I’ve just spent the last three weeks traveling Australia. Spending time with family, friends and advancing my learning. These trips tend to sound divine on the outset. It’s a magical soiree of city-hopping across the country, coffee dates and walks on the beach. Divine indeed.

What I’ve noticed is that I haven’t always fully been present to those moments. My schedule is full. I’ve created as much space to enjoy each and every occasion and yet in doing so I’m left with little capacity to just BE.

This trip was different. Purposefully so. I knew in some ways it was going to be even busier than the usual trip. My partner stayed in London. I had ‘free reign’ over the scheduling. ? It’s not just that I needed to travel to four cities in three weeks. It’s that within those few days in each place there was lots of ‘being’ I wanted to do… Quite the oxymoron. I get that. And yet I also know that this trip brought with it a completely different awareness over why I was there and how I wanted to feel. Have you noticed how when you start with emotions, acknowledge them and allow yourself to choose how you want to feel you shift your experience of life? Rather than racing around ticking boxes and perfecting things, wouldn’t you rather want to experience life fully?

Lots of things about the trip have been completely unlike my previous versions. I only booked the flights two weeks before leaving London. I had a vague sense of dates in each town however was still booking domestic flights up until the day before I left London. I told my family, yet barely contacted the friends I was intending to connect with. Or, rather, they received vague messages saying “I’ll be in the country but I don’t really know where I’ll be when and if we’ll cross paths”. Quite a difference to my usual precise planning and colour coded excel spreadsheets.

I’m not even really that sure how I made the trip happen. It was certainly something I had been visualising for months. I knew deep in my heart I wanted to see my family before the year ended. I wanted time with each of them to just feel there. And yet at times it was starting to feel like the year was galloping by and with commitments in the latter months of the year I was worried about how the logistics would all come together. I just kept saying “It’ll happen if it’s meant to”.

Which meant the moment I booked flights, the moment I kept putting one foot in front of the other, and then literally stepped onto the plane, I was feeling immense gratitude. This is important to me. Therefore I’m going to do all I possibly can to really truly deeply BE THERE. That even on the days when I’m feeling full. Raced. Out of routine. I’m going to choose to be present. To be grateful. To STOP, look around me and notice what is going on, where I am, what I am feeling.

There were so many moments I really got this. I literally caught my mind wandering, racing into future mode, planning the next thing, or simply saying ‘I feel so tired’ … and the next thought that came into my mind was “be here now”. And I was. I’d soak up the laughter of my toddler nieces. I’d soften back into the couch. I’d take a deep breath. I’d just sit in stillness and watch and be.

AND… There were plenty of moments when I blinked and the moment was over. Or I replayed thoughts over and over in my mind about ‘what next’ or what was on my ‘to do’ list. So it’s most certainly a journey. This whole ‘presence’ thing. And while I’ve had a note on my whiteboard for years to remind me to ‘be here now’, I realise there are so many facets of life to experience more intimately. And that in itself will not feel like an ‘arrival’ or an end point. It will feel like connection. Joy. Gratitude. And so much more.

If you’re feeling like you could do with a greater sense of connection and truly experience more presence in your life we’re running a webinar on 11 October, 7-8pm, British Summer Time – sharing the first three steps you need to be more connected to yourself. CLICK HERE to register, with a simple “I’m in” and we’ll handle the rest!