Presence: The Art of Being at Home in Yourself

In 20 short, gem-like chapters, meditation teacher Tracy Cochran invites us to explore living fully in the present moment as a revolutionary practice.

Tracy’s vibrant essays from her storied life give plenty of encouragement to reframe and dive deep into our own experiences.

Mindfulness offers us a way to be fully in the present moment--and as we start to embrace this practice, we learn that our lives are made of present moments. That gift of presence is the palpable experience of awareness that appears when we remember to be mindful of those moments.

In 20 short chapters, Cochran encourages us to see presence as a living force--and to recognize and explore how that shows up in our lives. She offers riveting and relatable stories from her life--a spiritually transformative wine-making trip in France, a near-death experience while being mugged, managing her feisty child while on a retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh, among many others--and Buddhist teachings to encourage us to see the power of presence to illuminate and transform our past, present, and future.

Cochran’s observations and reminiscences are wise and pithy, and she gives us plenty of encouragement to explore and reframe our own experiences.

​TRACY COCHRAN has been a student of meditation and spiritual practice for almost 50 years. She is also a long-time teacher, as well as a writer, the editorial director of Parabola Magazine, and the founder of the Hudson River Sangha, in New York. She teaches at the Rubin Museum, the New York Insight Meditation Center, and in schools, colleges, and at multinational corporations. Her writing has appeared in Parabola, The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Psychology Today, O Magazine, New York Magazine, the Boston Review and many other publications and anthologies.