Bring mindful presence to your interactions
The fifth and final foundation of mindful communication is mindful presence.
What is mindful presence? In the context that we are talking about, it means to have your mind and your attention and your body all in the same place. Sounds simple, right?
Being mindfully present where you are physically is rather challenging in modern times. This is because we have so many things to distract us all the time.
Think of all the times when you talk to people or do things during the day but realise only after you have done them that you have no memory of what you did or said. This is because while we are doing our daily actions or conversing with people that we speak to regularly, our attention is somewhere quite different. Many of us live with background noise of the TV or devices on all the time. Or we are so hooked to our devices that we are connected with those who may be far away from us physically while not connected to those who are right beside us.
Do you know what I'm talking about?
Here are some other questions to help you recognize how often we are not present in conversations.
When someone is speaking to you, do you recognize any of the following patterns in yourself:
- Do you often catch yourself forming your responses even before the person has finished speaking to you?
- Do you find your mind consistently wandering to other things?
- Do you feel impatient?
- Do you complete their sentences or cut them short?
- Do you start relating your own related experience without validating what they are saying?
- Do you feel bored?
- Do you check your phone when you are with others?
If you answered yes to some or all of the above, you are amongst the majority of human beings today who find it challenging to be present to the people that they are with.
It also means that you have lots of opportunity to improve your communication simply by offering the gift of your presence to people who are important in your life.
And that is good news, right?
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