Practices: The Practice of Presence

The purpose of Mental Health Mondays at the Cathedral of the Rockies is to give people tools during these challenging times. The first three were given by Megan Koehler, and then two by Jerri Walker. I gave the sixth presentation, and now the seventh. Both Megan and Jerri are licensed professional counselors with years of experience and wisdom in the mental health arena.

Megan and Jerri share important information and practical ways to care for our mental health during these times. Anxiety, grief, and so much more - are topics they talk about. This is especially important during times of loss, change, disruption in general, and the accumulated effects of every thing that is touching all of us right now.

Here are Megan and Jerri's Mental Health Monday presentations, and mine from Week Six:

Megan Koehler, Week One

Megan Koehler, Week Two

Megan Koehler, Week Three

Jerri Walker, Week Four

 Jerri Walker, Week Five

Michael Kroth, Week Six

These are great resources for any of us, and would be easy to share with those you think might benefit. 

This week, my topic was the "Practice of Presence". Here I talk about the benefits of developing regular, ongoing practices which help us to be more "present" in our lives, and less stuck in the past or future.  I'm not a licensed professional counselor, so here I'm sharing what I've learned from others and from my own personal experience. 

I hope it is helpful.

This is the model I developed for the Silence (which evolved into Presence) workshop at the library,

and what I was discussing from in the Mental Health Mondays presentation.

The model evolved into this as the workshop developed,

and wiser, more knowledgeable people than I am could think of this differently and more deeply.

It is just one way to think about ways we can move into the present. 

I was talking about this slide in the Mental Health Monday presentation,

but I developed it for the original workshop as an exercise,

and as a tool for participants to use as they worked to develop

their practice of presence.