process.
Yes Sarah, the quality felt through the body is so much more profound then through the mental process. Feeling myself in my body brings a joy that is universal while the mental process is void of this.
I found myself dropping more and more into my body as I read this blog Dianne. The energy in it is really very quite powerful as it brings a great deal of awareness and healing to readers. Thank you for sharing this divine sharing.
I agree wholeheartedly, Johanna. This blog brings me deeper in my body and confirms and consolidates that which I have experienced as well. It is a blessing for every reader.
Me as well Johanna, Diane’s sharing divinely impulsed.
Conscious presence feels to me like a commitment to connect deeply to my body and express from my essence deep within my body. To think from the intelligence of the body and not the head.
Conscious presence is such an amazing and innate gift within us, it seems strange now to have once lived without even really knowing what it was or how beneficial it really is to daily life. Thank you Diane for writing and sharing your expanding awareness of it.
In the practice of mental awareness I can become quite frustrated and irritated, like I’m faking it till I make it. Perhaps this frustration is due to the knowing that there is a depth I am yet to feel? It makes sense to have the mind in line with the body, yes, but it seems the mind cannot perceive the depths we can go into the quality of our being-ness. Feels like it’s about the ‘how’ rather than the function or mechanics of movement.
I know that frustration all too well Rachael. It is the frustration of not allowing myself to be but rather controlling myself with the mind driving the doing. Dropping that and surrendering to the body is the the way to go. All the tension dissolves when the control is let go of. Only then can I feel my body and listen to it and let myself be…
Good point and saying Rachael. Conscious presence is absolute and a whole body experience that we can’t fake. So I know that if I am feeling false or in a trying to achieve being with my body, then I know I am in mental awareness. When I am consciously present I feel that I am completely enough and just being with all of me unapologetically so.
We are in and with our bodies our whole life yet never had I heard anyone talk about being consciously present and what that means until I met Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine. This is the first education we should have before maths, English and other subjects. Because being consciously present allows a deeper connection with the body where all the wisdom within can then be spoken from instead of looking or trying for it on the outside.
Brilliant sharing Dianne. To express so clearly the distinction between mental awareness and conscious presence. I can certainly feel the difference in my body of the quality of living in conscious presence as to when I put more energy into mental awareness. First I had to experience one to appreciate the other.
A great distinction between mental awareness and conscious presence Diane. One involves the focus in the head and “ticking boxes” and the other holds the quality of the whole body. Awesome to clarify between these two.
Thank you Dianne for sharing your observations and highlighting the differences between mental awareness and conscious presence. Conscious presence to me is moving my body and expressing from the love that lives inside it, a very precious feeling – with no perfection but a felt quality. Mental awareness is limited to the mind and doesn’t encompass the whole body – being in the throes of mental awareness does not steady the body it revs it up.
I agree Shelley, I found that expressing what is there at that moment in full is very powerful and might be the next step from conscious presence.
I love what you share and will be exploring whether I am in mental awareness or conscious presence. Our awareness is always deepening and and ever evolving.
Thank you Dianne. This is an amazing sharing. Just last fortnight I was noticing that at times I was aware of my movement with my mind aligned with my body movement without any distraction at and at other times I was feeling like I was more with my body on a deeper level, as in fully with my body like all of my body was communicating.
Conscious presence is space. Space is quality. Space is an experience of being consciously present.
I have to agree with you Dianne. We can ‘think’ we are consciously present when instead we are actually mentally aware, allowing a disconnection between the head and the body. I’ve found walking to be very exposing of this and how the mind can focus on what’s outside of me, like a sunrise or sunset, and not truely be in body connection.
While talking to some friends about exactly that, Matthew, I realised that we give so much of ourselves over to the beauty of nature we see around us because we do not see that we are just as beautiful inside ourselves. Instead of seeing the beauty of a sunset as a confirmation of how beautiful we are, we instead see that beauty as more beautiful than how we feel.
To feel the oneness in the beauty all around and within us is conscious presence.
Gosh Matthew and Naren, I hadn’t really considered seeing the beauty of a sunset as a confirmation of how beautiful we are. Thank you both for sharing this.
In mental awareness I’m looking out at the sunset and being taken to it to admire it, whereas in conscious presence the sunset in coming to me to feel it as part of me and the beauty I too hold within. Big difference.
Dianne, you present the difference between Mental awareness and Conscious presence so well. It reminded me of true movement I am aware of the difference between being aware during the movement, to actually letting my body go with its natural flow. One I concentrate on and the other is just known.
I enjoyed re-visiting your blog Dianne,and I could feel the power of your expression.
The sentence that stood out for me this morning was “I could now feel Conscious Presence through every particle and space of my being; as my breath draws it in, it feels like I am being filled with the Love of God…” I can feel the absolute beauty in those words.
That sentence stood out for me too Roberta and as I read it I found myself breathing in gently and allowing myself to connect to the feeling of being “filled with the Love of God”, and right at that moment nothing could feel more beautiful than that divine fullness.
I was moved by this expression too Roberta. I wanted to stay there and feel the exquisiteness of them as they resonated through my body.
A beautiful article Dianne and one I can very much relate to, living in this way is nothing less then Divine and is a solid way forward.
Wow Dianne I found this blog profound, thank-you
Dianne, you are absolutely exquisite! The marked difference and simplicity you have shared here is actually very profound and supportive for anyone wanting to connect to conscious presence for themselves and allow the spaciousness and joyous flow of life that comes from it as opposed to the rigid way our thoughts can carry us. There is a rhythm to our breath, our bodies and in all we do thereafter that is wholly supported when we are in full connection to our Divinity and to the breath of God, through this breath we are at one with harmony and the grandness of the universe.
So beautifully said, cheriseholt. “There is a rhythm to our breath, our bodies and in all we do thereafter that is wholly supported when we are in full connection to our Divinity and to the breath of God, through this breath we are at one with harmony and the grandness of the universe” – I love it.
Music to my body…humming of conscious presence. Beautiful indeed Cherise.
Mental awareness for me is about coming from my head only in how I do things based on past experiences, ideals and beliefs, or recall.
But conscious presence as you have so powerfully described Dianne involves a whole body experience coming from the essence of who I am- so exquisite and divinely beautyfull.
Having that connection with our whole body and awareness of the quality we are choosing to run through it in any moment is much more than just being mentally aware of what we’re doing.
It is definitely to do with the quality we choose to be in, something that I am feeling at the moment and as you have shared, nothing about being mentally aware as this is actually ignoring the wisdom and love held within the body.
So true, the body has to be the smarter brain, it can’t lie, it can only be drowned out by the noise in our heads that decide it doesn’t like what the body is sharing. By experimenting and seeing for ourselves what it can be like to experience conscious presence we then have a choice. If we never give our body’s a chance to communicate we are choosing to be ignorant of its blessing and wisdom.
Exactly, Fiona! It is the mind being in service to the heart and not the other way round.
Dianne your sharing here is very powerful, supportive and deeply connecting.
“I could now feel Conscious Presence through every particle and space of my being; as my breath draws it in, it feels like I am being filled with the Love of God and I found this makes all the difference. I feel into the word Consciousness and it invokes an all-encompassing/spherical quality. It is so much more than mental awareness.” Inviting in and being open to the love of God in every moment transforms the function of life’s activities to a flow of living the activities. Which to me means my heart and soul are at the center of my living imprint.
“Inviting in and being open to the love of God in every moment transforms the function of life’s activities to a flow of living the activities. Which to me means my heart and soul are at the center of my living imprint.” what more needs to be said- gorgeous Sandra.
You’ve just expanded life to be so much more than what we believe it to be Sandra. Not confined to see the day to day mundaneness but feel the true living quality of ourselves and God in all we do through the connection with our inner heart and soul. Very powerful
‘Which to me means my heart and soul are at the center of my living imprint’. How beautiful this is Sandra.
Thank you
Great blog Dianne I could really feel the distinction between the two. Ticking boxes is such an easy way to think we are connected and with ourselves but it is still a mental exercise that leaves us short of our true way of being because we are not connected to our body. “Enter Conscious Presence: I found that being aware of my qualities made a great difference.” I have found this makes such a difference too, being aware of the quality with which I do things, how I touch things, am I rushing, all show whether I am connected and moving from my body or from my head.
Appreciation of my qualities’ play a large part in staying present in my body and in the moment, without honoring and appreciation I allow judgmental thoughts and a constant critique from my head to dominate.
Beautifully explained and described Dianne, I felt a stillness in my body after reading your blog, even though my mind is still playing catch up trying to understand what you have presented.
I could feel the difference as I read your blogs, and I recognize that pattern of mental awareness within me too. 😀
I too have a clearer understanding of conscious presence since reading your article Dianne and I thank your for your sharing.
Great insight, the fact that it is very draining when we do one thing and our mind is somewhere else; it is like running two if not more races concurrently and it is very exhausting. And we are generally so used to it that we don’t even consider that there is another way to be, live and do what needs doing.
A fascinating read that asks us to consider the difference between mental and conscious alongside awareness and presence and from that inspire a deeper level of conscious presence that embodies the entirety and not just the mind. Love it.
Thank you Dianne for this simple clear explanation of Conscious Presence. It has made me consider what I am connected to when present. I have never thought about this until now but realise it has mainly been through my mind. I will now be more conscious of connecting to my body as well.
Hi Dianne, perfect timing thank you. I recognise how easy it is for me to wander into mental awareness world and ‘think’ I am being consciously present…doh…so…a little adjustment, to really feel and be with my body as i write this and voila the words appear so easily and mmm the deliciousness of being in my body confirms the difference big time.
It is so easy to go into mental awareness and forget about the embodying aspect that brings to it a spherical, all encompassing experience. And I can really recognise that in my case, I am very good at the mental awareness things, but often find the conscious presence a bit more challenging as it is so much more exposing to where I am at.
‘I found that deepening my Presence was necessary to being more aware of my different qualities and to deepen my qualities I found that being aware of the consciousness through my whole body allowed me to feel and embody the quality.’
Thank you, Dianne, for all that you’ve shared here. What seems to be a subtle distinction on the face of it, is in fact quite a revelation.
We can think we’re practicing conscious presence, but are actually still only in our head, the surrendering to our body and allowing ourselves to feel the quality of our body in all it’s tenderness, or not, is the key. Feeling the flow of connection through our whole being.
I found myself taking my conscious presence to another level yesterday Dianne, thanks to your inspirational sharing. Feeling my whole body resonate when I spoke and connecting to it more deeply is like meeting myself for the first time – meeting ALL of me not just what my mind dishes up! There is a quality of relationship here that I have missed for ‘many sunrises’! I won’t be letting it go because it is leading me to understand the true responsibility I have to bring ALL of me out into the world.
Brilliant testimony to the effects of conscious presence berndaetteglass – very inspiring indeed and I love the new found awareness in the level of responsibility we have to be all of who we are. The world misses out when we keep ourselves hidden in the mind and run my ideals, pictures and images of how we should be. The mind is indeed a grand tool yet the body can deliver the Universe and Heaven on earth.
Wow Rachel, there is something being earthed here in your expression and in what has been shared previously. Until I was introduced to Universal Medicine, I did not have a place or space to share my knowing that we are all connected and equal and could make the world a more loving place. Now I find myself responding to these comments here and it fills me with a joy that is so full and expansive… and I know exactly what my purpose is. Developing my livingness to match my truth and love, is my true work!
“The mind is indeed a grand tool yet the body can deliver the Universe and Heaven on earth.” this is brilliant!
Bodyfullness!!! I Love it.
Superb Rachael. And only the body can do that.
Fabulously inspiring bernadetteglass this is certainly something to forever deepen – our connection and relationship with ourselves and every time we deepen we stop and feel “where have I been before this” and the process continues day after day with more opportunities to deepen and to know ourselves more, and with this kinda commitment the whole world benefits. Beautiful really. I am on to this, don’t try and stop me oh mind of mine!
Superb kathleenbaldwin. I can feel an expansion in what you have expressed. It takes the purpose and responsibility of our lives to another level – who we are absolutely matters and impacts on the quality of the ALL, ALL of the time.
Wow Dianne, thank you for inspiring me to deepen my awareness. I have been practising conscious presence but I was finding it difficult to be consistent. I realise now that I was actually practising ‘Mental Awareness’ not ‘conscious presence’ this makes a huge difference, I was going about it too much from my head. What an awesome reminder!
Awesome Dianne. ‘I found myself still living in my head while my body was carrying out its function’ – I can really relate to this, and I know so many others that live this way too, but if you were to say ‘You just need better conscious presence!’ they would likely look super confused. What you’ve done in this blog on the other hand, is clarified that conscious presence is simply being with ourselves and our body, rather than just ‘mental awareness’, which means focusing and paying attention to what we do instead of wondering about other things whilst carrying out a task.
Thank you Dianne for a great blog making clear the distinction between mental awareness and conscious presence, while mental awareness is a very narrow way of doing, making sure I am getting it right, conscious presence has a whole different feel , a whole body experience of every particle resonating and vibrating with love.
Jill it feels clear from reading your comment that mental awareness is just another form of doing whereas conscious presence is a grander version of being.
Thank you Dianne for the distinction between ‘mental awareness’ and ‘conscious presence’, especially important since mental awareness feels such a great improvement from a racy and all over the place mind which most of start off with, it may seem it as good as it can get. But we can be so much deeper, grander and richer when we are present with our whole being and not just our mental faculties.
What a great distinction of these two ways of being present!! I will be more aware now, if I only tick mental boxes or if I am really connected with my body!
It’s great isn’t it Steffi. We can either tick boxes at a heightened level or foster an experience of a forever spacious bodily experience.
Thanks Dianne for this sharing and bringing our awareness to the difference between the two, and reminding us that our awareness is forever deepening and evolving.
I totally got how how took it from your head to your body ‘I found that deepening my Presence was necessary to being more aware of my different qualities and to deepen my qualities I found that being aware of the consciousness through my whole body allowed me to feel and embody the quality.’ otherwise it is just another mental excercise.
“I found that deepening my Presence was necessary to being more aware of my different qualities and to deepen my qualities I found that being aware of the consciousness through my whole body allowed me to feel and embody the quality.” This sentence is absolutely profound and one I keep coming back to and pondering on. It is beautiful to speak to someone’s qualities as it feels closer to who they truly are. Thank you for sharing.
I feel that mental awareness is very disconnecting and with conscious presence everything can be felt and connected to.
Gorgeous Dianne. The limitless potential of conscious presence you describe is awe inspiring and I felt my whole body in a a new way just reading your blog. Thank you.
Diane, thank you so much for highlighting so clearly the differences between mental awareness and true conscious presence. I have been experimenting / playing with these awarenesses also and completely agree that there is a huge difference between them. For me, if I’m not feeling the exquisiteness of my fingertips and toes, then something is going on in my head to stop me from being fully embodied: as you say, “it had ( has) everything to do with my whole body, every cell of my body.” Having said which, I do find mental awareness is still an awesome entry point to deepening into conscious presence and one I still regularly need to utilise.
Dianne thank you for this great distinction between the oneness of conscious presence and the isolation of mental awareness. For me this also is a deeply profound sharing of the divinity that we are and can live, when we choose to connect to our essence. As when we choose to be consciously present, All that we are, is embodied through our every particle of our being and this divine quality is lived in all that we do.
I like that you have expanded on the difference between conscious presence and mental awareness. I have learned to listen to my body, and in giving attention to the smallest of details I have found incredible a support and wisdom within that i never thought possible.
it is so true Nicole, there is so much support and wisdom around us all of the time, always trying to catch our attention, all we need to do is listen.
great tip/reminder Brendan – thank you
Great exposé of mindfulness, Dianne. With engaging the body, as in conscious presence, there is such depth, fullness and engagement with everything.
I had to revisit this blog, makes a lot of light bulbs go off.
In the end it is all about our choice of energy is it love or is it not. Love is Livingness, it is who we are and not something we do. There are many tools that we can use along the way to support us to reconnect to our Essence and our Livingness. Tools can be useful when they are recognised for what they are but not when we start to think they are it or use them to check out, control or manage our life in some way.
Great distinction you are offering here Dianne. It makes such a difference to observe myself from my head or to actually feel my body and doing things from my body. The connection to the body and being consciously present with it as you describe it is something I too am forever deepening and it is surprising how much detail we are actually able to feel that is going on in the body once we give ourselves the space to do so.
I agree, to connect with our body deeply offers us so much. And from here, a full aware point for what is going on in and through me, I also be more aware of what is going on around me. I am amazed what I become aware of since I practice conscious presence consistently. And it is like you say Judith that I feel I give space for this awareness and with that more space comes into my life. It is like the air around me was full of dust and now it becomes clear and I can see more.
I am loving and feeling what you have written here, Dianne; there feels to be no soul or body connection with mental awareness and its all about soul and body connection with conscious presence. I have been struggling with this lately and you have shown me the way. Thank you.
Thank you Dianne for the clarity that you have brought to this differentiation between conscious presence and mental awareness. It is easy to see how we can fall for the mental awareness/mindfulness route as being it. This is what I have been involved with in many other disciplines from Buddhism to Taoism and many in between, and this is what is encouraged today in aiding those in the corporate world. This is great, however why stop there? Connecting on a bodily level, with our whole being and living from there as we do when we are consciously present brings so much more, as the comments here so beautifully express.
Good point – the ‘mindfulness’ and similar today encouraged in the corporate world is but a starting point. Perhaps now we need to promote ‘bodyfulness’. This feels infinitely wiser – mindfulness feels like a mere scratching of the surface of what is truly possible, and is perhaps designed to keep us at a certain level only.
I like it Victoria – ‘Bodyfulness.’ It could catch on.
It is deeply beautiful and inspiring to read your words “as my breath draws it in, it feels like I am being filled with the Love of God.” This is great medicine.
it feels a quantum leap of a journey that you describe from mental awareness to conscious presence. Reading this description Dianne helps our awareness to feel either end of both states and the place we are at in any given moment, not to criticise ourselves but to get more understanding of the truth.
Such a difference Dianne, between that focussed head space I know as mental awareness as compared to ‘feel Conscious Presence through every particle and space of my being’. There is no way Conscious Presence can be confined to the mind, it is so much bigger and all encompassing of the body, and all the space around it.
Well said simonwilliams8, conscious presence feels much bigger than just the mind, it is the body and all the space around it.
Mental awareness to me feels like a narrowing down of what is available to be understood, a focus on one element of the whole that always surrounds us, while conscious presence opens us up to experience and understand the whole, take in everything that is going on in our environment and respond with ease to situations as they arise.
This is such a great point, and is somethings that we have become masters of and at…narrowing or confining what is presented into channels or boxes that we think we can understand. The problem is we compartmentalise and miss out on the whole picture, without which no true understanding can be brought.
This is also my experience Stephen: mental awareness maintains a narrow, focused, separate, observer perspective, whereas conscious presence brings an expansive, full-bodied aliveness and connection to both the immediate surroundings and a much greater whole.
I would use the example in teaching a group of people, if I am mentally focussed I can bring attention to one thing at a time and give it my attention, but in that I often miss what is going on with certain people or am not aware of a change in behaviour or the responses and actions of individuals, whereas with conscious presence my view is much broader and is able to observe and respond to things as they arise, the picture is bigger, more complete, much more multi-dimensional.
I agree Stephen, and it is only in the body that deeper understanding of all that is going on.
Great example Stephen, mental awareness is limited to ‘me’ and what I need to do and conscious awareness expands as it brings us into relationship with the whole; firstly with our own body and then from there we can feel others and know exactly what is needed .
The ‘ease’ feels to be the key here, that we have an ease with whatever is presented in front of us to deal with and this naturally keeps us living in the moment and knowing of our absolute capabilities within the bigger picture of life and the grand part we can play.
I agree Stephen, the narrowing also does not let us see and feel the love and beauty that constantly surrounds us.
Beautifully Said Doug. Love it!
I agree heartfelt Dianne. I am just back from a daily workshop I’ve given in body-awareness and your blog reads like an advertising article for what I am sharing. I do so because I made the experience about how supportive body-awareness and conscious presents is. To deepen the connection to my body and to develop this connection is key for me to deal with my every day challenges. In fact it deepens my stillness and from here all action is a true movement.
I agree sandra, making space in my day to connect to my body is vital and supports me greatly in dealing with what comes my way. I am becoming more aware that this connection to my body is the foundation from where I live my life and it is great to be reminded that we can always go deeper with developing this connection.
“I found that being aware of the consciousness through my whole body allowed me to feel and embody the quality.” This sentence is gold Dianne. I had to read it several times to ingest and understand it. This speaks of more than just being aware, it speaks of living.
Indeed, it speaks of living, of who we are by the consciousness that is present and active in and through us – quite a dimension breaker.
That is great to talk about the deepening of conscious presence and how it is something our whole bodies can feel. I too feel like I have been on a bit of a tick box exercise rather than deepening the quality of each moment so thank you for giving me the opportunity to keep exploring this more deeply.
Thank you Dianne and Hvmorden, I agree, conscious presence is definitely a moment-to-moment feeling of reconnecting.
“…to deepen my qualities I found that being aware of the consciousness through my whole body allowed me to feel and embody the quality.” Although scanning my body felt better than just allowing my thoughts to wander at will, your presentation of the difference between that mental awareness and conscious presence is simple, thankyou. Feeling me from the inside rather than being aware of body parts from outside.
Dianne, your distinction is beautifully observed. I have found esoteric yoga hugely revealing in this way, allowing deep cellular reflection through simple movements, brings mind and body together into a harmonious flow, stillness in motion.
So true lucindag, Esoteric Yoga is exactly what I was reminded of when I read this article as it really offers us the space to feel into the body and increase the conscious presence with the body and makes us aware of so many details that we can pay attention to.
I agree lucindag. Esoteric Yoga connects us deeply with our body through conscious presence which offers a marker as to the level of connection we have in our general living.
Esoteric yoga has supported me to connect more deeply to my body and its movements. It helps me feel myself as whole. When I am in my head, I am disconnected from my body and this means I am unaware of the messages it is sending me.
Thank you Diane for explaining the difference between mental awareness and conscious presence in such an accessible way. I can really relate to the note taking which I have done plenty of and the amazing ‘all-encompassing/spherical quality’ of conscious presence which I am building and it is lovely to appreciate the difference.
I agree Helen. The two are poles apart and I too can relate to the note taking, but what a difference when I feel my WHOLE body experience conscious presence. Every cell in my body is awake, conscious and connected to something all encompassing.
Thank you Dianne. Your article confirms that we cannot stay stuck in the comfort of thinking we have ‘got there’, there is always a deeper awareness to explore.
Exactly what I was feeling, reading this article Mary, how many times over the past 13 years have I come back to this place of re-assessing my level of conscious presence and realized that I can deepen it further. Every time is like a fresh start, starting all over again. So thank you Dianne for this opportunity of a new beginning to go deeper with myself and with that expand what I can bring to the world.
Thank you Dianne for highlighting the distinction between mental awareness and conscious presence; sometimes a very fine line!
Feeling with every cell of our being, feeling the rhythm and flow of life through our bodies; very different to just using the mind.
Thank you Dianne and Shirl, I agree, ‘feeling the rhythm and flow’ especially when we walk.
An inspiring blog Dianne Hetherington. I love how clearly you differentiate between mental awareness and conscious presence. It has taken me some time to keep being present with the body and let go of the vice like grip of my mental awareness – the difference in my body is profound when in conscious presence and connected to the innate stillness within – every particle feels vibrant from head to toe and the sense of being bigger than the physicalness of my body.
Thank you Dianne for bringing the attention to the distinction there is between being presence with our body in two ways. Although they look generally both being the same, being presence in my body has the distinction that I am really in my body and can feel the divineness of it while being presence from the mind is, as you say, a kind of note taking, being aware of what my body is doing, but more as an observer from outside.
These are really two very different ways and dimensions of awareness. The mind is so limited in its range of awareness compared to the whole-body-mind awareness that we experience with conscious presence.
Absolutely Alex, I feel the difference in awareness is due to the fact that in conscious presence the mind follows the body’s lead rather than dominating and over riding what the body is feeling .
As you say Alex, the whole-body-mind awareness is connecting me with the all, from the microcosmic to the macrocosmic and in feeling that I can feel the grandness where I am part of. Although I do not always appreciate the grandness of the grandness I am part of, I can slowly allow myself to feel that I am that and have to live accordingly. In truth it is the self acceptance of the responsibility that comes with being part of this grandness that forms for me the hurdle I have to take.
I love how you distinguish between conscious presence and mental awareness because as you say they are 2 very different things. Conscious presence requires us to be committed to our bodies and making sure we are connected to your essence before we actually do anything. That way our whole being is involved in all that we are and all that we do.
I agree Elizabeth, I liked how you said: “Conscious presence requires us to be committed to our bodies and making sure we are connected to your essence before we actually do anything. That way our whole being is involved in all that we are and all that we do.” By committing to our bodies we bring a whole body expression in all that we do, rather than just our minds.
Yes Elizabeth and this is what I get from this great blog is that conscious presence requires commitment to our body and to be consistent with this commitment before we do anything.
Yes Elizabeth and when “our whole being is involved in all that we are and all that we do” we are simply ‘being’.
This is a great observation Dianne, and a super important point to bring up for discussion. The mind is very skilled at tricking us into thinking, instead of feeling and if we are in mental awareness, (which these days is championed as the desired state of ‘mindfulness’) the mind is going to convince us that we are consciously presence ‘cause this is what the mind does best – deceive us. But once conscious presence is felt one knows that this state is in fact the polar opposite as it is a whole body awareness that comes from the intelligence of the body and while the other is a mental awareness that has the mind running the show.
Great blog Dianne and good too to read the further distinction here Kathleen.
Kathleenbaldwin I love what you have shared and it helped me to feel the narrowed hardness that comes with mindfulness compared to the loving expansion that accompanies conscious presence.
So true Alexis, conscious presence creates space while mindfulness is more like mine- field-ness!
Beautifully put Kathleen, I have practiced lots of mindfulness, and it is exactly as the word sounds Mind-full-ness and or Full-of Mind, rather than being connected to our bodies and allowing and listening to the wisdom within.
Dianne and Kathleen what a way to start the day. Exposed is the way that has been championed as being the ‘the way’ with mindful awareness. This tool is exactly as you have both described it but with the clarity of how you have shared it I haven’t fully understood it for what it is. What a Revelation. But what I have felt before and know this to be true is when I am fully connected to your body and the quality of my being and simply accepting that this Glory is more than I ever need – I can feel the way I express and move through life in this connection there is no thinking at all required just embracing the quality of who I naturally am. This is and awesome reminder, thank you.
Yes Natalie the energy that is saved when we are not lost in our heads is bankable.
Thank you Dianne and Kathleenbaldwin, I agree, mind-full-ness of the body as it is going about it activity during the day, sure does make a huge difference.
I agree Kathleen, relying on mindfulness is a trick as it keeps us going around in circles in our heads never getting to the root cause of anything, whereas conscious presence is a whole body experience where we create space by connecting to our innate quality within us of gentleness and delicateness as that is who we are.
Spot on Francisco. We can trust the body when it speaks to us as we feel the truth of what it is letting us know but we can never trust the mind as it will over ride our body’s messages to get what it wants, which is usually identification in one way or the other.
As I opened up my computer this morning I saw and felt my hands completely differently. They are delicate, elegant, sweet and powerful – all of which they always have been…the difference today is that I can see and feel all of this because of the care and appreciation I have been building in my life and for my body – my greatest guide and advisor. Then I get to read this article ‘Mental Awareness v Conscious Presence’ and something very precious is confirmed.
Beautiful matildaclark.
Dianne reading your blog for the second time I got a sense that true conscious presence is knowing God in the body.
What a beautiful way to put it Alexis. Conscious presence is my way of building my relationship with God and this is something that I can do all day every day if I choose to.
Beautifully said, Alexis – Knowing God in the body. I feel that too.
That is a beautiful way of putting it Alexis. Conscious presence develops our inner connection and it is only through this inner connection that we can get to know God. Conscious presence offers our body space and within that space we can feel God.
That’s gorgeous, I can really feel what you have shared.
Spot on Alexis, that’s what it feels like to me.
Beautifully said Alexis “true conscious presence is knowing God in the body.”
I love the simplicity and grandness of this recognition. Thank you Alexis. I feel this too, that I can choose to move and be in line with the livingness of God in my body.
That says it all, thank you Alexis. How amazing it would be to have a planet populated by people who all know God in their bodies.
In conscious presence, every moment is a check in on my relationship with God and then a choice to either confirm and deepen or abandon that relationship.
I find that it also supports me with my relationship with myself as I slowly learning more and more about my body and then yes in time begin to understand that my body is part of something much grander, God.
Dianne what a great expose on the difference between mental awareness and conscious presence. There is much to ponder for me as a student of the Way of the Livingness. Thank you.
You make a very important distinction and I can feel the difference between mental awareness and its relative coldness compared to the rich all over feeling of conscious presence – but then, we have to start somewhere and it is certainly a forever deepening development.
Yes Gabriele, you make a great point it is a forever deepening. I remember starting with the mental awareness as well just focusing thinking about what I was doing. Now it feels more as bringing in my whole body and feeling the quality of me in what I do. With this blog I understand there will always be a deepening as our awareness grows and expands.
I agree Gabriele…having our mind present with what we are doing is a start when so many live life at the mercy of what is going on around them.
Well said Gabriele, it all is a development, so there is no right or wrong; it’s just where one is at. That’s beautiful.
Dianne you have brought an aliveness to the term ‘conscious presence’ and in doing so have helped deepen my understanding. I thank you.
I deeply appreciate this too.
Thanks Dianne, this has brought up an opportunity to check-in and observe in which state I am holding myself. I have never before reflected on the co-relation between the two different ways but I am sure now that I slip in to one and some times the other. Great blog
Thank you for your sharing Dianne, you have really exposed the falseness of ‘mindfulness’. It simply feels so unpleasant when I’m stuck in my head. When I feel connected to my body and the grace it brings, I experience true joy that no thought could ever conjure up.
Thank you katechorley, you have reminded me that there have been moments throughout my day that I experience true joy in my body. I am learning to connect to this more and more. I find that my ability to connect to conscious presence is hugely affected by my choices, I notice this is especially with food. It’s amazing to be aware that my every choice affects my connection with myself and with God.
You just made me realise the obvious that these two words – conscious presence – are not randomly put together just to make it sound good. Love the sense of multi-dimensionality you are introducing here – feeling words with my entire body, as opposed to keeping it as a mental concept.
Having lived for so long with my mind and my body in two very different places so much of the time – I was a master in mind wandering – I can easily relate to the comparisons that you have shared here Dianne. To be in conscious presence is as you say: “feels like I am being filled with the Love of God “, it feels like everything has come to a gentle stop and the stillness and the wisdom available in this divine moment is endless.
I too had become a master at letting my mind wander or just simply go blank and stare into a daze. I remember when I first started practising conscious presence I would have to constantly blink my eyes several times to break the daze I found myself in.
I agree Ingrid, it creates so much more space and hence time expands.
Thank you Dianne for such a beautifully and clearly expressed distinction between mental awareness and conscious presence.
Being aware of our quality of being from within the body and how it feels whilst we do what we do, and if the quality’s at-ease, find we are already breathing gently. Beautiful confirmation of everything working together under quality.
Great distinction here Dianne. The mind can’t feel the soul. I’m really beginning to understand that in my body as I feel more and more the quality of my being underneath the outer layer of the thought process.
Wow Dianne, articulating that fine difference is very useful. Yes feeling from within the whole body is so different.
Thank you Dianne. For me, there is a huge difference between mental awareness and conscious presence. Mental awareness feels like some that I do at times from my mind while conscious presence feels like a way that I am with myself, it feels like a whole body experience. When I go into my head, I know I have lost conscious presence and while I can use my mind to bring focus to what I am doing, only through connecting with my body can I be truly present.
There is a lovely warm quality that embraces our bodies when we are in conscious presence. It is a beautiful marker for us all just as your blog is Diane. Thank you.
Indeed, what you describe are two different ways of presence. Really interesting for myself to take that in my day and see how my presence is – whether mental or conscious e.g. from the whole body.
Diane thank you for sharing your experience of true conscious presence. I had felt this myself but never put it in words. I can feel as I type the huge difference in just being present and being present while feeling the lovely way I am typing with my fingers and love I feel in my heart.
One just connects you to the moment and the other expands you in a way that the moment does not feel like it exists.
Sharon you have raised an interesting point here. Once you connect and feel your amazing quality “moments don’t feel like they exist” for me as there is a flow and ease with what I am doing. Nothing is complex when fully present.
It’s interesting Dianne – my mind is searching your blog for the ‘how to’ of conscious presence! It makes it obvious to me that we cannot understand quality from the mind, it is a lived state that we feel.
This is a great example of how we can go through life thinking we have got it all sorted out – but really we are missing a whole other layer that changes everything we think we know.
Thanks for sharing this.
Thankyou for this beautiful clarification Dianne. The depth of your understanding and appreciation for yourself is gorgeous and very inspiring.
Dianne, what a wonderful article to simply describe the differences between ‘mindfulness’ or mental awareness which is the buzz word at the moment and conscious presence. By focusing on your qualities and thereby appreciating, consolidating and confirming them with conscious presence you are in effect allowing more of your being to shine. What a Light-house you are beaming to the world. Thank you, Dianne.
When you are consciously present, you have your mind and body working together and they make a great team and you feel great. When you’re in your mind only you disconnect from your body and it’s very draining.
Thankyou Dianne (A.O.G) for your insights into mental awareness and conscious presence. This has been very supportive to read both to clarify and deepen my understanding of what conscious presence is.
Same here Melinda. I was not aware of the two and their vast differences. This has made me rethink how I have been consciously present with myself… and still learning.
There is a freedom felt when we devote to being present to the quality of our whole being, our bodies move and express in a deepening love which reflects how truly beautiful we all are.
Diningwithoneandwithlove I got to feel from your comment how conscious presence integrates us with the whole and mindfulness keeps us in separation from the whole. As Rachel shared earlier mindfulness has it’s place but if we stop at mindfulness then we stop short of our connection with God, it’s like a holding dock.
Wonderful sharing, to me this shows us how mental awareness is limited and actually no connecting us to our whole body, which is so important. I too have found that by focussing on my mental awareness I actually not consider my whole body, therefore I become fragmented and not full, therefore I am leaving an opening and causing to not be truly present. Good wake up shake up, and always to feel if any tool truly connects you to the whole you or just leaves you less than that.
You provide a great clarification on what conscious presence is and isn’t and your description of how you have learned to connect to it is really helpful: ‘I found that deepening my Presence was necessary to being more aware of my different qualities and to deepen my qualities I found that being aware of the consciousness through my whole body allowed me to feel and embody the quality.’ I could feel myself dropping into a deeper awareness as I followed you through your description! Thanks, Dianne.
Dianne – thank you for your elucidating blog speaking of Mental Awareness versus Conscious Presence. There is much wisdom in your expression and much to ponder on.
I do recall those times when the mantra seemed to be falling from everybody’s lips in the spiritual new age following about ‘mindfullness’ – interesting and descriptive word I find, and I can now see the difference between focussing on all things from the mind, and presence – and conscious presence to me feels as though my whole body is alive and responding to my choices of how I move, behave, respond, speak, walk etc. in response to Soul – still a work in progress I might say, however, being in presence feels so true.
What you have shared is the evolution from conscious presence to presence. For me it also raises awareness of the many false versions of conscious presence we have on offer. We have things like the power of now and mindfulness, which carry some of the truth of what conscious presence and presence can deliver. However without the fullness of connection with the body from within each cell and the intention to surrender to the soul it is an empty solution.
Thanks Dianne – this is a blog I’m sure I will come back to re-read in the future as it carries much for me to consider. I realised as I was reading that what I have been doing is a lot more like mental awareness than conscious presence. Conscious presence definitely has a different quality and I can feel the shift within myself as I move from my head to noticing and feeling my presence through the interconnectedness within my body. I also reflected on how much of the self help literature these days places a heavy emphasis on ‘mindfulness’ and how far off track this actually takes people as they dutifully go about training themselves to mentally check in with themselves as to how they are going.
I recently discovered for myself the same. That I too practised conscious presence with my mind. And that indeed this is (a form of) checked-outness. Realising this meant to be very honest to myself and asking myself how much I truly have been consciouly present… Not a lot. And in fact is that if I do not feel myself, I am actually looking for myself in whatever I do. This makes the need of recognition and acceptance very easy to understand. What I found the absolute Beauty of conscious presence is the fact that everything feels truly spherical. Before this was only a word to me without a lived meaning. Now I’ve felt it. And it’s Beautiful.
This is a great distinction in how there is choice to always be made between the very limiting mental field that we can operate from, or the ever available and all expansive conscious presence.
Agree Shami – there is an emptiness in one and in the other a full embodiment.
Dianne, thank-you for bringing understanding to the difference between mental awareness and conscious presence. You clearly reveal the benefits of choosing true conscious presence and not draining or tricking ourselves into thinking we are fully connected to our bodies when we are in fact, not.
Your explanation Dianne has just shed a light on my awareness of Conscious Presence, as I feel also I have the note taker a lot of the time but can think of times when I also know Conscious Presence, for example when I paint I am very aware of the quality I am and I can feel it deeply. Now to bring that to every particle all of the time.
A great distinction between the two — mental awareness and conscious presence — are being made here Dianne. Thank you.
This is a really significant blog Dianne, in exploring the differences between mental awareness and conscious presence as they are not the same. To be aware of our actions is one thing but to experience them from our body is another. Living from the body rather than the mind is also something I am exploring and it brings with it a totally different way of experiencing the world. One that comes from the wisdom and knowing that is ever present in the body.
This is so beautiful Dianne and such a superb education on the difference between being mentally awarene and fully consciousness. The distinction has truly encapsulated the different processes and for me, highlighted just how limiting being mentally aware is, because it means I can only remain in my head, rather than embarking on the awesome journey of discovering my inner qualities as a result of choosing conscious presence. And remaining conscious is not an easy task when my head is so very used to wandering off down other avenues, but the more I choose to stay with and feel my body, the more I am beginning to feel and appreciate my true qualities. Thank you for sharing your growing consciousness about conscious presence!
Thanks for sharing the difference between Mental Awareness and Conscious Presence. You have given me food for thought and made me ponder between the two… perhaps what I thought was conscious presence has been mental awareness after all? On connecting to the word ‘Conscious’ there is a deeper depth in my body and to feel it I have to surrender and let go, as I do so it feels like my whole body is breathing not just my lungs.
Mental awareness vs Conscious Presence – awesomely expressed Dianne. Mental awareness is actually ticking boxes and true Conscious Presence is a rhythm we can feel in our bodies. It is like when you just learned to drive a car, it takes times till the mental aware actions just become a bodily experience and you can feel when to change the gear.
Great sharing on the difference between mental – and conscious awareness. I know which one I prefer for the connection it brings to God, Soul, myself and all others.
Thank you Dianne for sharing your experience of distinguishing between mental awareness and true conscious presence. It has definitely made me realise that most of the time I have been practicing ‘mental awareness’ as I am also doing the ticking off in my head, of my thoughts being with what I am doing. There is a lot to ponder on here and I feel to read this a few times to truly understand all you have shared.
Yes Aimee, I can relate to what you say, there is definitely more for me to look at and to go deeper here.
Yes, it’s easy to ‘think’ we are in conscious presence when we are staying focussed on a task but we can still be disconnected from our bodies, coming from our heads. What i can feel is how conscious presence has a quality that I connect to from and in my entire body, i feel my quality, my essence in what it is I am doing. If I do not have this connection I know I’m not in conscious presence.
This is such an important distinction to make Dianne. Mental awareness is a great initiating point for the busy person with the racy mind. It brings a focus that regathers us to a point. There is however a far deeper place to occupy in our body – so rich and encompassing. Mental awareness helps us get to a point where we can surrender to that depth. It is not the depth in and of itself.
This blog helps us to understand why mindfulness doesn’t get us to a place of deep inner connection and knowing.
Beautifully said Rachel. Dianne’s blog has taken me to a deeper level of consciousness by making the distinction between Mental Awareness and Conscious Presence. I am appreciating the opportunity to ponder more deeply being and living in conscious presence in my life.
Rachel your comment’s reminded me of the fact that I can choose to continually evolve – or not. Like I could stay with thinking mental awareness is it or is enough but then I’ll not be aware of what it is to be consciously present, but then conscious presence does not have an end point but continually expands when I choose to be open.
What is so interesting Karin is that when we stay at a certain level of awareness, we are actually putting up a fight to hold it. Conscious presence requires the application of will, but uses less energetic effort than mental awareness and it opens us to far greater levels of understanding about life. It is an ever expansive gift that we lose out on when we fight to maintain what we think is enough…a fight against evolution.
beautifully said Rachel and important to highlight the fact that there are steps to be taken. We cannot jump from being checked out and mentally driven to being conscious present in one go and it is important to support ourselves in every step we take with love and understanding. At the same time your comment highlights that the next step we take, although it may be revealing and absolutely awesome compared to where we came from, it is not ‘it’ and that these steps we are taking are forever unfolding.
Our bodies are subtle and refined and pick up on an array of complex signals that pour in to it constantly. The mind, for all of its cleverness, cannot be as clever as the body that is always feeling in such a nuanced way and instantly making sense of all of the signals.
It is so lovely when we start to get our mind to listen to the vast reservoir of wisdom… living just underneath it.
Conscious presence is a precious tool that supports me to be with me so I may enjoy my own company and the grace and quality of my movements.
Beautifully said Marcia. Conscious presence is what enables me to be fully with me, the grace of who I am when I do whatever it is that I do. When I’m in conscious presence all of my movements and my breath are in pure grace.
Beautifully said Marcia. I love being able to enjoy my own company and to enjoy how gorgeous I feel when being still and in my body. Until you try it for yourself, it’s just weird words on a page, but the loveliness that is there when I allow the quality of grace to be felt by me is really special and is definitely conscious presence.
I enjoyed how Marcia and Katerina described conscious presence using the word grace. The grace of you!
This so beautiful Dianne and I appreciate the refinement you have made from mental awareness to consciousness; choice of consciousness first then the quality that supports your divinity. A simple choice that makes all the difference. I have deepened my presence whilst reading your blog. Thank you
I have too Bernadetteglass. I am noticing the quality of my fingers as I type. And feeling the blanket that is covering my feet, and feeling how my feet feel because of this!
Dianne I loved reading your blog, there is such a difference to being mentally aware and present in my body. When i started my journey from my head back down to my body I had a period of thinking (!) I was feeling and in hindsight I have called this ‘sensitive thinking” It is very different form feeling from your body. Esoteric Yoga has been a great support for me in coming back into my body.
I love it Carolien! “Sensitive Thinking”. I first tried esoteric yoga at a retreat held by Universal Medicine a few years ago and was gob-smacked by how simple but effective it was for me. I had never really felt that my fingers had a quality to them, but give the body space, and it will talk all day 🙂
‘sensitive feeling’ – thank you for sharing this Carolien. As I read each person’s contributions to this blog and thread, I feel myself moving to a deeper level of awareness which is in my body and not in my head. It’s a familiar feeling which just confirms to me that the wisdom of the body is immortal.
Precisely Dianne, feeling the quality in which we do what we do brings the difference. Once we allow ourselves to really observe and feel that, we are not able to trick ourselves into believing what might suit us instead of seeing what is truly going on. A massive groundbreaking change that offers us enormous chances to really change our lives.
Yes Michael, feeling the quality makes it easy to get out of the mind and into the body where all the real decisions are made and where the real truth comes from 🙂
Thank you for writing this Dianne. It is exactly what I needed to read and has helped me enormously.
I felt the same reading this article too, that it was just what I have needed to read. There is always a next step, or deeper level to move on to.
I love the way we support each other to evolve, to deepen our understanding and awareness. Every single one of us (humanity) has a unique viewpoint of life and therefore every single one of us is needed for the whole picture to be seen. All we have to do is be open to the inspiration when it comes and from wherever it comes.
Oh, Yeah! Thank you for bringing this distinction out and making it so clear. Once again, the importance of the quality we choose to live with is shown to be so very important and so very powerful when brought to consciousness.
Yes, I agree Naren. This blog so beautifully highlights the difference between ‘mental awareness’ and ‘conscious presence’ inspiring me to connect to this quality of being in my everyday living.
This beautiful piece on the evolving nature of conscious presence reflects the evolution possible in every part of life if we choose to stay consciously present.
Yes. Every moment and movement is actually an opportunity for this.
I love how you explore the difference between mental awareness and conscious presence, it really made me ponder. The difference is quite huge and like you, I might think that I am actually fully present, but when the whole of our being is not with it, then it stays a mental state of being. Something to explore for myself and experiment with!
This is true for me too Mariette. I have been more aware that I can oscillate between mental awareness and conscious presence. Each feels very different in my body. This for me is an area to explore more.
Yes, I have some observing to ponder on too. It is very interesting how we can get easily tricked into thinking we are consciously present but in fact we are not.
Yes me to Mariette, I have been exploring too and hence come back to this blog because it is something I want to give more of my energy too. I have mostly been building my trust to allow my body to align to this way and act on it, my qualities, and expand what and how amazing they are. Unfortunately if I think from my head my qualities are disregarded.
“I could now feel Conscious Presence through every particle and space of my being…” Conscious presence is very much a whole body experience. Thanks for a beautiful explanation of the difference Dianne.
I agree. A whole body experience and an emanation of all the love we are.
Dianne Hetherington, Angel of God 🙂 (love this x) your blog expresses how richly divine life can be when we are truly present and aware of our consciousness. I realising how different this is to making mental notes of whether we are ticking the boxes for supposed concious presence which seems to me, by its very activity, necessitates being out of ones body to check on what’s going on inside ones body. A great sharing of what conscious presence is really about.
Yes such a great sharing to support you to make a stronger commitment and choice to be Consciously Presence.
Dianne, wow. I know that mental awareness you speak of, it’s been with me for a long time and it’s very different to conscious presence, as that is more a full body embodiment rather than the tick box exercise of mental awareness you describe here. I’d never truly considered them as distinct until reading this, but I recognised it immediately when I read it, and this new understanding feels very supportive to allow me to feel and live more conscious presence rather than that mental awareness. Mental awareness feels like the first step, but the true connection and deepening only comes with conscious presence.
Well said monicag2, I feel the same, this blog is very supportive for us to look a bit deeper and discern what we are really doing, and what quality we are really choosing.
Worse than mental presence is the choice to not be present at all. A common stance by many today and one that remains the accepted norm in a world that is yearning to understand what the body is so evidently presenting to us all every day. And that is the truth about how to live a rich and wholly-well quality of life. Living the wisdom of what the body shows us each day can only be a good thing so being present with it is a truly wise choice to make.
Diane thanks for sharing how you are deepening the connection to yourself through conscious presence. I can still get caught up in my head but when I fully surrender there is a quality that is unmistakable, and I can relate to that whole body experience you talk about.
Thank you Dianne. Yes it is being aware of and feeling our inner qualities that definitely makes the difference. Thank you so much for this reminder. We can have a list of things that we think we should be doing or feeling and allowing those to dictate the way we behave BUT, feeling the ease and expansiveness in our bodies when we aren’t putting ourselves under pressure or rushing or trying really leaves us feeling who we truly are – and it’s ABSOLUTELY Divine!
This is beautiful Dianne. I will carry this with me and bring the understanding of conscious presence to my body. Today I felt that the embodiment of this is what I need to be more aware of and you have put exactly that into words. Thank you.
Great sharing. There are so many techniques around to control our mind and with this our body, but as you share it is always a mental exercise and there is a certain hardness to it and lots of discipline. With the Gentle Breath Meditation http://www.unimedliving.com/meditation/essentials/using-the-gentle-breath-meditation-to-develop-conscious-presence.html I learned that it is about quality, the quality we live in and the quality we hold our body in and then our awareness comes from this quality. With the Gentle Breath Meditation I introduced gentleness into my body and this quality than expands into everything. Conscious presence is a lived quality and not a control of the mind and therefore it is not a technique but a way to live.
Thank you Dianne for this reminder to stop and feel. As I let myself be in my presence whilst reading this, it was like my body slowed down and I came into myself. It’s a big difference to mental awareness.
Absolutely Dianne the distinction is all about the whole, accessed through our connection to stillness in motion. Something no amount of mental awareness can contact.
Beautiful and simple. I have also experienced this difference between “mental awareness” and conscious presence. With conscious presence I feel it is ALL of me doing something, every cell as you say. And I like how you said you can feel your ‘qualities’, this I also find very helpful. When I am present, I feel power-full, joy-full and knowing.
I also find this very helpful Harry, ‘I like how you said you can feel your ‘qualities’, this is the difference for me between mental awareness and conscious presence, if I can feel my qualities of love, stillness and tenderness then I feel present and connected and it feel effortless, so feeling these qualities in my body for me is key. Mental awareness to me doesn’t feel lovely in my body.
I’ve lived in my head for so long it’s like theres this disconnection from all that is around that mind, even the body attached to the head. But what I am re-learning is that none of this is true, however breaking down these lies has and does take time. What this blog has highlighted for me is that it’s one thing to focus on the body and how it feels but to then take it deeper – what is the quality of this feeling? and what are the qualities of the movements and thoughts as a result? Thank you Dianne.
Yes Leigh Matson I love how this blog goes deeper. Describing how it is brings awareness to the fact there is another way. Like you say Leigh this takes a commitment then-after if you accept this. Its not so easy but it is simple. Trusting yourself and going for something that is true brings you more opportunity to discover more of the same. Consciousness Presence offers you more, and if you do not take it it just becomes mental awareness until you accept and go for more.
This is beautiful Dianne and I know the difference you are talking about in my body. When I just tick the boxes it is more on auto pilot instead of appreciating the qualities I live and feel my presence.
I agree Annelies – There is only one box to tick – align to your inner-heart!
Many of us have fallen into the trap of aligning our mind to what we do thinking we are consciously present but we are not. I love how you clearly define the difference between conscious presence and mental awareness Dianne
“In staying Consciously Present (as much as I can) there is no more note taking,” I can feel the joy in this. It is our natural way of being to be consciously present with God.
What a great sharing, and very exposing of mindfulness and the essential emptiness of that exercise. It is so much more to be with God in each breath!
” As I went about the activities of my day there was this mental note taker making sure that I was ….. “, ” There was still a disconnection from my body.” I love this and can so relate to this. It’s letting go of that control. I find at times I can be in my head making mental notes and with that can come judgement, control, drive, and making things heavy and intense. When I bring awareness there is a lightness, a joy and simplicity as I observe life and enjoy being me. I can observe what’s not me with clarity.
This is a great point I have not really considered before. conscious awareness for me is the ability to be aware of my environment at any given time. i.e. a tension in the room or the stillness in a room. Conscious awareness allows me to be constantly open and fully in consideration of everything around me.
Thank you Dianne, a great distinction to make and understand and more importantly, to make your livingness.
Great point here that conscious presence is much more than mental awareness or mindfulness. Being fully conscious of our presence to me means feeling everything we are and everything we bring in every moment. I agree Dianne that our presence and consciousness is much more than our brain.
Dianne, your blog is a joyous confirmation of what I am noticing more and more lately. The movement of my body is aligning to the quality and essence I feel from within which offers more room to move and express with such grace and wisdom, truly divine.
Awesome description between the differences of the two – Nailed it Angel Dianne 🙂
Yes I agree, totally nailed it. I had been feeling the same for some time, having done lots of yoga and meditation, you develop that level of mental awareness, bringing your mind back when it wonders off, and then a few years ago, meeting Serge and Universal Medicine and a whole new level of presence introduced in my body, and what a big difference it makes, it is completely different, full and expanded and connected to something really huge in ourselves, a new experience that I treasure (and not just paying attention with our brain).
This is a great distinction Dianne. Once we choose what energy we will align to, consciousness permeates every pore of our being and body thus influencing every thought and movement made thereafter. The question is always: do we choose that which is love OR do we choose that which is not? Conscious presence is a full-bodied response that comes from choosing love as the impulsing energy. Mental awareness belongs to the other basket, as a mental exercise tends to leave the body behind. A body that is left behind cannot be sourced from an energy that is love, as love by its very nature is spherical and as such makes sure its every part and particle is working in tune to the entire whole. We can’t have one part of our body moving to the rhythm of love and another not. It is pretty much all or nothing, although with every moment comes another chance to choose, so we could be choosing love one moment, but not the next. Conscious presence is the ability to consistently choose love so that all parts of body and being are able to move in symphony together. It is the choice to live the All in every breath to the best of our ability.
I really had to take a real look at what I have been practicing over the years and have to admit before reading this article I was never conscious that there was a difference between the two, conscious presence and mental awareness so what you say here Dianne makes real sense.
I agree kevmchardy – it’s great to distinguish the difference between conscious presence and mental awareness.
What an interesting subject to explore Dianne – mental awareness v conscious presence… it enabled me to reflect that up until a few years ago, I had plenty of mental awareness, but was totally exhausted by it! I was very much ‘in my head’ and ‘thinking (a lot!) and this required a lot of energy, so no wonder I was exhausted! To me conscious presence is simply being connected with our bodies, and is a ‘feeling’ rather than a ‘thinking’… the former (feeling) is in fact our natural way of being, so when I am consciously present, I am with my body in what I am doing and therefore not fighting against it, so this has much more flow, and does not result in the drain that coming from my head does.
Thank you Dianne, this is such an important distinction to make. I immediately thought of the ‘mindfulness’ craze that is sweeping the world at the moment. There is a vast difference between this (mindfulness) and the quality of conscious presence, where the entire body is included, as is the quality of the breath and therefore the quality of the entire being. I love you commenting on feeling every cell, as every cell is affected by the quality we choose. Gotta love soulful cells:))
Thank you Dianne, in the Netherlands ‘mindfulness’ is quite popular but I have never felt drawn to it. Your blog explains that the mental awareness is ‘nothing’ compared to our body awareness that is a million times more sensitive, universal and spherical. I love practicing conscious presence for feeling my preciousness, grace and divinity in my every move and thought is so very magical.
Beautiful Dianne. I feel I am more mentally aware than consciously present in my practice, but this insightful blog is inspiration to commit further and deeper, knowing that the true connection and joy you feel awaits me on my path. Thank you.
So is mental awareness also known as mindfulness? This seems to be a big thing at the moment but as you say Dianne, there is no connection to the body, and when we consider that we live in our bodies it makes sense that we want to have that connection. The more aware we are of how our bodies feel the easier it is to make choices that allow us to feel optimally well. Being mentally aware cannot give us this connection that conscious presence allows, a quality I have found that allows one great choice after another to flow from my body through my mind.
Dianne thank you for you sharing on mental awareness v conscious presence. For me I find I go into, what I understand metal awareness to be, whenever I am trying to be present – its certainly hard work. Yet in the allowing, feeling, being with my body with whatever is in front of me I get a deeper feeling and connection with myself what I understand conscious presence to be. A great reminder of the simplicity in something that we often make so complicated.
I feel the simplicity is the give away as to which of the two we are in, David: if it has any complication, then it’s mental because the real presence just is…
Dianne you make such an important distinction here between mental presence and conscious presence. I have never really clocked that there could be confusion between the two but how you describe conscious presence compared to what you thought it was is deeply significant.
Thank you Dianne for highlighting the difference between the two as I can feel I can still be in mental awareness thinking I am in conscious presence when in fact the quality between them is very different.
Dianne, I agree with you that it is so easy to mentalise things like consciousness, presence and thus change them from what they truly are to something lesser that we can control and manipulate and thus fool ourselves with. A great realisation you have had and thank you for sharing.
Dianne, this is just gorgeous to feel. Thank you for so well explaining the difference between mental awareness and conscious presence – it opens up a whole new way of being for me.
Thank you Dianne for explaining what conscious presence is or rather how it feels. I hadn’t made a difference between conscious presence and mental awareness before, but it does make so much sense.
Feeling present in your body is such a great feeling. I wished someone has taught me this as a child, because when you are present you really know exactly who you are, it’s all there inside you and you can’t deny it.
Such a short and simple blog about a really BIG difference between two phrases we pass back and forth like a ping pong ball.
That’s a great comment Gayle, yes, just like a ping pong ball bouncing around instead of deeply felt conscious presence.
Just gorgeous to read Dianne, it was super healing to feel the shift you made from mental awareness to conscious presence by being aware of your qualities, and as I read this I knew exactly what you meant. I am also much more aware of my precious qualities, especially my womanly presence; my stillness, my solidness, my sexyness, my gracefulness, my innocence and the angelic child I was born.
I agree with you jacqmcfadden04j, and your Qualities, and we have not met – I can feel them. Thats the difference between someone’s quality and not – you can feel what they bring and it is totally inspiring !
Wow Dianne, just reading your words and typing this reply I can feel the difference you describe in my body. So many articles exist in the world on mindfulness and the power of presence. But bringing in to the equation the quality and consciousness we are aligned to in every cell of our body is fundamentally different. A great blog and brilliant distinction to make.
Great comment Joseph – helped me to go that next step further into the consciousness and what energy underpins everything we are doing, rather than just sticking to a more temporal and superficial understanding of the blog.
Yes, so awesome Joseph and Simon! How important is it to describe what the real meaning of words are especially when you can compare it and bring a strong relation like the body to it — the marker of truth.
I have also been pondering on that difference for a while, and I totally agree with you. There is a level of being mentally present, making sure the mind does not wonder off, that is what you call mental awareness, and there is something else, the beauty and never ever felt before tremendous all encompassing quality of being present with the body, it is such a full experience that one wants to live in it all the time, and also runs away from it, as it dissolves individuality, drama, identification.
I agree juliamanbos – one is called self-love and the other is the quality of the inner-heart !
I can feel how you describe the mental awareness as something I’ve practised too Dianne. It feels better than we previously had, so it’s easy to think that it’s conscious presence. Having an awareness of every particle of the whole body is a quality to be felt and to embody wth every breath feels a totally different way to be.
Yes Gillrandall, it’s like the mental awareness is a stepping stone to the vastness of how we can be in conscious presence.
Beautifully expressed, Thank you Gillrandall.
This is so beautiful Dianne and so clear and true. The difference between mental awareness and conscious presence is so vast and so fundamentally different,divine and beautiful. Thank you for this inspiring sharing and the truth it brings and ability to discern for ourselves. Being aware of ones whole body all encompassing, spherical and how we all truly are with every breath being the love of God.
There is so much out there today championing mindfulness, however mindfulness does just that, keeps us in the mind and may never open us to connecting to our soul. Practising conscious presence delivers a true connection to the body and through a loving connection to our body we can access the soul.
Yes so true Donna, and by having access to our soul we have access to all of life.
I love that Donna – Conscious presence = Soul accessibility
Well said Donna. In fact the two are polar opposites. One relies on the intelligence of the body while the other has the mind running the show prepared to override what the body is feeling if it suits it’s means. It is the difference between feeling and thinking.
Its big what your saying kathleenbaldwin. If the mind is overriding the body on purpose to run the show, then what is the capability of the body if we listened to it. Two more questions:
Who or what is running the mind?
What is the body aligned to?
Absolutely Donna and it feels like the championing of mindfulness is another device to keep us from reconnecting to our souls.
A great point to make Helen! Mindfulness has taken off in a big way but it is not having much of a profound impact in real terms. I know people who have practiced it but are still in the anxiousness of life as they are still not able to connect to themselves in full and let go. When we can connect to the body and really feel the gorgeousness that is there then we can get underneath all that and appreciate our essence.
Indeed Donna, the word mindfulness itself is pretty revealing, it points to the body being full of the mind, full of outcomes and endless complexity. The very state that keeps us away from accessing the universal intelligence of our bodies.
Thank you Dianne.
Lovely Dianne, what you have written is very interesting,’I found that being aware of my qualities made a great difference.’ I can feel that sometimes I do the note taking – the mental awareness, such as ‘am i thinking of something else or am i focussing on the task?’ and then other times I feel my femininity, my tenderness and loveliness and this feels like conscious presence – these qualities feel very full and very different, great to be aware of the difference between mental awareness and conscious presence, thank you.
This is a great explanation of the difference between mindfulness and conscious presence Dianne. Thank you.
An awesome distinction Dianne, I too feel I still get caught in the mental awareness but actually coming back to the quality with which you live, move and breath in your body makes a lot of sense. I find the more I feel into my body and actually become aware of how it is in that moment the more I am able to come back to me. Still feels like there is lots to explore and discover in how we are with ourselves in each moment.
This is gorgeous Dianne. I am finding too that the quality I move and breathe with makes all the difference. It brings my body alive rather than just being a cold mental exercise.
So true Rebecca. Conscious presence is a whole body experience, the way we move, breathe and express can all be done with presence … or not.
I am pondering now whether this is also the difference between honesty (a great starting point) and truth (the real deal)…
Great point Matilda. Conscious Presence is a great and valuable tool just like honesty and the Gentle Breath Meditation so long as they are recognised as being the bridge or stepping stones that they are.
Beautifully expressed Rebecca Turner. Its your full expression and commitment to what and how your expression should be delivered. The quality does not leave anyone less.
This is very interesting, being truly conscious of that what is going on everywhere with our whole body, or just clocking it with our mind. Never before looked at that, but can feel the difference, the first doesn’t take the effort it sometimes take to continuously clock that what is going on. The first is true presence.
This article has really exposed the trap of ‘mindfulness’ as it keeps us a prisoner of our minds and in disconnection to our heart and therefore all of life.
There can be a value in being aware with our mind as long as we know it is a stepping stone to The Livingness – http://www.unimedliving.com/the-livingness/what-is-the-livingness/what-is-the-livingness.html. The issue is not choosing mindfulness, but thinking that it is the end point .
This is a great point Nicola, thank you.
So beautiful Dianne, thank you
Thank you Dianne, it is such a fine distinction yet makes the world of difference. There are times I feel very in touch with my body, only to realise I am scanning my body with my mind and not actually just feeling from within the body.
Great point Joel. I do this body scanning too and it feels very much mental. I can still be in a real push to get through. When I am truly present with myself though there is a deeper feeling of connection which allows the mundane things to be less mundane and rather lovely.
I en-joy your comment Annie. The way you put it gives any normal day task a touch of love .. the feeling of being in Joy and being open to everything around you. It is quite amazing to be fully present with the confirmation of you in the moment. Everything constellates to you. Nature is a good example of this. Thank you Annie.
Too true Joel. Starting to live our lives from our body, as opposed to our minds is a very interesting experience as our lives are constructed to be lived from our minds. I have begun the process of living more from my body and becoming acutely aware of times where I head off in my mind, leaving my body seemingly behind. In order to honour my body completely, I know I need to be ‘with’ it and then live ‘from’ it as much as I can. What you have shared here Dianne is so great and feeling my qualities is something that will greatly assist me in deepening my conscious presence, so thank you.
That’s true Joel. I can relate exactly and there is a world of difference in the distinction between thinking and feeling.
Great point Joel, the mind is so that it likes to tick all the boxes, and deceive us, all at the very same time.
Me too. I think I am all over being present, only to realise it is a mental activity. Then in that realisation (which in itself is something to be appreciated) I have the next choice to continue the efficient scan or drop into my body completely for a spherical, all encompassing review.
That’s it Joel, one can be called ‘mindfullness’, and the other conscious presence.
And that is exactly what so many people mix up, Rosannabianchini. They ‘think’ they know conscious presence, because they did a mindfulness course. Whereas scanning the body from the mind is something different to feeling from within the body.