Short Eckhart Tolle teaching (YouTube video) explaining that becoming immersed in anxious, problem-focused thinking pulls one out of presence. Tolle notes such people appear absent or unconscious, may not truly see or be present for others, and perceive others through conditioned, judgmental thought patterns.
You are immersed in the problem making anxiety inducing stream of thinking. All your consciousness is absorbed in that stream of thinking. When you observe a person who is very much in that state, you can see in their facial expression that they are completely absent. This is the opposite of present. They are completely trapped in the unconscious thought processes. And if you talk to them, there's hardly anybody there even and they don't really see you. You're not really there for them. And if they see you, they see you through the veil of their conditioned thinking, which is all kinds of judgments that they immediately have about you.
Why alcohol feels like relief, and what it is really giving you | Eckhart Tolle
