I just had a profound thought that I'd like to share.
I read a book a few months ago called The Open Focus Brain, which talks about different ways of paying attention.
One part of the book discussed if you are feeling pain- physical or emotional- that it's your bodies way of communicating something, and that by paying attention to your pain, you acknowledge what your body is saying. After paying attention to the pain it often lessens or disappears.
I'm feeling sad today. Normally I try sort of ignore that sadness...I would pay attention to other things..I dig into my work.
Today I decided that it's ok to feel sad, and that in order to release it I need to FEEL it.
I then thought about other things that would hurt you if you held on to them, and came up with this analogy:
If you pick up a scalding iron, and you don't feel the pain, holding onto that iron is going to cause quite a bit of damage to your hand. BUT...if you FEEL the pain...the searing of your hand, you will let the iron go and less damage will be done to your hand then if you held on to it.
This goes back to the message of The Open Focus Brain. When I first read that part of the book, I logically understood it. But after today I GET it.
Another analogy that I thought of, but I don't know if it will hold true...
If sadness is like a sandwich, and we only allow ourselves to feel a little bit of sadness at a time (taking a nibble of the sandwich), then it's going to take a long time to finish that sandwich. It will probably start going bad and growing mold if we spread it out over weeks and months (festering emotions, anyone?!).
Perhaps if we really feel the sandwich.... if we eat the big bites in a couple of sittings, then the sandwich is eaten and gone, without the mold.
I will try not to ignore this sadness. I will acknowledge it, FEEL it, and move through it.
A thought from early this morning:
There's nothing wrong with being emotional. I've had people tell me I'm emotional like it's a bad thing. I say F**K THAT!!!! If there wasn't emotion, we wouldn't have great songs, and great art, and people that are working for change. If there wasn't emotion, we would be zombie like.
Emotion makes people uncomfortable when they see it in someone else. I'm done with living my life because things I do make people uncomfortable. It's not about you anymore. Now it's about me.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it!
