Presence: A Chat With Olivia Rosewood & Mereki Beach

So,

Rikki,

I'm so excited to be chatting with you.

I'm here in Austin,

Beautiful Austin,

Texas.

And thank you for kind of figuring out the math of the time difference.

I think it was you.

I think you figured out the time difference.

I tried.

I'm in the English countryside,

And I'm very honored to be speaking with you,

Olivia.

So thank you for making the time.

It's my pleasure.

And I'm super excited about Presence,

Your song.

And I feel like what I wanted to ask you from the moment that I heard it is kind of what inspired you to create this beautiful piece of music.

That's so kind.

The single Presence was really inspired out of quite a challenging time.

As a collective in this world,

Have been through a couple of years of it.

And it was a difficult moment for me.

And I was pretty deep into rereading Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth,

Who obviously speaks a lot about the importance of Presence.

And I was picking up different spiritual texts here and there.

And really,

Like a lot of us,

Just doing what I could to make the most of every day and try and keep it together.

And this concept of Presence just kept on coming back to me in each moment.

And I really realized that that was the only answer.

Everything was so difficult.

But if I could really put into practice this concept of coming back to this moment right here,

Then there was nothing wrong.

Things were wrong in the past,

Things could be wrong in the future.

But right here in this moment,

It was perfect.

It is perfect.

So I wanted to take this and I wanted to put it into my music.

And it was one of the last songs I recorded for the album,

Actually.

And I'm super happy with how it turned out.

I also didn't want it,

You know,

It sort of bumps the track.

And I wanted it to be fun.

I grew up listening,

You know,

My parents were alternative and there was spiritual music that we would listen to.

But it was quite rare to find positive messaging.

It's very tricky,

I think,

To put positive messaging into music without it sounding trite.

It can be a bit naff.

And so the challenge was to put this positive messaging that was very real for me,

The messaging of Presence.

And insert it into a modern pop song in a cool way,

You know,

In a way that it would be something that I would want to listen to.

Because the truth is,

When I write these songs,

You know,

They flow through me and there's some thought behind them sometimes.

But at the end of the day,

I always,

When I end up listening back to them,

Whether it's when I'm making them or a year from then,

Or five years from then,

I'm always so grateful for the songs to speak back to me.

Yes.

That's so beautifully said.

And I'm so,

I love that you were raised in an alternative kind of family.

Like,

I love that.

And I'm so uncool myself.

I don't even know.

I don't know what naff means.

I wonder if naff is Australian.

Naff like a peeper.

I think it's just cool.

I think I just,

I'm just like.

No,

Naff is like a little,

It might be Australian.

Naff is just like a little uncool,

I guess.

Naff.

Okay.

You know?

I guess I'm naff.

The irony.

You're definitely not naff.

You are like,

You are the true cool,

Olivia.

I would never say you are uncool.

Everything you do is a total inspiration to me.

So I was very honored and feel very blessed that you were able to make a meditation to go alongside the release of Presence.

Because when people listen to this song,

If they listen to this song and this song speaks to them,

I would really,

You know,

I really wanted there to be something practical that they could use,

A tool to help find their way into Presence.

Because for me,

I'm definitely not singing this song and saying,

Oh,

I figured it out.

You know,

Like,

I'm not singing this song about Presence and being like,

Oh,

I've yet I'm present in every moment.

No way.

I'm very human.

And I want,

But I still want these concepts to be accessible,

You know?

And so your guided meditations are a really perfect introduction to that.

Thank you.

Well,

Your words made me think that,

You know,

The people in my life who've said like,

I've got it all figured out.

They so don't.

And so and the people who have,

Like you just said,

Who've expressed,

You know,

I'm still human.

It's a constant kind of realignment.

Those for me have been guiding lights.

You know,

So just in saying that,

I feel like it gives you a lot of credibility.

And the meditation that I created,

Actually,

You know,

You really inspired because Presence is,

It's very difficult to harness,

I feel.

And so in my life,

It's been a big part of my life.

I traveled with Eckhart Tolle,

And I learned a lot from him,

Not through what he said,

Because he would often say the same things over and over again.

And he would joke about how he says the same thing over and over again.

But he said,

You know,

I really just teach one thing.

But what was great about him is that he also embodies it.

So he does walk the walk of Presence,

If you could say that.

And there are so many different ways to be there,

To be present and to find Presence and to talk about Presence.

And so I feel like it was really helpful to talk about with you kind of what inspired you and what got you into the experience of Presence,

Because it's a beautiful subject to talk about,

But you can't figure it out.

You know,

It's something to practice and the practice isn't always easy,

You know.

Eckhart said,

And I don't know if he was quoting somebody else,

But he said,

It's Presence is like a candle.

And when you're in the day,

It's barely,

Oh,

I have a candle right here.

Like you can't even tell that it's lit,

You know.

It's like,

It doesn't matter if it's lit or not lit.

It's just almost invisible.

But in the darkness,

If you're in a dark cave,

If you're in a dark room,

And you just have this candle,

It becomes so important.

And so I feel like all of our spiritual work really,

Or I'll speak for myself,

All of my spiritual work really served me when we did hit the pandemic,

Because that was like the lights went out for so many of us.

You know,

So much uncertainty and fear.

And those are the times when these spiritual understandings,

Whether you're coming through Buddhism,

Or through Advaita Vedanta,

Or through Christianity,

Or through whatever your religious or spiritual framework is,

That's where your real understanding beyond the intellect can come into play and serve you like a candle.

Yeah,

That's such a beautiful metaphor.

And I even just listening to you,

It resonated so much with me brought tears to my eyes,

Because that's exactly how it was.

You know,

I've been meditating daily for a while and have been,

You know,

Digging into these spiritual texts.

Casually,

You know,

I'm not a professional like you.

But they really,

When it comes to those darkest moments,

And I guess that's a lot of my seeking was born out of,

You know,

One of my darkest moments as a Mariki was when my father passed away.

And that was sort of what set me off on this journey of seeking,

Seeking within,

Seeking for greater peace within,

I guess.

And yeah,

When the pandemonium hit,

It really,

That idea of the candle,

So it's just so true.

And I was able to keep it lit longer than I think I could have otherwise.

And presence,

That's just it's so funny,

Because it's such a simple answer.

And it's the most complex answer on the planet,

Because daily,

You know,

I struggle with presence,

I think I'm just grateful that I have this awareness around it.

So when I noticed myself like,

Oh,

Why am I feeling very good this morning?

And it's,

It's all you know,

Nine times out of 10,

It's all I'm living in a future that hasn't happened yet,

Or I'm dwelling in a past that is over.

Right?

I,

You know,

Actively,

Actively seek to bring myself back here where everything is perfect.

Some days it works better than others,

But I will never stop trying because in those moments is pure joy and bliss and life.

Yes,

Yes.

And I,

You know,

You said I'm professional.

It's the same.

I mean,

This is why I'm a professional because I need these practices so much.

Not because I'm at all perfected,

But because I need to constantly bring myself back.

And it's funny,

Funny is not the right word.

It's amazing how easy it is to forget,

We can have these spiritual awakenings,

These deep spiritual soul seeking experiences.

Like I can only imagine how hard it was when your father made his transition to to navigate that and I'm sure you went really,

Really into deep,

Deep exploration there.

And yet it's not a lasting,

For me at least,

It's something I have to constantly realign.

Every day.

It's a daily practice.

No,

It really is.

And it's a practice.

Like you said earlier,

It's like it's a practice.

Yeah,

Not in line.

I've definitely not lined yet.

Gotta keep going.

We do,

We sort of look at these holy figures and we can look up to them and reaching that enlightenment or that Zen.

But the truth is,

You know,

99% of us are,

We're human beings and we're having a human experience and I think it's about picking up as many tools on the way so that we can not only find joy and bliss,

But find truth in ourselves.

You know,

The journey for me has so,

So deeply been about,

Yeah,

Figuring out how to manage my emotions and my grief and,

You know,

The millions of different things that we come across as human beings,

But really trying to get to the center of me as a person,

Self-realization and being able to encompass that person that only I can be on this planet.

And I think the same for all of us.

Yes.

And it behooves our whole planetary community,

I think,

For all of us to work toward that.

And also something that you said reminded me of kind of when I try to,

Well,

I often try to work everything out myself.

You know,

From my family of origin,

My young adult life,

I'm a very self-sufficient person.

However,

I find that when I practice meditation and I get quiet enough to connect to the presence that I experience is almost like an energetic web that it connects all of us.

It's intelligent.

It's compassionate.

This is just what I sense.

When I connect with that energy and I allow that to be part of my doing,

It's almost like things lean toward me instead of when I'm trying to do it with my go-to,

My reflex from my childhood or whatever is to go,

Go,

Go,

Go and like get it myself.

It's almost like I chase my good fortune away.

So when I relax just a little bit and allow myself to feel like right now,

To feel how safe I am,

To feel gravity,

To notice that this glass is very solid and protective and just to feel how safe the air is around me right now,

To come into that feeling of being safe and held by,

I guess you could call it presence or the universe or universal energy.

When I invite that into my being,

It's as though the world also opens a little bit and life itself flows more easily.

And I guess for some people,

This is just really obvious,

But for me in my daily life and my daily practice,

Working,

Parenting and relationships,

It's something I have to constantly remember and invite back into my life.

I guess another metaphor would be that we're like fish swimming in an ocean and we're searching for water and it's just all around us,

But we all have these traumas and we close ourselves off from it.

And it's just a question of kind of reopening and allowing that to be part of our flow.

I don't know if you feel that.

Oh,

Definitely.

I was just bathing.

I was just bathing in your words.

I was like,

Yes,

Yes.

Keep going.

Yeah,

I feel like you sort of beautifully encapsulated the goal,

Right?

The goal,

Everything's all.

Yeah.

And then look,

We come into this world with different circumstances and as different people and with different tools and parents and financial situations,

And I feel very blessed that I've been able to in my life sort of spend time with trying to figure all of this out and with getting to a place where I know the things that can help.

And yeah,

I want to share that wherever I can.

So I hope that this song and these meditations and the whole record can sort of share my years and years of digging very deep to try and figure some shit out.

I feel like it's incredibly brave of you and inspiring.

I feel like your humility and your softness is actually incredible strength.

And that's also a Taoist teaching that the strongest comes across as the softest.

And I think it doesn't take a lot of strength to kind of pretend like,

But I'll figure it out.

It takes a lot of strength to say,

This is a daily practice and I'm human.

I just really admire that,

Because we do have the choice.

You don't have to be vulnerable.

And I think it's so beautiful.

I think again,

With my dad passing away,

I did sort of have to learn to be a little bit more vulnerable because I would have imploded.

It's funny,

It's very sweet.

You're calling me very soft.

But I'm a triple Aries and I feel like my family was saying otherwise.

But I completely agree with you.

Vulnerability is the strongest,

Bravest thing you can do.

And I love that there's more talk and there's more literature and things about exactly that now.

Because it's cool.

It's cool to be honest.

I have to check in with you about what's cool.

It's the coolest thing.

It's like what's cool about pretending to be someone you're not or pretending to be okay when you're not.

There's nothing cool about that.

What's cool is being able to be yourself wholly and being able to be honest about being human.

This is a wild ride.

Yeah.

I love the use of your word,

Holy,

Because it's just like a life of one off for me.

Maybe that's what it really is to be holy.

Wow.

We'll do some animation afterwards and we'll do the speech bubble out of their heads.

I want to see a halo on you.

You're being too kind to me.

But Marike,

I wonder if you want to talk about practices that serve you.

Definitely.

And I do think that daily practices are very unique to each person.

But the thing for me,

I have to wake up in the morning and I have to get some time by myself.

So,

If that's waking up ahead of whoever's in the house,

Then that's something I need to do.

It's funny.

I spoke to a girlfriend about this the other day and she was like,

Yeah,

You need an hour to yourself to remember who you are and your place in the universe.

I was like,

Yeah,

Exactly.

I really,

Because some people wake up and they're like,

Ding,

And they're there.

I am not.

I am far off in a distant planet and I need to come back.

And exactly that,

Ground.

And I journal each morning.

So I wake up,

I make a cup of tea,

I journal.

And it's not journaling like,

I don't know,

Journaling sounds cool.

My journaling is not cool.

My journaling is literally like,

Just like,

Almost like grocery list journaling.

It's emptying my brain of whatever is in there so that I can be free of that and move on.

I then do my daily meditation practice.

I use Insight Timer.

Mostly it's just sound bowls.

But occasionally if my brain is a little too full,

I do love using,

Oh,

It's probably 50-50.

If I'm feeling like I'm more present already in the day,

Then I will just use a sound bowl,

You know,

Heart chakra,

Or there's different options.

If I'm feeling like my brain is quite full,

I love a guided meditation because it just helps get me back on track.

And sometimes I'm feeling a little,

You know,

I can be impatient.

So sometimes I'll choose the,

You know,

The 10-minute gratitude meditation guided just to get me back here,

You know.

So I love that.

And then I will come back to my writing books and I'll either write some poetry or I'll write a book.

I'll generally read an excerpt out of whichever,

At the moment I'm reading The How,

Which is an amazing,

Amazing book actually.

But sometimes I'll do page openings from Eckhart Tolle or Thich Nhat Hanh.

Just something to align my day with the frequency that I want to continue my day on.

And from there,

Yeah,

Hope for the best,

You know.

Love that.

I think that's so beautiful and really helpful,

You know.

What about you?

What are your,

Do you have a morning practice or maybe a morning and an evening practice?

I actually said to my partner recently,

I'm like,

Should I really be teaching spirituality or meditation?

And he said,

You know,

You teach what you need sometimes.

And what he observed is that I sometimes realign myself by kind of listening to that intuitive part of myself.

And I sense a real difference between my mind and my intuition.

My intuition is always right on,

But again,

It's that ability to open to it and not be overwhelmed or taken over by the logical planning mind part of things,

You know,

To anchor back in to presence.

I can imagine that when,

You know,

Like the meditation that you made for presence,

For example,

I can imagine that to be able to speak those words for that length of time,

You have to be in alignment with presence to do that.

So for you,

Are you sort of saying that your practice is in your teaching,

In your work?

It does come through my work and also actually Eckhart said this once that he will be speaking and it's almost like channeling.

Words would come out of his mouth and his mind would say in his thoughts,

Like,

Oh,

That's good.

I have to remember that.

I have to try that.

So essentially I need to practice every day and often I make practices for myself that I need.

And really for me,

The daily part is crucial.

And for me also the Tai Chi part,

The physical part is really important because my body.

Sorry,

I'm just like,

That's the part that I haven't quite nailed down yet.

I know that a daily Tai Chi practice or Qi Gong practice would be,

Would be,

Yeah,

Would really,

Really round things out for me.

I can help you with that.

But it definitely does for me.

I like to think of my body as like a pet,

As my pet.

And so just like with a dog,

You have to walk your dog,

Brush your dog,

Feed your dog regularly,

The appropriate foods,

You know.

I really feel differently when my body is involved in a spiritual practice and when I'm bringing light into my body and when I'm careful about what I put into my body,

It makes a big difference for me.

And I know some people feel like it shouldn't,

Like,

Oh,

You should just rise above it.

No,

Of course.

I really feel it.

And that's very individual as well.

I didn't touch on physical health,

But that's a huge part.

I mean,

The physical aspect of all of this is so important.

And for me,

Grounding,

Putting my feet in the earth every day is super important for me because I tend to be up here trying to float away with the fairies.

And I live on this planet,

So I need to connect.

But moving my body every day and yeah,

Eating well,

Because when you eat well,

You tell your body and your mind that you care about this body and this mind,

You know.

And I find such a difference if I know that I have nourished myself,

If I have cooked for myself or made sure that I got the right nutrients into my body in this day,

Then the feeling that the self-love that I can find for myself is greater.

I guess which is a little presence off topic,

But again,

It goes back to the whole,

The holy.

And so,

And that brings me back again to the kind of full circle halo of what is presence for someone who's just maybe watching and they've never been involved in anything spiritual.

And so many people who are,

You know,

When I traveled with Eckhart,

My companions were all in their 60s.

I was 20.

And it's a mature thing to be interested in spirituality.

And often people my age or your age don't come to it yet.

For some reason,

You both you and I have been drawn to it for a long time.

But for people who are just,

Maybe they hear your song and it opens them up or sparks their curiosity.

What would you say?

What is it?

Presence for me is I guess a feeling of alignment with this moment when I can feel like my mind and my heart and my body are here in this moment and then this moment,

This moment,

They're not scattered in different directions.

So that's what presence is to me.

I would love to know what presence is for you.

And I would also just quickly before we finish up,

I would love to know,

Dig a little into what some of Eckhart's presence practices were,

If you knew,

Or like,

You know,

Like what you witnessed when you were with him in terms of how present he was.

Yes,

Yes.

Well,

I think presence and actually I'm feeling inspired right now that we could make a 10 day insight timer course exploring presence and the different ways to access it and describe it.

And I wonder if presence could also be described as presence of spirit or instead of using those words,

You could also use say the presence of divine love.

Certainly in every spiritual tradition that I've explored,

Ultimately we're talking about divine love.

And I would say that being present in the here and now opens the window to let in this reality like a breeze or like a ray of sunshine,

Which is divine love,

Like a veil is lifted.

So maybe presence can also be beyond being present in the here and now or because of being present in the here and now,

Presence is what can happen.

And that's an experience of overwhelming,

All pervasive,

Divine love,

Either a direct experience of that reality,

Which is always there,

It's always happening.

You just have to open to it or through someone seeing or being in that true reality of divine love,

It flows to us,

It touches us,

It's contagious.

So coming into this place of being in the moment,

It opens me up to this really high level of nourishment and inspiration and feeling that connection,

Feeling in community with everything around me,

Including my houseplants,

Feeling really at one with all it is.

I feel like so much of our culture revolves around giving little tastes of presence through substances,

Through purchases,

Through clicks.

It's like you get a little taste of presence,

But it's a tease because it's ultimately diminishing returns,

Whereas when you practice consciously,

You're getting snowballing benefits.

It's just more and more benefit as opposed to less.

So yeah,

For me,

In a nutshell,

Presence would be coming into a very natural way of being that is often obscured by neurosis,

Desires,

Thoughts of the past,

Thoughts of the future.

All of these aspects of life are pulling us,

And that's kind of the definition of stress,

It's like pulling a rubber band all these different directions.

And when I'm fully present,

I feel like the rubber band is just calm,

Relaxed,

Not stretched.

It's funny,

We get glimpses into presence,

I feel like,

When we do something that we love,

Right?

When we do something that we love,

Or perhaps something that's really challenging as well.

Today we were recording a song and Danny had to do these hand claps that were so complicated.

And he actually said,

It's amazing,

I can't think about anything else whilst I'm doing these because it's taking up,

It was a really,

It was like a funny pattern.

It's taking up all of my everything in me to focus.

So yeah,

I think we all have glimpses into presence in different ways.

And I think for me,

The daily practice of presence,

The daily practice of bringing my thoughts back into alignment with this moment right here can just bring more joy to my day and less stress,

Like you're saying.

That's the goal,

Right?

It's like,

Yes,

In us away from our daily stresses,

Our daily anxieties.

And it feels like so many more people seem to suffer from anxiety nowadays.

And I think grasping onto any tools we can find that can help us have less time with anxieties and stress.

Yes.

And I would say to add to that,

When you're fully present,

You can bring your most inspired,

Complete,

Connected self to your work,

Which is like bringing the universe to your work,

Bringing the power of presence to whatever you're interacting with,

As opposed to bringing a fragment of yourself.

Yes.

Yeah.

Even when there's a lot going on,

We all know what it's like to have a really busy week and to have lots of moving parts,

But I think we also all know that if we can be calm and centered about all of the moving parts,

It's always the best way forward,

As tricky as that is.

Anyway.

Yes.

And you were asking about what I observed Eckhart.

I would love to know.

Do you want to know?

Well,

He's like,

He's the father of presence.

To me,

I mean,

He is kind of the father of presence in modern society,

Right?

I don't even know.

I could be wrong.

Maybe just to me,

In my family,

I grew up,

You know,

The power of man.

Well,

To me,

He's really big.

But then I often meet people who have no idea.

I do too.

So yeah,

To me,

He's a huge part of my life,

But I have no idea how,

I hope that if you're watching this,

You check out the work of Eckhart.

Yes,

Definitely.

Speaking of presence,

About him is that he would be backstage and the audience would be really loud,

Like thousands of people,

Super loud.

And as soon as he was ready,

He'd be backstage,

He wouldn't be coming out.

There'd be no change to the lighting,

No announcement.

As soon as he was ready and about to come out,

The whole audience would just,

Wow,

Like a lion,

You know,

Wow,

Stepped into the power.

But the power of presence,

Right there in existence.

Wow.

People could just sense,

Oh,

Something's about to happen,

Just the energy shifted.

And then what he would do before speaking,

He didn't have a formal practice.

And he doesn't align himself with any particular teaching.

But he would sit in a chair or lay down.

And essentially,

I mean,

I would observe him just kind of merging with the sacred or the divine,

I don't know what you would call it,

But he would just open himself for a few minutes of total silence.

And when he would go in front of the audience,

He would never prepare.

He would really,

What I perceived was a listening,

Like listening with all of his being.

And then he would just start speaking and captivate,

You know,

Thousands of people.

And then he practiced being present with everything he did,

So whether he was sipping a glass of wine or water or eating,

He just,

It's almost like he refused to go anywhere else,

To rush.

He refused to be sucked into that.

So another practice of Eckhart's,

That again,

Wasn't a formal practice,

But something I observed and learned a lot from,

Is that he would set aside time to do nothing.

And he really would just do nothing.

And you know,

It reminds me of Albert Einstein,

Who got his best ideas in the bathtub or going for a walk,

Just when there was this quiet spaciousness.

And also Eckhart was very playful.

So one day we were visiting with Eckhart and my daughter was just old enough to walk and kind of run around and she would chase the cat from room to room.

And Eckhart would chase her from room to room.

And for a long time,

There was just giggling and meowing and giggling and meowing as they ran around the house.

So this kind of behavior is rare in our culture,

But it's important to maintain our humanity,

Our ability to just do nothing from time to time,

To just be open and also to play,

To keep playfulness in our lives and our life experiences.

My mom always used to say,

We're human beings,

Not human doings,

You know,

And I come back to that.

I come back to that a lot.

Yeah,

It's good.

It's really good.

But I love hearing that.

It must have been an incredible experience being around that kind of energy.

Yeah,

It's like taking a drug because when you're around somebody who has that much energy,

You feel it as real as kind of being washed over with.

Yeah,

It's very powerful.

But ultimately,

We all have to learn how to generate that for ourselves.

We do.

Yeah.

So,

Yeah.

Well,

It's been an absolute honor and delight to talk to you as ever.

And thank you so much for all of your work around this release.

It just feels really meaningful and important to me that you've been involved.

Well,

Thank you,

Marike.

And your song and your work is really meaningful and important to me.

And thank you for being the creative being that you are.

You know,

Really grateful to know you.

Very grateful to know you.

Blessed.

Thank you.

Thank you.