The flames licked up the empty pizza plates,
The rich tender smokiness of the tree fronds long gone in the ash
We all leaned in,
As the light bloomed, illuminating Jason Campbell's face.
He pointed to the coin around his neck.
...
Jing.
Qi.
Shen.
...
Matter.
Energy.
Consciousness.
...
His voice blends in with the heat of the fire and the dancing shadows in the waning light of the day.
Almost as if called forth by summons, as Jason speaks of Energy, I can sense the Energy of everyone lean forward. Pulled toward the fire. Pulled into the moment and the space around us.
The words spoken become not important.
The energy and connection they foster ripples with the flames and dances through the eyes of those watching.
Its the kind of moment where you don't want to be anywhere else.
I am only here, it's only me, it's always now.
Jason points to the coin again.
Where do we begin and end? Where does life begin and end? There's the earth, there's the heavens, we're somewhere in between, but where?
To the outside observer we're just a bunch of people sitting around a fire pit, drinking wine from red solo cups, eating pizza.
Talking about giants.
To those present ...
That's all that matters.
Until you makes the unconscious conscious, it will rule you.
- Akshay Nanavati
The Cornerman Opens the Door
It's Day 1 of The Guardian Academy Event, March 2024.
Two dozen of us sit around the u - arranged tables, facing the front of the room. There's the calm patter of conversation, as the team gets ready for the day.
We're in Joe Polish's office building, where he hosts Genius Network and his 100k group. We're looking at the chairs where just the previous weekend, Lance Armstrong and Joe Polish sat in conversation.
There's a gentle energy. We're looking forward to the start, but there isn't a huge amount of hype.
TGA is like family, and the room is warm and welcoming.
Nic starts us off with a little welcome, a little housekeeping.
He sets the stage by presenting the idea of "Engaging the Field."1 Just sit with it.
Then with little bravado hands the floor over to Dr. Jeff Spencer.2
I had entered this Event thinking I'd be an observer. I, the writer, finally able to be in person could likely see and get a sense of what people are saying much more clearly. So I came to watch.
As Dr. Jeff starts speaking,
And throughout this opening hour or so of TGA, I felt completely pulled into the present moment.
Not an observer.
Compelled to BE.
To show up as clearly and fully and completely as I possible could.
Jeff opens the even with The Human Mindset and The Champions Mind,3 leading us into the idea that No One Wins Alone.
We got together as teammates and discussed what that means to us.
We shared our 6WU from our groups of 3.
Ours - “unique energies combine for true creation”
I didn't even realize what would unfold over the next two days - but that's what came from our 3 minutes together.
Being in the room there, listening to Dr. Jeff brought out something different in me.
What he shared with us was great of course. I love listening to him speak even in the recording.
But in the room it's different.
Because Dr. Jeff shows up with complete and total presence.
You can FEEL it in the room. In the way he speaks and stands and moves. In the calmness of his voice as he speaks of the most important and impactful aspects of a living a life of Full Potential.
After we all shared our insights around Nobody Wins Alone,
Dr. Jeff invited us to stand,
And let us know that now, because of our action, because of our presence together in this room, we were no longer attendees ... we were teammates.
I don't think I can fully communicate the idea of Presence in the written word.
Just like my own experience, I had to be in the moment in order to feel it. I had to be in the room with the energy of everyone else. I had to be around the fire.
I couldn't see with only my eyes and my ears and my mind.
I had to see with my full being there in the present moment.
Full Potential
If you were to reduce The Guardian Academy down to one major benefit, one thing that we stand for and help you with, the one thing that you come here to receive ...
You could say it's To Unlock Your Full Potential, so that you can live a life of meaning, purpose, and impact.
Full Potential has two halves:
There is known potential. Which you can discover in yourself by living, engaging the field, learning, growing, being present.
There is unknown potential. Which you need help to discover. We talk about this as exposure, proximity, and access.4 There are strengths and gifts in you that you may not be able to see or find - but are within you now, and you need the energy and understanding of others to help you find them.
Yin Yang.
Together, they make The Grey Wolf. Known Potential + Unknown Potential.
In order to access both completely, I believe you need to find the ability to come into the Present moment.
This is one of the keys you need to understand to find your Full Potential
Presence is The Beginning
It's the point where everything real and meaningful actually starts.
Because full Presence in the moment, with yourself, with your surroundings, with those around you, with what you are engaging ...
It's necessary to not just "get the most out of" the thing you are doing or the place you are, but to connect completely with those people, those things, those actions, with your full and complete self.
How can you do that without being present?
How can you do that without having Presence?
I didn't realize this completely in "Get Good at Being Bored,"5 but complete Presence with yourself in the moment is all you need to enjoy every single moment.
No matter what is happening.
Whether there's absolutely nothing going on, or everything completely overwhelming happening around you.
Presence is the thing.
It's being in absolute touch with your energetic self, your emotions, your thoughts and ideas, and being in a receptive state where you can connect with everyone else, and everyTHING else around you.
Your Uniqueness Comes From Presence
The Full Potential of your uniqueness can't come from only you.
No one wins alone.
But your uniqueness also can't be discovered if you aren't completely present in the now. With your actions. With your ideas. With your relationships. With your energy and vibrations.
To lack that presence is to live in the past and the future. To dwell and to worry. To make actions and reactions based on imaginary scenarios. Even the real that has happened in the past becomes imagination when you hold onto it in your mind.
It's no longer real because the only thing that is real is the present moment.
In TGA we talk about learning and growth quite a lot. In order to reach your Full Potential and live a life of Purpose and Meaning, you must grow. You must grow into that space.
Growth and learning are application of new ideas in real life.
And it's through that interaction, through that Engaging the Field, as you learn and grow where you have the opportunity to discover yourself.
If you are present.
When you take a new idea, you think on it and then you apply it in The Field ...
The only way to learn about yourself and who you are in that moment is TO BE PRESENT. To connect your full energetic self with the current moment and just be there.
That is what Dr. Jeff does when he steps into the room.
He just is, completely, in the moment. With us. Sharing the deepest most important understanding he can to help us life a live of Purpose, to find our Full Potential. Because that's who he is.
Presence Reveals Demons
There is no light without dark.
We all have demons. They aren't always noticeable.
As a writer, I constantly battle with the Demon of Resistance.6 Whenever I need to write, the Demon is usually there waiting. It battles against the change. It doesn't want to be hurt. It doesn't want to fail.
But I know it. I see it.
Because I'm present in the moment. The more present I am when I sit down to write, the easier it is to see the Demon.
I can sit down at a blank screen and feel that unease, that uncertainty, that anxiety type energy that wants me to go do something else anything else.
And when I'm present in the moment I can sit down and see it.
I can see it and I can say "hey Demon. I'm good. See you next time."
I know it will be back.
Which makes the presence all the more important.
You don't defeat the Demon. You don't destroy the Demon. Because it's a part of who we are. It's not bad. We aren't bad.
It just is.
But when you're in the present moment, you can dance with the demon, and then move on with your day.
Knowing your demons is a part of knowing yourself.
There is no light without dark. There is no strongest part of you without the weakest part of you. There is no motivation to do great things, without the motivation to lie down and do nothing.
There is no center without being off center.
Finding the unique strengths you have necessitates that you find the unique weaknesses that you have.
And in order to see those Demons,
You've got to be fully present with yourself in the moment. When you do see them, you'll find that their shadow reveals the light you are searching for.
Dr Jeff and Energy
Day 2, The Guardian Event, March 2024.
After sitting with the concept of Engaging the Field for most of the event, all of us having experiences around and with each other, Dr Jeff presented another concept to consider.
Energy, and how that relates to our unique being.7
I'm not going to try to communicate completely what Dr Jeff shared with us, but I will say these two things.
(And if you'd like to see the replay, Guardians and Arena Members you have access)
The first is, we relate with our reality entirely through our senses. Taste, touch, smell, sight, sound. Every sense that we have is some form of energy connection, a vibration in one way or another.
The second is that our body is made of trillions of cells, and every one of those cells is made of molecules which are held together by electromagnetic fields. We are all held together completely by energy vibration.
That means each of us has a unique set of vibration energy.
"If you look at all the frequencies of all the cells in the human body, they are a direct representation of who you are as a human." - Dr Jeff
That means we are constantly broadcasting OUR unique vibrations into the space around us.
The Vibe Disconnect
You ever have an impression from someone when they speak with you that they are just off?
Not exactly like there's something wrong with the content of the words themselves, but something about the way that person is sharing those words doesn't seem right.
What happens when you are saying things, or more likely trying to be someone else, is that a dissonance forms between your actions and the actual vibrations your biology is sending out around you.
In other words, when you aren't behaving fully in line with your unique self, everyone else can tell (even if it's subconscious). When you try to be someone else, when you try to meet other people's expectations by doing something different ... that dissonance is inevitable.
You can't hide from yourself and who you are, because you are broadcasting it all the time whether you realize it or not.
Why is this important?
This is presence.
Presence is embracing in the now both your unique vibrational energy, as well as the vibrational energy of everyone and everything around you, AND how you connect and interact with that energy.
The Field
Engage the Field has been an interesting and highly valuable concept. During the 2 days of The Event in March 2024, we discussed this idea in many ways ...
And one concept we explored was what "The Field" really meant.
Especially in retrospect to Dr. Jeff's presentation on bioelectric chemistry and how we are always existing in the now with our unique vibrational energy.
Engage the Field, in the way we speak of it in terms of learning and growth, means to take a new idea you are considering and put it into action in the proper context.
Quick example: Maybe as a business owner you've got the idea that sending a daily email is going to be amazing for your business. Well. Engaging the Field is to just go send a daily email. Show up and do the thing.
Another example: Maybe I think all I need to do to lose weight is do squats at the gym 3 times a week for 20 minutes. Guess I better go do that, probably for at least 2-3 months, and see what happens.
Here's the catch,
If I'm not present with myself, and my intent in those situations, I won't be able to get the benefit from Engaging the Field. Presence implies a level of self awareness and connection with everything going on around you in the engagement in order to fully comprehend what is happening.
You might send a daily email and get good stats from it, but if you are not present in your application of that process, you might not realize that you really hate writing an email every day and it's gonna destroy you to keep doing that.
I might go do my squats in the gym 3 times a week for 20 minutes, in the hopes of losing weight, but if I'm not present with myself through the process, I might not realize that at the same time I’m eating way too much at dinner.
Back to the energy ...
Because there's "The Field" which you overtly engage with (your business, the gym, your health, etc)
And then there's "The Field" which we are all a part of. The energy field which we are constantly engaging with whether we realize it or not.
What if you are present and conscious with your own energy in the moment, what would you see of that field around you?
And what do you think is going to happen if you Engage the Field with full presence and awareness of your own vibrational energy as well as those around you?
The magic of this is you don't need to have the answers to begin.
You just need to recognize you are here and now
Then step into that with intention.
What Presence is and How to Access It
Presence is powerful, and quite simple.
It's when you, energetically, are entirely in the now, and in receivership with everyone and everything around you. That means you are not trying to do, you are just being with, and ready to receive, understand, and connect with everyone and everything around you.
Reading that, I would suspect you either have experienced it and are nodding your head, or you are perhaps agreeing intellectually but don't quite feel it. (Or you think i'm full of crap)
And that's ok.
You can only know presence when you feel it, and you can only feel it when you are in it.
The best advice I have for you to get into the present moment ...
Is to Engage the Field.8
Yes, Engaging the Field well requires that you be present. But I believe if you intentionally put yourself into the field to engage that will FORCE you to be present.
You can't exist without broadcasting your vibrational frequencies and interacting with all those around you.
You can't Engage the Field without presence.
That's your forcing function.
Engage the Field, with intention. With complete intention to put every part of yourself into the field, and to receive what you can understand from that experience.
Don't expect it to be perfect.
Just expect yourself to show up here and now.
Because that's all you've got.
The Arena
And that's why we have built The Arena.
It's the stepping stone that forces you into the present moment with your problems, your ideas, your questions, your unknowns.
You don't have to know the answer.
You just have to show up and TRY. You have to get into The Field, into The Present Moment and try the thing and with receptivity understand the truth of yourself.
The Arena is the step between being an observer through The Guardian Academy, and being a full on Guardian.
It's the place for you to not just Engage the Field, but get support, feedback, and understanding from those who've walked the path, so that you can be in the present as much as possible, and fully grow and benefit from your experiences.
When you are ready to take action, to get into the present moment, to put ideas to work - we'd like to invite you to explore The Arena.
The first official Arena session is Thursday, March 28th.You get on the waitlist to participate here or, if you wanna see what’s going on, drop into the Facebook group where it will be streamed for free. Paid subs will have limited access to the arena and replays, we don’t know exactly what that will look like yet.
We'll be here, in the present moment.
The Events
If you’d like to experience full presence,
We’d love to see you at one of The Guardian Academy Events.
The above came from experiences with Presence during The Guardian Academy Event in March 2024.
You can find all schedule information for The Events here:
https://www.guardiandates.com/
The Biology of Energy and Starting Something New with Dr. Jeff Spencer