People interacting with one another have sensory experiences involving images, sounds and feelings.
Yet we’re often tempted to reach for analytical models; to turn the flesh and blood experience into an intellectual exercise and try to manage relationships at that level. With a professional training, we’re particularly prone to going “into our heads” and disassociating ourselves from the direct experience.
And the problem is…
The opportunity to act is lost, because we’re no longer fully “present” and, so no longer influential. Again and again we do this, every time losing the opportunity to work with the live energy in the situation. Why? Because it feels safer perhaps.
Instead, we could stay in the moment and leave the analysis until later—much later.
To influence other people, we need a real-time, in-the-moment connection; not to disappear into our heads, and instead to stay present, focused on the other people there; to be open and take what seems like a risk (though maybe it’s actually the safer path).
How do you know when you’re fully present? How do you tell? A certain heightened physical awareness of the space and other people, and a feeling of groundedness perhaps? What are your inner signals?