The Art of Being: Have We Overlooked the Meaning of Presence?
There are phrases that land as though the innermost part of us recognises them instantly.
Words we may have read or heard countless times, yet somehow never fully understood. Almost as though we have been touching the surface, skim-reading something without recognising the depth of what is being shared.
And then there comes a moment when something unlocks.
It moves beyond intellectual understanding. Something resonates, something is felt. What we once knew through words becomes something we begin to experience.
An embodied understanding.
I've been experiencing moments like this throughout my studies in somatic trauma-informed therapy. In approaches such as Gestalt, Janina Fisher's work and Internal Family Systems (IFS), we explore awareness, presence, our learned responses and the development of the capacity to witness our experiences rather than be governed by them.
We explore what it means to move from knowing, to doing, to being.
And I keep finding myself reminded of scripture.
Not because these psychological approaches are religious or based upon Christianity. They are not. But because the language being used to describe awareness, compassion, maturity, presence and freedom echoes so much of what I have read and heard throughout my life.
Only now, I am hearing some of those familiar words differently.
I AM THAT I AM
In Exodus 3:14, when Moses asks God His name, God responds:
“I AM THAT I AM.”
In Hebrew, Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh, which can also be translated:
“I AM WHO I AM.”
“I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE.”
“I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE.”
What has stayed with me is the connection between being and presence. Just before this, God tells Moses, “I will be with thee.”
And I find myself reflecting on what presence means. In somatic practice, we explore the capacity to be here, in this moment, without continually experiencing life through the lens of the past or the anticipation of the future.
We learn to recognise when an earlier experience is influencing our response to something happening now.
That was then. This is now.
We begin to develop the capacity to notice, to witness, to become curious, rather than immediately reacting. There can be a sense of spaciousness. An awareness that is not continually directed by the beliefs, fears or identities we have developed through our experiences.
And I think again of those words.
I AM.
God's words to Moses speak of His identity and His promise to be with him. They are not a description of a psychological state, yet studying presence has given me another way to reflect on what it means to be, and to be with.
We carry memories of yesterday and expectations of tomorrow, but the moment in which we can notice, connect and respond is the one we are living now and then I remember the words of Jesus:
“Take therefore no thought for the morrow...” Matthew 6:34
Words I have heard so many times, yet now, with a growing understanding of how our bodies can remain caught in past experiences or anticipate future threats, they land differently. Not simply as words telling us not to worry, but as a reminder of how easily we can lose ourselves in what has been or what might be.
The Child and the Adult
Another moment of recognition came while studying childhood development and the adult self. We were exploring how children experience fear, shame, hurt, anger and powerlessness, and how these experiences can shape the beliefs and protective responses we carry into adulthood.
Beliefs such as:
I am not good enough.
I am not safe.
I must earn love.
Even when we intellectually understand that these beliefs are not necessarily true, we can continue to experience and respond through them.
In therapy, we explore cultivating adult resources, awareness, curiosity, compassion, calmness, discernment, courage and the capacity to witness and nurture the younger parts of ourselves. Not rejecting the child, but no longer needing to respond from the child's fear or hurt.
And immediately I thought of Paul's words:
“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” 1 Corinthians 13:11
I know Paul was speaking about maturity and the limitations of our understanding within his teaching on love.
Yet hearing the language of modern psychology brought those words to mind in a way I hadn't considered before.
Perhaps maturity is not simply knowing what the right response should be. It is developing the capacity to respond differently, even when something within us is still hurting.
I began thinking about the qualities we are learning to cultivate.
Patience. Compassion. Self-control. Kindness. Gentleness. Love.
How familiar they sound.
Not because psychology and scripture are teaching the same thing, but because there is something recognisable in the human qualities they describe.
Made in His Image
In some contemplative and somatic approaches, we explore what it is like to experience awareness without being continually directed by a fixed self-image or identity. To recognise that the beliefs we have developed through our experiences are not necessarily the truth of who we are.
I found myself thinking of scripture.
“So God created man in his own image.” Genesis 1:27
Before the experiences that shaped our beliefs.
Before the identities we developed to protect ourselves.
Before we learned to question our worth or believe that love needed to be earned.
Made in His image.
In 2 Cor 3:17:
“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”
Freedom in Christ has its own spiritual meaning, distinct from the psychological experience of spacious awareness. Yet the language of freedom, renewal and transformation has become especially meaningful to me as I study the ways our learned beliefs can influence our lives.
How often do we know something to be true, yet struggle to experience it?
We may know we are loved, yet feel we must earn love.
We may know our worth is not dependent upon others, yet find ourselves continually seeking approval.
We may know we can trust, yet experience fear when things are beyond our control.
And I think about the freedom spoken of in Christ, not an identity we have to continually prove or earn, but a life grounded in Him.
Beyond the Words
What I am discovering through my studies is not that modern psychology is teaching scripture, or that scripture is describing modern psychology.
It is simply that I keep recognising familiar themes expressed through different language.
Presence. Awareness. Compassion. Maturity. Renewal. Freedom.
Perhaps what has changed most is not the words themselves, but how I am beginning to understand and experience them.
Scripture that I have heard for years is meeting a different level of understanding. Less about simply knowing the words, and more about reflecting on what it means to live them.
To recognise when I am responding from an old belief rather than the moment before me.
To become curious rather than immediately reactive.
To understand that my experiences may have shaped me without defining my entire identity.
To remember that my worth and identity are not something I must continually earn.
I keep coming back to those words:
I AM WHO I AM.
And to the promise, I will be with you.
Perhaps this is what has touched me most.
The recognition that so much of what I am learning about presence, compassion and freedom has reminded me of words I have known for much of my life.
Words that I am now encountering with a different depth of understanding.
