Awakening Through the Present Moment
Awakening Through the Present Moment
Podcast Summary
I did not come to the present moment gracefully. I arrived tired. Tired of striving. Tired of fixing. Tired of pretending I was not lost in my own life. It is curious how the now waits for us patiently while we chase everything except this breath. This episode of The Awakening Process 101 is a reflection on that quiet turning point. A gentle return to now.
In this conversation with Louise, we explore what it really means to awaken, not through grand gestures, but through the soft pauses of everyday life. Through the perspectives of Eckhart Tolle, Sally Kempton, and Jon Kabat Zinn, we reflect on how presence is not just a concept, but a felt experience. One that changes everything, not by adding more, but by letting go of what is no longer needed.
The Power of Now and Present-Moment Awareness
Eckhart Tolle’s teaching of presence as liberation struck me differently depending on where I was in my life. At first, it felt like a riddle. How do I resist nothing when pain is loud and real? Over time, as I softened, something began to shift. I started to understand that resistance is what keeps suffering alive. When we stop pushing against life and begin sitting with it, we uncover something more honest and more steady. Something that has been with us all along.
This moment, exactly as it is, is not lacking. It is where everything is. The stories we tell ourselves loosen their grip in the now, and what remains is truth. Breath. Aliveness. There is a quiet wholeness waiting when we stop running. It does not demand perfection. It simply asks that we show up, fully.
Meditation as a Relationship with the Self
When Sally Kempton described meditation as a love affair with the self, something opened in me. Suddenly, my practice was no longer about becoming enlightened or sitting perfectly still. It became about intimacy. About turning toward myself with curiosity instead of critique. Each time I sat, it felt less like an escape and more like an act of presence, a way of touching the deeper currents beneath my everyday thoughts.
Over time, meditation stopped feeling like a task and began to feel like a reunion. Even on the messy days, and especially on the messy days, it became a way of holding myself with grace. I stopped trying to quiet the noise and started listening more deeply. That is where the real magic lives. Not in silence, but in presence.
Multiple Pathways to Awakening
There is a deep relief in knowing that there is no single right way to awakening. Louise and I unpack how each teacher we admire offers a different doorway. Eckhart Tolle speaks to the mind and its stillness. Sally Kempton speaks to the heart and its devotion. Jon Kabat Zinn speaks to the body and its rhythms. Each path is valid. Each one calls to a different part of us.
And the truth is, we are not meant to choose just one. We are complex and evolving beings. What meets us today may not meet us tomorrow. The invitation is to keep listening, to trust what resonates, and to follow it with openness. In this way, awakening becomes less about arrival and more about rhythm. A living and breathing journey back to presence.
Conclusion
Presence isn’t something I hold onto. It’s something I meet. Again and again. Some days it slips through my fingers. Other days it wraps around me like a soft shawl. But every time I return to it, I remember who I am underneath the noise.
This episode was a gentle reminder that we don’t awaken by becoming someone new, we awaken by remembering who we’ve always been. We come home, not to a perfect version of ourselves, but to the one who’s already whole. Already enough. Already here.
