The Practice of Radical Presence

Anticipatory grief often seduces us into mental time travel: imagining future absence while the person is still present. Mirabai's devotional practice models an alternative: she met Krishna (and life) with undivided attention, fully inhabiting each moment. Radical Presence is a structured practice: when you're with the person, notice the impulse to fast-forward to loss. Pause. Return attention to what's actually happening—their voice, their presence, the specific quality of this moment. This isn't denial; it's a choice. You're not pretending they won't die; you're choosing not to die twice (once in anticipation, once in fact). Mirabai teaches that devotion requires presence; you cannot love someone while mentally rehearsing their absence. Each time you catch yourself in anticipatory grief-thinking and return to now, you're practicing the core spiritual discipline: meeting what is, as it is. Over time, this rewires the nervous system from chronic anticipatory anxiety toward present calm.