Here’s a Primer on How the 5 Inner Steps Will Become Second Nature During Our Year of Presence…
Happy New Year, friend!
Check out the quick, presence-inspiring, baby goat video above and notice your inner state shifting as presence arises within.
Mainly today though, I want to answer a simple question:
How do the 5 Inner Steps actually become second nature?
Because, that’s the real promise of our Year of Presence in 2026:
Science-based training to live with more presence through five inner steps that become second nature.
👉 If you’d like to walk this Year of Presence together, become a paid subscriber to get the full Presence Shift Masterclass system and the weekly Presence Shifts as our Year of Presence begins rolling out on January 4th, 2026.
Why a Year of Presence?
The past few years have left a lot of people feeling:
Stressed and scattered
Tired of their own anxiety loops
Numb or disconnected from what actually matters
If chaos, numbness, and distraction are what you practice most, they quietly become your “normal.”
Personal growth is feeling different from how you felt in the same circumstance before.
So, our Year of Presence is about changing what normal feels like—not by forcing yourself to “be calm,” but by repeatedly walking the same inner path back to presence until your nervous system recognizes it as home.
That path is:
Answer → Intend → Focus → Flow → Begin
Your 30 trillion buzzing cells & a new default
You’re made of roughly 30 trillion buzzing cells.
Those cells:
Tune themselves to repeated patterns of thought, feeling, and action
Learn what to expect from your days
Decide which states feel familiar, and which feel strange
If you regularly:
Answer what kind of day or moment you’re actually in
Intend to become present for the next a few minutes
Focus your attention into this exact moment strategically
Let presence Flow toward one small next step
Begin that step next from presence
…you’re teaching your cells a new pattern:
“This is what coming home feels like. We always know how to get here.”
That’s what it means for the 5 Inner Steps to become second nature.
One simple ritual, revisited all year
We’re not building a giant toolbox of techniques.
We’re repeating one ritual in many situations:
Answer – “What kind of day (or moment) is this for me right now?” Honestly.
Intend – “I intend to become fully present over the next few minutes.”
Focus – Gather 100% of your attention into something simple: your body buzz, your breath, gravity, sound, light — and then strategically deepen your experience of presence.
Flow – From that present state, let one clear next step for your real day come into view.
Begin – Actually start that step from presence. Your Presence Shift isn’t complete until you’ve begun.
Throughout 2026, we’ll walk these same 5 Inner Steps in different formats:
The Three Introductory Presence Shifts – See One, Do One, Live One (audio-first, based on the Masterclass book/movie story)
Weekly Presence Shifts on a range of topics in 10 / 5 / 2-minute versions (after the first Foundation week)
The Presence Shift Companion – an interactive guide for presence shifting in between Masterclass videos and audios (coming in March 2026)
The Presence Shift Masterclass Book (later in 2026)
The Presence Shift Masterclass Movie (later in 2026)
Different formats. Same nervous-system ritual. To complement your experiential learning, you’ll also receive Presence Notes describing the science behind each Presence Shifts you receive.
A year of small, real experiments
In your Year of Presence, you’ll experiment with Presence Shifts designed for real patterns like:
Morning dread / waking anxiety
Night-time anxiety / can’t turn my brain off
Social anxiety / showing up as myself
After-conflict jitters
Before high-stakes moments (talk, test, performance)
Numbness / flatness / “I don’t feel much”
Grief waves
Midday overwhelm
Evening decompression / letting the day land
Getting unstuck on your next step
Most weeks, paid subscribers receive:
A 10-minute guided Presence Shift (often with video)
A 5-minute core ritual version
A 2-minute micro-shift you can do almost anywhere
You’ll use them like mini-labs and ask:
“What happens if I Answer honestly before I check my phone?”
“What happens if I Intend to be present before a hard conversation?”
“What happens if I Focus on my body buzz instead of my story for 60 seconds?”
“What happens if I let Flow choose one small next action and actually Begin from there?”
Over time, those experiments are exactly how the 5 Inner Steps become second nature.
How this fits into your onboarding arc
Here’s how this post fits into the rest of your starting flow:
Dec 7 – Trailer: a first glimpse of The Presence Shift Masterclass Movie.
Dec 14 – A 10-minute introduction video post: a story-driven orientation to your Year of Presence.
Dec 21 – Science Post #1: your inner conversation and the new psychology of change (The Presence Revolution).
Dec 28 (this post) – Science Post #2: How to treat 2026 as your Year of Presence, and how the 5 Inner Steps become second nature.
Jan 4 – Start Here: Your Year of Presence + Presence Shift 1 – Foundation in full (your first full guided ritual).
From there, we move into:
The Three Introductory Presence Shifts – See One, Do One, Live One (Audio Masterclass style, starting in January)
Then into the mostly weekly rhythm of 10 / 5 / 2-minute Presence Shifts for the rest of the year
And the launch of The Presence Shift Companion as your interactive guide between Masterclass sessions
You can return to these December science posts anytime you want to remember why this works at the nervous-system level.
You don’t have to do this perfectly
If your Year of Presence ends up being:
20 Presence Shifts fully completed
30 half-completed
100 tiny moments where you remembered to Answer honestly and take one intentional breath
…that is real training.
Your nervous system doesn’t care about perfection.
It cares about intention, clarity, and repetition.
Every time you walk yourself through:
Answer • Intend • Focus • Flow • Begin
you’re reinforcing the same inner path—teaching your 30 trillion buzzing cells that presence is home.
This is what I mean when I say:
“A cultural revolution is underway from practicing presence with mindfulness to ‘living presence’ by strategically shifting into a fully present state of being every time we notice we’ve lost our connection. I call it The Presence Revolution.”
In 2026, we’ll walk our path toward presence shifting mastery together.
One Presence Shift at a time.
Stay present,
Sean
Sean Sullivan, PsyD, is a clinical psychologist and creator of The Presence Shift®, a science-based, 5-step ritual for presence shifting in real life moments.
Emotional Safety Notice & Warning
The statements on The Presence Shift® have not been reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration. This project is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. The Presence Shift® is not intended as medical advice or as a replacement for professional health or mental health services.
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