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Patsy Rodenburg

As Director of Voice at London's Royal National Theatre and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Patsy Rodenburg, OBE is recognized as one of the world's leading voice and acting coaches. She directed the Royal Shakespeare Company in London for nine years and her film credits include collaborations with such directors as Mike Nichols, Franco Zeffirelli and Sam Mendes. Her work has extended to many non-theatrical areas, including teaching voice and communication to business executives and lecturing on vocal care and listening skills at the Royal College of Surgeons in London. She has given courses for teachers and politicians and has taught Shakespeare as Therapy in British prisons.

Learn more about positive presence

Being present is thrilling, inspiring, absorbing, surprising and maybe frightening, all at the same time. It is the energy you feel when you know you are alive, the energy of those moments that writers write about, singers, sing about, and the dying remember on their deathbeds. We all yearn to be present and to be met by others who are equally present. We are lonely without these encounters. Presence enables you to honour, understand and empathise with others. A leader’s presence inspires confidence in followers. A parent’s presence makes children feel cherished and secure. A lover’s presence thrills and satisfies the beloved. When fully present in your spiritual life, you encounter the divine.

Think about this. You know when others are not present with you. You feel ignored, dismissed, unimportant and detached from your surroundings. You feel alone in a relationship when you partner is not present with you. Lovemaking becomes just sex. A candlelight dinner for two becomes lonely and disturbing when one or both of you are not there. Walking into a party with no one recognising your presence becomes a humiliating experience. The streets of our neighbourhood are dangerous when you walk them without being present to each other. The meeting at work becomes infuriating when you speak and no one hears you presently. A doctor talking about your body and well being without being present to you is alarming. A priest not present at a loved ones funeral makes the grief worse. No relationship can work, be it with partners, children, friends and colleagues without both parties being present with each other.

Presence is the energy that comes from you and connects you to the outside world. It is essential to your survival when threatened. It is the heart of intimacy between people and although you can live your inner world, without presence in yourself, the outer world will appear dull, stale and flat. It is when you are fully present that you do your best work and make your deepest impression.

You also will realize that being present to life is critical not only to your well being but also to the well being of everyone around you. It is an act of community. It is an act of personal intimacy with others. It enables the success of an individual but also enables the success of a family, society and team. I truly know this book will ignite you into your full presence. You came into the world with hope and aliveness – you were born with positive presence and this book will help you learn to remember and channel this vital energy into every aspect of your life.