The body is at the table, out on a walk or in a conversation, while the attention is somewhere else. Yesterday's remark, tomorrow's obligation or a scenario that may never happen keeps spinning in your head. The day goes by, and you are left with the impression that it never really happened.
If this sounds familiar, you are not the only one it happens to. Living “in your head” is the usual state of a mind that runs on old patterns. In the books of Dr Jelena Đorđević, the answer to this state is called conscious presence.
This article explains what presence is, why the mind runs away from the present moment, and what simple exercises look like that bring your attention back home.
What it means to be present
In the book The Path of Knowledge, awareness is described as presence in the moment without the prior conditioning and prejudices we carry from the past, and without the fears and desires we project into the future. It is a state in which the mind is occupied neither with past experiences nor with future expectations, but is centred on the present.
In this state we see things as they are, without the emotional layers that otherwise shape our perception. The book Soul Codes says that being in the present moment through conscious presence is the ultimate aim of personal work, and that it can be expressed through the idea I Am.
Why the mind keeps running away from the present moment
According to the book Soul Codes, in order to understand the state of presence, we first need to understand how conditioning affects us. The unconscious mind holds contents that are not currently part of our awareness: instinctive drives, emotional complexes, fears and patterns of reasoning.
When something happens in life that recalls an old experience, these contents are set in motion. The book Codes of Consciousness calls them impressions which, triggered by resonant events, provoke particular emotional and mental reactions. We then no longer react to what is happening now, but to an image from the past.
That is why “living in your head” is not a personal flaw. It is a consequence of conditioning, and conditioning can be brought into awareness.
Observing your thoughts rather than being your thoughts
In the book Decoding the Soul, the key moment of personal work is described as disidentification from thoughts and emotions. This means learning to observe thoughts and emotions as parts of ourselves, not as the definition of our being.
When we stop automatically identifying with every emotion, we gain room to choose how we respond. Instead of being prisoners of old reactions, we become conscious creators of our responses.
Through the practice of presence, people learn to recognise that their thoughts and emotions need not automatically dictate their behaviour. (from the book Decoding the Soul)
The same book points out that presence exercises help to break down dualistic thinking, the kind that divides the world into “good” and “bad”, “me” and “them”, and so creates a constant inner struggle. Presence directs attention to the experience of the moment, without judgement, analysis or criticism.
Presence exercises from the books
Presence exercises are exercises in directed attention. Although at first they seem like affirmations for focus, the book Soul Codes explains that they are in fact a means of going beyond the mind. The book Decoding the Soul gives examples of such sentences:
- “I am, here and now, in awareness and in the body.”
- “I wish for a whole mind to ripen in me.”
- “I wish to become aware of my Source within me.”
- “I Am.”
The book recommends that you focus deeply on the sentence and experience it as intensely and for as long as you can, feeling its meaning. The practice should be repeated regularly, with attention to the feeling of presence.
The book Codes of Consciousness also describes Sri Ramana Maharshi's path of self-inquiry, Atma Vichara, in which one asks “Who am I?” or “What is this awareness that observes all thoughts, feelings and experiences?”. In this way attention turns inwards, towards the source from which thoughts arise, and the mind is observed without involvement or judgement.
This exercise, as the same book notes, is not nearly as simple as it looks. One comes to it gradually, step by step. That is why it is important to be patient with yourself and not to expect the mind to fall silent straight away.
Presence and systemic work
In the books of Dr Jelena Đorđević, conscious presence is not separate from systemic constellations and systemic self-exploration. Decoding the Soul states that without work on the mind there is a risk that the mind will go on projecting old patterns, and that every practice of inner work should ideally end with presence exercises.
Constellations help to bring family patterns to light, self-exploration helps to release them, and presence stabilises what has changed and opens a space of silence. If “living in your head” is accompanied by strong fear or long-lasting restlessness, this practice does not replace professional psychological or medical help when it is needed.
To stop living in your head does not mean fighting your thoughts. It means noticing them, not believing every one of them, and bringing your attention back, again and again, to what is here and now. Every time you do that, that too is already presence.