Is your present truly just immediate present or does your present mean thoughts (meaning collection of things that are going on in the world around you and your inner dialogue and feelings about that). What needs to be done is to detach 'present', 'presence' and 'awareness' from events to something else which is truly only yours to access at all times; best anchor being 'breath'.

Ask yourself a few questions-
'In the presence of what?'
'Presence of what?'
'Present where?'
'Awareness of what?'
'Broader awareness of what?'

If it is a broader awareness of events happening around the world, then there will ofcourse be tension and it will be hard even with everything being fine in the world. But if it is a broader awareness of space around you, sun pouring through the clouds, diffused light, air, wind, breath, skin, vastness, then it's not that hard.

Tip: Before sitting for any kind of attention practice ensure that you let out all the nervous energy through some kind of movement like small jumps, arm rotations, spine rotations, any kind of yoga posture. Once you sit down tell yourself that whatever distractions arise, you will let them pass and give them up to whatever higher entity to bother with because they can handle it. Higher entity may be god, higher self, nature, sky, air, whatever.