The Art of Being Present
- Vanessa Fryer
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
How to Return to Yourself in Busy Seasons
Busy seasons don’t politely ask for your attention. They take it. They pull you outward—into schedules, expectations, notifications, and the constant low-grade pressure to handle your shit. Even when life is full of meaningful work and good choices, presence is usually the first thing sacrificed. You keep going. You stay capable. You stay productive. And somewhere along the way, you disappear.
Presence isn’t something you add to a full life. It’s something you reclaim.
This is the art of being present—Peaceful Rebel style. Not soft. Not escapist. Not pretending the world will slow down just because you want it to. It’s about staying with yourself while life is loud.
Presence Is Not Slowing the Fuck Down
Let’s clear this up. Being present does not mean you have to quit your job, move to the woods, or spend 90 minutes a day meditating in linen pants. Presence isn’t about doing less. It’s about doing what you’re doing without abandoning yourself. You can be present in a packed schedule. You can be absent on a beach. Presence isn’t about pace—it’s about attention with integrity.
When you’re present, you’re not living one step ahead of your body or one regret behind your mind. You’re here. In this breath. In this moment. In your actual life. No spiritual bypassing. No pretending.
Why Busy Seasons Pull You Away From Yourself
You’re not broken. You’re trained.
Modern life rewards disconnection:
Planning over sensing
Performing over listening
Hustling over honesty
Busyness becomes a socially acceptable way to leave your body. We call it responsibility. We call it ambition. We call it being “on top of things.” But often, it’s just a clean, well-disguised way of not feeling what’s actually happening. Presence threatens that system. It asks you to notice when something feels off. When you’re tired instead of motivated. When you’re full of resentment instead of drive. And noticing means you might have to choose differently. That’s the rebellious part.
Returning to Yourself Is a Practice (Not a Personality Trait)
Some people don’t have more presence than you. They just practice coming back faster. Presence is a skill, a muscle, a willingness to stop bullshitting yourself. Here’s how to practice it in real life—not a retreat, not a perfect morning routine, but right in the middle of the mess:
1. Drop Into the Body (Because the Body Doesn’t Lie)
Your mind will spin stories all day long. Your body is always telling the truth.
When you feel scattered or overwhelmed:
Feel your feet on the ground
Notice the weight of your breath
Sense where you’re gripping for no reason
You don’t need to calm down. You need to arrive.
2. Do One Damn Thing at a Time
Multitasking is not a flex. It’s attention dilution.
Presence grows when you choose one thing—and stay with it. One rep. One conversation. One inhale.
Not forever. Just right now.
That’s enough.
3. Build Micro-Pauses Into Your Day
You don’t need a perfect meditation practice. You need interruptions to the autopilot.
Pause:
Before opening your laptop
Before answering a message
Before walking into the next room
Even two seconds is a reset.
A pause says: I’m here. I’m choosing to be here.
Presence Is an Act of Integrity
At Peaceful Rebel, integrity means you don’t teach—or live—what you don’t practice. Presence is integrity in motion. It’s choosing honesty over performance. Feeling over numbing. Listening over reacting. It’s strength that doesn’t rush. Patience that holds. A nervous system that doesn’t need to be constantly proved. In a culture obsessed with output, presence is a quiet fuck you. You don’t need to escape your life to be present in it. You just need to stop leaving yourself every time things get busy.
Stay Grounded