awareness tools
Living Fully: Riding the Waves of Ups and Downs
“I feel something is missing in my life,” “I don’t feel unhappy but I don’t exactly feel happy either.” “If only I had / I were / they were…” Many of us are chronically experiencing mildly depressive moods such as these in everyday life. These moods are so subtle that they may not be even detected as being ‘down.’ However, if left unconscious, you would be just stuck in that place while seeking temporary comfort in certain kinds of food, mind-altering substances, behaviors, or relationships. You might also just swing between high and low moods without much self-awareness.
It is not the intention of Inner Awareness to encourage you to become positive or ecstatic all the time. Rather, we believe that it is more important to be fluid with what life presents, in other words, to be able to ride the waves of ups and downs with awareness. It means to learn to shift your perspective and get in touch with the 'compassionate observer' who knows that both ups and downs are part of life. From that place, you may have the curiosity and wakefulness to dive into your experiences more fully.
You would be surprised when you consciously try to deepen the so-called ‘down’ moments, you will also find precious experiences.
A phone client of mine who leads a busy life raising a child, working, and socializing with people, one day had a flu and a fever. Normally you would think fever is not so pleasant and should not be there. In her case, it was not a dangerously high fever but enough to keep her in bed for a couple of days. Despite the fever, she called me for the phone session at the appointed time.
Although I could see she tried to talk normal, I noticed that she talked slower than usual and there was also a lot of silent moments. So I encouraged her to notice the inner feelings and go further with the ‘feverish and down’ experience with awareness. What she discovered was that she actually found it comforting to be in that fuzzy, cloudy state. Moreover, it gave her a sense of being protected from the outside world where she usually felt like she had to answer to everyone’s needs.
We had to end the session here because of her condition. Maybe her next step would be to really integrate the sense of comfort and of being herself, and furthermore, be like that even when she is with other people.
In the same way, are you fully embracing the moments that you love? For example, you see a flower in the street that you find pleasant, but you might just take a note of it and pass by. Instead, by allowing yourself to stop for a while and fully go into the ‘flower experience,’ you might find, for example, that it is the bright yellowness of the flower that actually attracted your attention. By really savoring the bright-yellowness, by seeing it, feeling it in your body and so on, you may have quite an ecstatic and joyful moment.
There are many other times and situations where you can stretch out of your habitual mode and use your imagination and creativity. In our upcoming tele-workshop, we will be sharing with you various possibilities and awareness tools that would help you ride the waves of ups and downs and embrace life more fully. For more, click here.