Presence is the Work
notes on presence, energy and staying aligned
I’m here to move from clarity.
For a long time, I treated effort as responsibility. I equated movement with value and activity with care. Showing up meant pushing, fixing, responding quickly, and explaining myself thoroughly. I learned to measure my worth through output and usefulness, often at the expense of my own steadiness.
That was never the assignment for me.
The work for me is presence.
When I’m present, my body settles and my attention stays where I am. I allow recognition and outcomes to arrive in their own timing. I’m available without strain, without performance.
In that state, nothing needs to be added. Nothing needs to be proven. My insight and awareness don’t require justification. Presence asks me to stay with what is happening and allow it to move without interference.
When I’m present, my energy stops leaking. I’m no longer feeding situations that aren’t aligned for me or extending myself into places that can’t meet me. Conversations become simpler. Decisions require less effort. My body softens because it isn’t bracing or compensating.
Presence is the work for me because it’s the only state where I’m not in the way. Everything I once called effort was just noise layered over that truth.
When Effort Takes the Lead
I can feel when effort takes the lead in me. It shows up in my body before it has language. My chest tightens. My breath shortens. My attention scatters. I stay engaged longer than I want to, even after something in me has already pulled back.
This is usually the moment when I stop listening to myself.
I override the subtle signals. The pause. The hesitation. The sense that something is complete. Instead, I push through. I respond when I don’t feel settled. I offer more context than is needed. I stay present out of habit rather than clarity.
At first, it looks like generosity. It feels like responsibility. Over time, it turns into fatigue.
The tiredness isn’t immediate. It accumulates quietly. I notice it later, after the interaction has ended. My body feels heavier. My patience thins. I replay conversations in my head, not because they went wrong, but because something in me feels spent.
Resentment doesn’t arrive loudly. It creeps in through small irritations. A delayed reply feels heavier than it should. A simple request feels intrusive. I start to feel unseen, even when no one has done anything overtly wrong.
That’s when bitterness begins to form.
Not as anger. As a dull edge. A sense of being overextended without being met. A feeling that I’ve given more than was asked for, and more than was necessary. I can usually trace it back to the same place. I stayed past my internal yes. I led with effort instead of presence.
When effort takes the lead, my energy stops flowing cleanly. It pools. It stagnates. I feel less available, even to myself. The clarity I rely on becomes harder to access, not because it’s gone, but because I’ve layered noise over it.
These moments don’t require correction. They ask for noticing.
Bitterness, for me, is information. Fatigue is information. They show me where I stopped listening and started pushing. They point me back to the place where presence was available and I chose effort instead.
Seeing this pattern doesn’t resolve it immediately. It does something quieter. It restores honesty. And from there, I can feel my way back without force.
Listening to My Body
Listening to my body is how I stay clear, present and aligned. She speaks continuously, and I return to her throughout the day.
She speaks quietly at first, through pace, breath, and tension. I notice when her energy begins to thin, when my shoulders lift, when my attention starts to drift. I understand her through sensation.
Rest is one of her earliest messages, a gentle request to slow down. When I respond early, everything stays simpler. My clarity holds. I don’t need to recover later because I didn’t override her in the first place.
She also tells me when something is complete. A conversation reaches its natural end. A project stops asking for my attention. A role no longer fits. When I listen, I let things end cleanly. Staying longer than necessary dulls my energy and pulls me out of alignment.
Emotional honesty lives in her as well. I feel irritation, disappointment, or fatigue in her before my mind names them. When I acknowledge what she’s holding, it moves. When I ignore it, it lingers. Listening keeps emotion from hardening into resentment.
My nervous system offers constant feedback through her. Overstimulation shows up as tightness and urgency. Ease feels like space and steadiness. I adjust my pace, reduce input, and choose quiet when she asks for it. Regulation happens moment by moment, not as a separate task.
Listening to my body keeps my channel clear. She tells me when to engage and when to pause. She brings me back to presence without force.
When I’m Aligned
When I’m aligned, the way things move around me shifts.
I notice it first in how spaces feel. Rooms settle when I enter them. The pace slows. There’s more room between moments. I stay as I am, and the environment shifts around me. I feel less friction in my body as this happens, like something unnecessary has dropped away.
Conversations change shape. People pause more before speaking. They choose their words with more care. What matters rises without being pulled forward. Silence holds without effort. What needs to be said finds its timing. Conversations meet me where I am. I stay present, and the exchange unfolds.
I notice a difference in how people relate to me. There’s less urgency in what they bring. Fewer projections. Less grasping. The interaction feels steadier, more mutual, as though we’re meeting on level ground.
Support arrives in clean ways. Messages land when they’re needed. The right person responds. Timing makes sense without explanation. My words land without repetition. What’s aligned moves without pressure.
When I’m aligned, my actions feel precise. I move when something is mine to do. I stay still when it isn’t. There’s no internal pull to intervene or hold things together. I trust the movement and the pause equally.
My presence stays intact. And from there, things organize themselves.
Let Go of Proving
I stay with myself and let that be the center of how I move. I give my attention to what feels steady rather than what pulls at me for response. I speak when something is ready to be spoken, and I allow silence to hold what doesn’t need words.
I follow what draws me naturally. I allow my choices and timing to stand on their own. I respond to what meets me in alignment and allow the rest to pass naturally. This keeps my energy intact and my presence available.
I tend to my body and my nervous system as part of how I live. I rest when she asks. I adjust my pace when I feel tension rise. I make room for quiet and for pauses, trusting that clarity returns there.
I give my energy where it flows easily and where exchange feels mutual. I let alignment handle selection. Support finds me in ways that don’t require chasing or effort when I stay where I am.
This way of moving feels settled. There is less urgency and more space. I’m here, listening, responding, and letting life meet me as it comes.
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Grateful for my growing capacity to remain present. Thank you, Spirit. Àṣẹ.
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