Are you doing? Or are you being?

You cannot be both

Doing is great. You get through things, you be productive, you achieve.

But there’s another state that we often forget to revisit – being.

I am constantly in conversation with myself, asking: “What do I need right now?”

Sometimes the answer is DO. Get shit done! And with this intention I can suddenly move mountains… But other moments I recognise that doing is a distraction and it’s not feeding my soul.

So I pause and let go of the to-do list.

Being is hard to describe, it’s the softer side of humanity. It doesn’t bully its way into your mind, you have to stop and allow it in. You need to use sensation – not thought – to become a being.

Philip Shepherd said: “Who you really are is the part of you that can centre itself in the energy of the present. To centre yourself in the present is to awaken to what is most true in you … you can either be ‘who you know yourself to be’ or you can be present. One or the other. Not both.”

Most people define themselves by what they “do,” but this thinking means we never really feel complete (because who ever completes their entire to-do list?).

We are so much more than that. Can you come back to your deep naval centre and meet the person you are?