Hyper Focus Results in Being Present

Today being Christmas day, I spent eight hours with my family. My family and I don't get on too well. We have such different perspectives on the world that there is very little common ground to bond over. Love is mixed with pains and animosity. Some members I love, others I prefer to love from a distance. There is one that I'd simply prefer stayed at a distance. This makes my family events exercises in forbearance.

Today, I woke up practicing the hyper focus as I mentioned in yesterday's post cleverly entitled Hyper Focus. Given that I was tired, I wasn't as good at it the second time around. I wasn't paying attention to each movement and the like. I did succeed in being very present.

Being present at the family function morphed it from controlled anger to a pleasant time. There was good conversation. People that don't normally hug me hugged me. The person I would prefer would simply stay at a distance was actually warm and loving.

There was a brief moment of annoyance. A continually present non-family member was there. She has always annoyed me. It didn't matter if she was perfectly civil or not. It was just a personality issue. I simply don't like her. There is no animosity or bad blood. Tonight at dinner, I was present -- the observer. I found that being present made me more aware of my subtle bodies. I could feel her aura pushing on mine. This was the source of annoyance I've always had with her. I pushed her aura back a bit and strengthened mine, problem solved.
I will never be friends with her. However, I doubt I will be so annoyed the next time she is around.

It occurred to me this being present in the moment may help with my frustration issues at work. If I take each phone call, email and request as something totally new and attach only enough history to put the request in terms of customer service, I may succeed in being less frustrated. We shall see.