Taking a look inside
the mental work to guide our presence
“Presence is not something we achieve like a goal. It’s something we remember… With presence, a conversation becomes a connection, a chore becomes honoring our world.”
Over the past few weeks we’ve explored presence as the core piece-making and piece-laying concept in The Puzzle. But how do we choose the pieces? Self-reflection and/or self-observation is part of the core to what I call choosing the wood and the water.
Staying fully present pumps more raw data into the brain’s sensory filters. As that firehose opens, patterns emerge and bubble up to the surface - the emails you answer first; the parts of a project that are actually fun and feel like play; the conversations that energize you vs ones that drain you. These signals aren’t random, they’re the reinforcing amplification of well-worn neural pathways, dopamine faucets, and the inescapable leaning of our upbringings.
See our brains are built for efficiency. the more we can automate our world around us the better we are at capturing the novel & maximizing energy. It starts to nudge us towards some things and away from others. Fighting our own tendencies can feel like arguing with gravity. Instead we should notice, name the pull, and ask ‘Is this preference helping or hurting my Puzzle.’
chop wood. carry water. is the humble presence. Choosing the wood and water is the upgrade. Think of the wood as the tasks that build long-term structure - acting on strategies, project work, financial discipline. Think of the water as the tasks that keep life flowing - emails, conversations, inventory checks. Presence shows you the grain of the wood and the flow of the water; reflection decides whether it’s the right piece of wood for the puzzle piece you’re seeking and the right water to help it flow into place.
Presence is the flashlight; self-reflection is the map. when we combine them, we don’t just see our puzzle we start assembling it with the right pieces that fit our unique tabs.
Try tacking on this to a presence exercise -
-Seek your hyper-awareness
-While deep in your senses think about the tasks of the day. Notice gut reactions without editing and without diving into the tasks.
-Bring forward the tasks that feel most engaging (the wood) and the must-dos that keep everything flowing (the water).
-Say to yourself ‘this is the wood I’ll chop and the water I’ll carry today’
-After the day observe how those tasks felt compared to normal and if presence was easier/harder in them.
We don’t always get to do just the engaging things, but understanding how different engaging things feel than draining things can help us understand ourselves and where we naturally want to be. By taking a look inside and aligning our days and activities with our brain’s natural tendencies, over time, we will find the impact of chopping wood and carrying water grows geometrically. We build our intention for our attention. We create amazing puzzle pieces then place them perfectly making a beautiful tapestry where everything we do is a work of art.