From Frustration to Freedom: How Presence Changes Everything
Practice of Presence Teaching by Jim Taylor
Being present is arriving into the moment full-hearted. This posture allows us to welcome everything as it is and know deeply that “everything belongs” (Richard Rohr). It never means that everything is perfect, or that all your circumstances are to your liking. That will never happen. There’s always something to be anxious about, if we choose to allow it.
Presence in everyday life is more like sitting before a sunrise with no other distractions. You will find beauty, surprise, awe, wonder, and a grounding peace – usually, expressed in the breath with a sigh and a full-heart that welcomes all of it. Your body will react almost immediately in perfect agreement. We can now bring our conscious mind into that posture and it, too, will begin to relax and soften its normal calculus. Within this slowed-down moment of the full-hearted breath, the deepest connection possible to us is made – The True Self meeting True Self! This is exactly what happens in presence. Now, you find the ability to practice this full-hearted way in front of everything!
In presence, our normal tendency toward fear, anxiety and stress is interrupted and replaced with a deep abiding confidence that allows all the virtues to surface into the present moment. As we go through our day, returning over-and-over to this intention, we will see the evidence tangibly in every interaction, and most importantly, within ourselves.
I’ve experienced the fruit of this practice in countless ways. One sincere shift became evident in snarled traffic, for example. I used to only know most of driving as irritation and a constant criticism of everything and everyone. No one was driving right except for me - smile! Now, it’s like a different person is behind the wheel – my impatience gives way to patience, my judgements about what should be gives way to forgiveness, my curses for other drivers, who are in my way have actually turned into the ability to see them beyond the circumstances and to bless them. Now, it is my conscious practice within the practice of presence to bless everyone in front of me – driving or otherwise!
Jim Taylor is a seasoned spiritual leader and guide with more than two decades of experience nurturing personal transformation and authentic spiritual growth. He currently serves as a Wisdom Elder and Weaver with Illuman, a nonprofit committed to deepening men’s spiritual lives through ritual, storytelling, and presence-based practice. A founding board member of Illuman, Jim has been integral to developing programs such as the Men’s Rites of Passage and the Journey of Illumination.
Before his work with Illuman, Jim was the Senior Pastor of Mosaic Church in Seguin, Texas for 23 years and provided pastoral care in hospice settings, where he established bereavement care programs and led teams of chaplains. He also taught theology and hermeneutics as an adjunct faculty member at the International School of Theology. Jim holds advanced degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he was honored with the W.T. Conner Award in Theological Excellence. His work continues to invite men into a courageous, contemplative, and compassionate way of being.
