Quotes About Being Present

#1. What she liked the most about drinking was not being present, that feeling of self-evasion, of disconnection, of liberation, of escape. Alcohol offered her an excellent alternative to being herself without actually dying.

Laura Esquivel

#2. A mindful parent is one who is committed to practicing being present and awake, and to listening deeply to her child, moment by moment. Mindfulness depends upon awareness.

Shauna L. Shapiro

#3. There are some things we can't choose, but in being present we can choose how we want to relate to them

Tara Brach

#4. Being a director, whether you're in rehearsal or you're in auditions or you're in a creative meeting, is so much to me about being present in the moment. There's a sense of time stopping.

Diane Paulus

#5. Mastery, on the other hand, is being present with what is occurring, staying with it from beginning to end.

Peter Ralston

#6. The mere fact of an American being present could help save the lives of innocent people. That's why I believe in the importance of bearing witness, to become a voice for the voiceless.

Bianca Jagger

#7. Being present is being connected to All Things.

S. Kelley Harrell

#8. When you strive for perfection, you compare different versions of what could be instead of being present with what is. Perfectionism is an attempt to inhabit an imaginary world in order to avoid experiencing the world in which you live.

Gary Zukav

#9. The friend who cares makes it clear that whatever happens in the external world, being present to each other is what really matters. In fact, it matters more than pain, illness, or even death.

Henri Nouwen

#10. By the deficiency or absence of one necessary constituent, all the others being present, the soil is rendered barren for all those crops to the life of which that one constituent is indispensable.

Justus Von Liebig

#11. Nothing ever happened in the past that can prevent you from being present now, and if the past cannot prevent you from being present now, what power does it have?

Eckhart Tolle

#12. The feeling of this both being present and at the same time real, the feeling of eternity, completely filled every aspect of his being. Deeply he felt, more deeply than ever before, in this hour, the indestructibility of every life, the eternity of every moment.

Hermann Hesse

#13. It stands to reason that anyone who learns to live well will die well. The skills are the same: being present in the moment, and humble, and brave, and keeping a sense of humor. (361)

Victoria Moran

#14. Spirituality is not about being fixed; it is about God's being present in the mess of our unfixedness. (Messy Spirituality)

Mike Yaconelli

#15. When you're at work, it's about being present and getting as much done as humanly possible.

Alexa Von Tobel

#16. You can't think about presence, and the mind can't understand it. Understanding presence is being present.

Eckhart Tolle

#17. Some people are very competitive in their birding. Maybe they'll die happy, having seen a thousand species before they die, but I'll die happy knowing I've spent all that quiet time being present.

Lynn Thomson

#18. A lot of exercise is mindless; you can have music or the radio on and not be aware. But if you're aware in anything you do - and it doesn't have to be yoga - it changes you. Being present changes you.

Mariel Hemingway

#19. Even if you achieve your outer purpose, it will never satisfy you if you haven't found your inner purpose, which is awakening, being present, being in alignment with life. True power comes out of the presence; it is the presence.

Eckhart Tolle

#20. You can't be fully present in your body without being present in your ass.

Charlie Glickman

#21. Being present means just that. Feeling your feelings as they come up. Experiencing your sensations as they occur.

Callisto Media

#22. Listening is a discipline. It's all about being present at that moment in time.

Chris Murray

#23. When you experience being present, there is no separation between you and other things. If you feel separate, you are already out of the present and returned to your familiar land of names and concepts.

Ilchi Lee

#24. There are different kinds of concentration required to make a painting, different kinds of being present.

Joe Bradley

#25. Reading is being present yesterday and tomorrow, but not right now. Traveling is being present right now, but not right here. Writing is all about reading and traveling, anytime, anywhere.

Sonnia Kemmer

#26. When you master the art of being fully awake to this moment, you bestow a precious gift on your soul - the experience of love. Being present is the art of the soul.

Debbie Ford

#27. No person that has ever felt the benefits of being present can consider himself a victim, or unhappy in any way.

Lidiya K.

#28. They tend to forget that nothing in a polarized universe can exist without its opposite being present. -

Frank Herbert

#29. New insights from being present are a gift.

Gina Greenlee

#30. You're watching your kids playing football, and you're not present. It's like the worst ... it's horrible. I despise myself for it. I think it's a particularly male thing. Being present and in the moment with your kids is something a lot of men struggle with.

Andy Serkis

#31. She was conscious of being alive and being present: a clear night, a golden beach, good food.

Elin Hilderbrand

#32. Clearing your head of distractions in order to notice and understand the people you are with can feel inefficient - there are so many other people and issues to think about. But being present makes you effective.

Margaret Heffernan

#33. Listening is about being present, not just about being quiet. I meet others with the life I've lived, not just with my questions.

Krista Tippett

#34. Only by being present can you be happy. Too much attention to the past and the future takes the now away. And once it's gone, you never get it back.

Katherine Howe

#35. We don't have in our culture a healthy understanding and respect for the value of Being, which is simply being present in the moment, not trying to go somewhere, not trying to accomplish anything but, just present.

Shakti Gawain

#36. It is not necessary to teach others, to cure them or to improve them; it is only necessary to live among them, sharing the human condition and being present to them in love.

Charles De Foucauld

#37. The greatest gift you can give (yourself or anyone else) is just being present

Rasheed Ogunlaru

#38. If your commitment is to being present, then there will come a time when being present becomes your natural state. The present moment becomes your home. You will have short excursions into the world of the mind, but you never go so far into the mind that you get lost there.

Leonard Jacobson

#39. I wrote about wasting time, which I suppose is a part of the great human journey. We're supposed to wallow, to go through the desert without water for a long time so that when we finally drink it, we'll truly need it and we won't spill a drop. It's about being present.

Walton Goggins

#40. I think this is what hooks one to gardening: it is the closest one can come to being present at creation.

Phyllis Theroux

#41. Most people think of love as a feeling, but love is not so much a feeling as a way of being present.

David Richo

#42. Travel plucks us out of the worn routines of our lives and plops us down into a new culture, language, or city, and lets us figure life out. It strips the excess away and melts us down to our core. It teaches us that stuff doesn't make us happy - only experiences and being present do that.

Fred Perrotta

#43. Often, the price for not being present is pain. Now,

Kamal Ravikant

#44. To complete a work is just like being present at the death of someone you love.

Claude Debussy

#45. Callous is something that hardening leaves behind what will be soft if there is a genuine interest in there being present as many girls as men. Does this change. It shows that dirt is clean when there is a volume.

Gertrude Stein

#46. Nothing and no-one can raise our consciousness to a field of pure bliss unless we are open to the timeless dimension operating within us. We can only do this by being present and releasing all negative energy.

Christopher Dines

#47. To sit for one's portrait is like being present at one's own creation.

Alexander Smith

#48. You must be present to win." And that's what this book is about - being present in our lives to gain the happiness we deserve, for ourselves and equally for others.

Jean Smith

#49. In sickness and in sickness. That is what I wish for you. Don't seek or expect miracles. There are no miracles. Not anymore. And there are no cures for the hurt that hurts most. There is only the medicine of believing each other's pain, and being present for it.

Jonathan Safran Foer

#50. I think I'm also more open to other writers being present and listening to other opinions, whereas before I was going through my angsty teen years while making records.

Michelle Branch

#51. But I think sometimes happiness just meant living. Being present. Being alive. Being surrounded by those you loved.

Paige Weaver

#52. Thinking cannot think now into being present.

Peter Francis Dziuban

#53. Being present is the actor's job. Being aware of your body, in space, and the emotions that are occurring inside, is essential. Well, quite simply, the more aware one is-of yourself, of your surroundings, of other people-the more likely you are to respond truthfully.

Sandra Oh

#54. Be Here Now is all about being present and not fearing what you don't know.

Andy Whitfield

#55. 99.9% of being a good parent is just being present with your child. On the flipside of that, 100% of being happy is just being present.

Mark Webber

#56. You don't build a bond without being present.

James Earl Jones

#57. Poetry is a way of always paying attention to the world for me; a way of letting the world stick to me instead of being anxious or estranged, just being present in the world.

Mike Young

#58. Remember that you are at an exceptional hour in a unique epoch, that you have this great happiness, this invaluable privilege, of being present at the birth of a new world.

Sri Aurobindo

#59. Spontaneity is being present in the present.

Wei Wu Wei

#60. Through real-life stories, Kristin Kaufman illustrates the core idea of being present in the moment and opening oneself up to new ideas in order to become an authentic leader in life.

Stephen R. Covey

#61. Through our awareness, we can open the inheritance of our qualities or talents, and behind that, reside in the stillness of being, present in the sanctity of universal love.

Georgi Y. Johnson

#62. Being present here and now is the highest compliment you can pay to a woman in your life.

Lada Ray

#63. There's a void inside most people.
It's been created by not being contented with who we are, not being happy with what we have, not being present and looking for something more, better, more exciting out there.
And we've always been trying to fill this void with something external.

Lidiya K.

#64. The key to creating the mental space before responding is mindfulness. Mindfulness is a way of being present: paying attention to and accepting what is happening in our lives. It helps us to be aware of and step away from our automatic and habitual reactions to our everyday experiences.

Elizabeth Thornton

#65. A good litmus test is that you should be comfortable with your significant other being present when you hang out with your friend.

Olivia Wilde

#66. A dream is a creation of the intelligence, the creator being present but not knowing how it will end.

Cesare Pavese

#67. The first doorway (or chakra) is what I call in the book, the Doorway of Safety. This doorway relates to feeling safe in life and being present in the here and now. It's only when we are really grounded and safe that we're able to relax and open up our hearts.

Marci Shimoff

#68. Chanting is a way of getting in touch with yourself. It's an opening of the heart and letting go of the mind and thoughts. It deepens the channel of grace, and it's a way of being present in the moment.

Krishna Das

#69. I started classes and it wasn't because I was like, 'I want to be an actor!' - I was really interested in the theory of what acting can be and what it's about. It's all about living in the moment and kind of being present, which is something that at that time in my life I really wanted to explore.

Caity Lotz

#70. Life passes us by if all we do is focus on the future. Being present, for the present, is really what is important.

Brandon Jenner

#71. Accepting what we're given is a practice in being present to everything beyond us that lets us become intimate with the nature of life.

Mark Nepo

#72. How do we meditate? It is not thinking about the past or future. It starts with being present.

Ilchi Lee

#73. The meaning of life is found in openness to being and "being present" in full awareness.

Thomas Merton

#74. Once he became president, George [H.] Bush revealed a vein of Styrofoam and no matter how deep he tried to go, he always ended up bobbing on the surface. His inaugural speech was like being present at the death of language ...

Kate Clinton

#75. Being present means living without control and always having your needs met.

Byron Katie

#76. Parents who engage in this kind of [conscious] parenting understand the power of being present being mindful to take the time to build connection understanding that this foundation is the bedrock of all later self-worth, self-esteem and self-actualization.

Shefali Tsabary

#77. My main job is to remain connected to God. When my primary focus is being present with him, everything else has a way of falling into place.

John Ortberg

#78. The past has no power to stop you from being present now. Only your grievance about the past can do that. What is grievance? The baggage of old thought and emotion.

Laozi

#79. The moment of drifting into thought has been so clipped by modern technology. Our lives are filled with distraction with smartphones and all the rest. People are so locked into not being present.

Glen Hansard

#80. Mindfulness - it isn't a trick or a gimmick. It's being present in the moment. When I'm with you, I'm with you. Right now. That's all. No more and no less.

Will Schwalbe

#81. Once I'm on set, the only thing I'm really interested in is being in the room. Being present. And trusting that what I've done is sufficient, and I'm also trusting that I've also left room for magic.

Lorraine Toussaint

#82. It's all very Eckhart Tolle when you think about it - the key to being charismatic is being PRESENT.

Gala Darling

#83. I just like being present.

Theo James

#84. Doing a show is very similar to what meditation is supposed to be: being there and being present in that space and time.

Gift Of Gab

#85. For me, writing has always come out of living a fairly to-the-bone kind of life, just really being present to a lot of life. The writing has been really a byproduct of that.

Alice Walker

#86. Mindfulness is the art of being present in the moment, without passing judgement about your experience.

Rhena Branch

#87. The pas has no power to stop you from being present now. Only your grievance about the past can do that.

Eckhart Tolle

#88. Writing is all about self-editing; it's all about being present being aware of what's happening

Joan Armatrading

#89. I don't know if high society is different in other cities, but in Hollywood, important people can't stand to be invited someplace that isn't full of other important people. They don't mind a few unfamous people being present because they make good listeners.

Marilyn Monroe

#90. main job is to remain connected to God. When my primary focus is being present with him, everything else has a way of falling into place. When my primary focus becomes anything else, my inner vitality suffers, and I become a lesser version of myself. On vacation one summer,

John Ortberg

#91. Much of directing [a movie] is not directing but just listening and being present in the moment and just keeping your eyes open.

Rian Johnson

#92. Being present means being completely aware of all that is. It means you're not in denial, you're not pretending, and you're not avoiding.

Debbie Ford

#93. I'm pointing out you've been missed. Being present is one hundred percent more meaningful than being there in spirit.

Penny Reid

#94. We can lay down our lives for those we love not by physically dying for them but rather by living for them - giving of our time; always being present in their lives; serving them; being courteous, affectionate, and showing true love for those of our family and to all men - as the Savior taught.

Claudio R.M. Costa

#95. So being present becomes more and more the exercise the older you get.

Paul Michael Glaser

#96. But while you were looking out the window, you missed the chance to explore the equally interesting Buddhist belief in being present for every facet of your daily life, of being truly present. Be present in this class. And then, when it's over, be present out there, he said,

John Green

#97. Being present, whether with children, with friends, or even with oneself, is hard work. But isn't this attentiveness
the feeling that someone is trying to think about us
something we want more than praise?

Stephen Grosz

#98. Glorious sex that poets write about and that angels blow their trumpets over absolutely requires the participants to be fully engaged and fully witnessing the entire event!

Roberto Hogue

#99. Feeling the movement of movements is wandering to the past or future. Living in the movements of movement is being in the present.

B.K.S. Iyengar

#100. There is giving, and there is knowingness. Some have generosity and compassion but no true knowledge. Some have knowledge but no self-sacrifice. When both are present, that person is blessed and prosperous. Such a being is truly incomparable.

Rumi