If you’re someone, like me, who has always struggled to just be present or be still — or if practices like meditation have come with more frustration than ease and relaxation — this discussion is for you.

Welcome to your bite-size, daily guide to rituals of presence to mark each day this week.

We hope you’ll give one a try — and perhaps even unlock a new favorite! 

Start with mornings.

First, we're going to invite you to rethink the way you start your day.

What might it look like to embrace a slower morning, just for you?

Adding a little more intention to what you do as you wake up and get ready for the day can be incredibly powerful for your mood, and feelings of self-worth. 

Tomorrow morning, when your alarm goes off, or when sunlight streams through your window and gently pulls you into the day… pause.

Try and avoid reaching for your phone. Immediate phone access first thing in the morning can jump-start unwanted stress by triggering cortisol spikes.

It’s easy to slip into the news cycle, feel pressure to respond to a group chat, or remember the unread email waiting in your inbox.

Before you know it, your nervous system is already ramped up, and that quiet moment you created for yourself has been replaced by urgency.

Before your feet even hit the floor, before your brain starts building its mental to-do list, just stay in bed for a minute or two longer. 

Notice the feeling of the sheets against your skin. The weight and warmth of your blanket. Listen to the sounds around you.

Can you hear birds? Family members moving through the house? The world outside — cars passing, distant horns, or the soft hum of your AC or dehumidifier?

Stretch under the covers. Place one hand on your heart and one on your belly, and take a slow breath in and out. Then say “hello” to yourself — a warm and intentional greeting before anything else asks for your attention.

Just like that, you’ve made a small but powerful choice to make your life yours, rather than being at the whim of endless external demands. 

4 Ways to Be Present in the Morning

⏸️ Pausing first. When you wake up, take a beat before doing anything else. Stay in bed a minute or two longer just feeling your body and the sensations around you. 

📵 Delaying the phone! Even a few minutes can prevent stress and cortisol spikes

👂 Listening outward — notice the birds, voices, traffic, or the hum of your home

👋 Greeting yourself and the day (before it greets you) with an energetic “hello”

A beginner’s mind…

Presence doesn’t only happen on a meditation cushion, or a rare, picture-perfect beach vacation — presence can be created in everyday moments that feel natural and even effortless. 

Beginner’s mind, a teaching from Zen Buddhism, at its core, is simply curiosity — showing up to familiar, daily moments as if they’re novel experiences, recognizing that the situation is different each time because you are different, and so is your environment.

Unlike meditation, many of our daily actions run on autopilot.

Brushing our teeth, eating, walking — these are deeply habitual. When our mind is freed up, it can be easy to allow racing thoughts about the past or ahead into the future to fill that space.

Beginner's mind invites us to interrupt that loop.

The next time you sit down to eat, try — instead of scrolling or reading the news while you eat — setting your phone aside. Eat in silence.

Notice the temperature of the food, the texture, the first bite versus the last. You may even find that the food tastes different (or better) when it has your full attention.

When you bring a beginner’s mind to simple actions, boredom often dissolves, and the urge to look for something “new” or distracting dissipates.

Three ways to explore a beginner's mind

🧼 Use self-talk to anchor your focus. While washing your hands, gently repeat in your head: “I am washing my hands.” Let the repetition bring you back to the present moment.

🚿 Feel the water in the shower. Notice the sensation of water hitting your shoulders and back. Is it warm, cool, steady, or strong? Let your attention rest there.

☕🍵 Savor the first sip. When you take your first sip of coffee or tea, pause. Notice the aroma, the taste as it hits your taste buds, and the temperature as you swallow.

Question your intentions

In a world full of distractions and constant input — whether plugged into the news cycle, endless app notifications, or being aware of the very real suffering of others, sitting still for 20 minutes (or even five minutes) can feel genuinely challenging. 

Today, we’re asking you to pause and check in with your intentions before you move to the next action — especially if that action is picking up your phone! 

Our phones are one of our biggest distractions, and we carry them around with us in our pockets...

It’s too easy to open social media, our email inbox, or work chat without even thinking, and before we know it, 20 minutes have passed.

Most of the time, we didn’t actually choose to spend our time that way. It just kind of happened because we went in without intention.

Next time you reach for your phone, pause before opening an app and ask yourself a simple question: What is my intention?

What am I actually looking for (inspiration, a laugh, connection, a recipe)? Or, am I just on autopilot?

There’s a lot of power in questioning yourself, because it forces you to have a reason.

You may notice you don’t have one and are just looking for a distraction. One you realize that, you can choose differently.

Maybe a stretch, chug some water, or take a couple of deep breaths. You’re still getting the break you need, but without losing precious time and energy scrolling. 

And of course, there are times when you do have a clear reason to pick up your phone.

Sometimes even saying that clear intention out loud (“I’m looking up a recipe for chocolate cake”) before logging in helps to avoid getting lost in the scroll.  

How to take a phone pause

🤳⏸️ Pause before picking up your phone, especially when switching tasks, and ask yourself, What’s my intention right now?

💡 No clear answer? Choose a different break! Stretch, sip water, or take a few deep breaths.

🎯 Have an intention for grabbing your phone? Say it (even silently) before logging in to avoid getting lost in the scroll.

Look for glimmers

We’re ending on a joyful and bright note with a discussion about glimmers!

If you’ve ever paused to notice a beautiful sunset, felt the lingering warmth of a genuine smile from a stranger, or felt endeared to a dog tilting its head up to sniff you as you walked by, congratulations — you’ve experienced a glimmer. 

Glimmers are those small moments of pleasure that invite us to savor the present and cue our nervous system to feel safe and calm.

They happen all around us, often hundreds of times a day, but in our busy world, it can be easy to miss them.

Joy and pleasure can be easy to see in significant life events — like weddings, graduations, job promotions, etc. But the in-between, subtle moments also deserve to be noticed — and have great benefits for our overall wellbeing. 

Glimmers are often thought of as the opposite of triggers — they are micro-moments of joy that allow us to feel a sense of inner peace.

The sight of a butterfly sauntering by, the image of a parent and child playing in the park, a cloud in the shape of a slice of pizza (true story). 

Setting out to search for glimmers can help us be more aware, patient, and open to the possibilities of each day.

And this is supported by neuroscience!

With each glimmer that finds us, the moments begin to accumulate, and our nervous system becomes more regulated. We train our brain to notice more, and we build our capacity to hold both joy and pain simultaneously. 

Glimmer challenges

🦋 Today’s challenge: Pause and notice at least one glimmer (you’ll likely see more 😊) — a rainbow, a smile, a cloud, a bird, or something else that makes you pause or smile

🌿 Bonus challenge: Share your glimmer with a friend or the focused space crew! Hearing about these little moments can inspire others to notice them too!

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We hope you learned some new, small ways you can bring more presence to your life.

P.S. At Focused Space, our community is full of people who work from home, entrepreneurs, designers, creatives, writers, and ADHD folks who are working on their goals each day, together.

If you aren't a member of Focused Space, but could use help accomplishing your goals, busting through procrastination, or getting motivated… you are welcome to join us at one of our live guided work sessions, or morning planning sessions!

Take care,

— Farah and the focused space team