Topic: Going with the flow
There has been a theme emerging over the past few weeks of how incredibly changeable everything is. It seems at though the fluctuations of emotions have been exaggerated lately. I have noticed this with myself as well as with those around me. Even people who have previously seemed even tempered, have few emotional up and downs seem to be impacted by the rapid shifts in experience. I almost have to laugh when I think of my own reactions to the continual changes. It has gotten to the point that when I am feeling sad, upset, or on top of the world that I smile and say- “I wonder how many minutes I will feel like this before the next wave of completely different emotion takes over”.
There is this tendency that many of us have to hold on to emotions, both negative and positive. We feel great and think ” I want this feeling to last forever” or we feel horrible and can not seem to move on, choosing to linger in the pain and not let it flow through us. This old way of being does not match with what has happened around us energetically over the past few years. Life is indeed speeding up. Along with time seeming to fly by at increasingly rapid rates, our experiences and therefore emotional reactions to those experiences also seem to be changing ever more rapidly.
In the past we could hold on to emotions and experiences for longer periods of time. New experiences and new feelings came to us more slowly. This allowed the luxury of being able to linger in a particular experience for a while. It allowed us to linger in thoughts and feelings. It allowed us to be able to continue to feel ok even when we were living in the past or the future. This is one dramatic difference in the energy shifts we have experienced in the past few years.
The energy now is rapid. A major experience happens and due to our old conditioning we want to linger and sit in our thoughts and feeling, but then a new major experience comes before we are ready to let go of the last experience. I have found myself doing the same exercise with friends and clients lately, as well as doing it myself. I am thinking that this is an important experience for us all to notice because it illustrates just how different things are now from how they were just a few years ago. The exercise is to think about an event- maybe its something you are looking forward to. Maybe you have a feeling about a change that is going to happen. It could be knowing that you are headed for a new job, a new relationship, a new place to live etc. Imagine you have a sense of this change but know that it is in the future maybe a few months away or maybe a few years away. If this does not seem relevant to you than imagine a time in the past that you want to bring back. Something you miss or wish you could experience again. Those moments of the past that you find yourself day dreaming about. Let yourself get lost in the fantasy of that place in the future or the past. Notice what you are feeling inside as you live out in the future or the past. Notice the physical and emotional reactions you have in your body.
Now let go of those thoughts and bring yourself to the room you are in now. Look up from the computer or the cell phone and notice the present. Notice the room you are in, the people around you. Notice the experiences that are happening now. Take it one more step and notice something that is good about right now. As you have an appreciation for what is happening right now notice what you feel inside. Notice again thoughts and feelings. Notice your body’s reaction to being right here. Take a few minutes to do this exercise and fully be present with it without feeling a need to read further right now.
I have a feeling many of you who took the time to do this exercise felt very similar things to what I have felt when I do it. When I think about the past or the future events I get butterflies in my stomach. I feel anxious about what might happen. I feel anxious over what has past that will never return. There is a desire and a unsettledness way inside me if I indulge in thoughts about the future or the past. Then when I shift and just notice where I am right now the feeling change. There is no anxiety or fear. There is no unsettledness. Mainly I feel content and calm. I also have this feeling that right in this moment is where I belong. Not out in some version of the future or clinging to the past.
This exercise is important because it shows the new way we need to be in the world. This is not to say we should never make plans for things, that we should not have goals for our future. We need those things to outline possible paths we can take. We just need to really make sure we are not living in that future before its time. The same is true of the past. I am not saying to forget the past and never allow memories to enter our minds. Those memories should enter naturally, not in a forced way and they should be let go of and not clung to. They should be appreciated and then released. When we stop being present we miss out on the experiences that bring us to the futures we are creating.
I often hear guidance within me and this guidance continually reminds me ” do not focus on the destination you know you are headed for, the experience and the joy is in the journey”. I sometimes get upset at this advice, but in the end it is true. I am happier and more calm, I enjoy my life more when I sit back and take in the journey along the way instead of trying to “keep my eye on the prize”. Its like walking a gorgeous path, through lush gardens to get to a friends house and never noticing the beauty around you because you are too focused on getting to where you are going.
This month focus on letting go of the emotions. Letting them flow through you like you are a screen. Experience the ups and downs and know that they are temporary. Growing ever more temporary each day. Do not cling to the ups, because in letting them go you will allow space for future great experiences. Do not cling to the lows, keeping yourself in misery because you can not move on. Allow them to pass and surrender the need to try to avoid the lows. They too are increasingly temporary. Stay in the moment with whatever you feel and then let that moments pass as you experince what is next . This month when you notice your mind focusing and resting on some future place or some past experience, when you notice yourself clinging to emotions, take a few moments to look around at what is happening in the present and find at least one thing to appreciate about right now. If you can find more than one thing all the better. Enjoy all of your nows.
With Love and Truth
Eve
innerguidance@evetoomey.com
