Some meditation advice has a vibe like... “To become more present, all you need to do is practice! It's just a skill, like learning to ride a bike 😊”
That’s how I wasted five months of my life. When I tried to force presence through practice, I made little progress.
So what if being present isn’t a skill to build? What if it’s the natural state?
Presence is blocked by incentives. Presence is effortless once all incentives to be not-present have been unlearned. In my case, I integrated blocks like:
“Pain will be overwhelming.”
“Feelings will make me less productive.”
“Expressing emotions will anger others.”
“If I see others’ pain, I’m obligated to fix it.”
And many, many more.
Almost all of these objections were correct in my life context. I couldn’t just hope them away.
One last thing: Once you have a moment of full presence, you may be tempted to think “Oh, I get it now! Being present is so simple! Just be present!” But that will overlook all the little incentives you integrated along the way. This is especially tricky because once these blocks are unlearned, they are forgotten.
Natural presence is already present, waiting to be unblocked.
I'm largely in agreement -- that cultivating presence is the natural outcome of removing the inner impediments to it (i.e., the emotional/psychological blocks that get in the way.)
However, I'd argue meditation (and similar activities) also develop meta-cognitive capacities and attentional regulation. Easiest example, phone/tech/social media use has a way of hijacking our attention independently of our emotional capacity. So meditation offers a deliberate means of training collectedness/concentration/awareness, which supports presence versus the external impediments.
(Of course, more emotional blocks/insecurities will lead to more escapist/avoidance behaviors as well, not to down play that.)
It's a good article, but the central claim seems flawed, or at least overstated.
Entry into the state of presence seems to get easier and easier with practice, at some point becoming habitual and arguing that presence is not a skill, but a composite of a lot of interconnected micro-skills seems rather semantic here, especially as you're using your own anecdotal experience for it only.