I like to kind of think of our inner world
as
having different components. And I think the better we get at understanding
what's goes on in our inner space, the better we get at understanding how to navigate through it
and take care of all the parts properly, and
align ourselves with a deeper truth, and not get caught up in kind of a
chatter and nonsense that kind of comes from different parts.
I kind of see us as having
these two extremes. One is fear-based and one is love-based. So, on the fear side
is kind of all these negative, difficult emotions, right? So we've got
pain, sadness, hurt, frustration, anger.
If you really get to the core of all those difficult emotions there's usually some
sort of fear,
fear that you're not gonna be liked, fear that you're not good enough, fear that you're gonna mess up.
There's usually a fear that
elicits these uncomfortable, negative emotions. "Negative."
And, on this other side
are love-based experiences, right? Joy, happiness, playful, you know
all the yummy, delicious stuff.
And, so, oftentimes
when we can understand our inner space,
we get a sense of where different parts of us are coming from
in a particular moment.
And, I think that ultimately, when we talk about mindfulness, or consciousness,
we're not trying to hang out in "A"
right? If this is "A" and this is "B," we're not trying to hang out here, we're trying to hang out
and see. Which is kind of like the mama bear that hugs and takes care of all of it,
that's not attached to making it always have to be happy and wonderful,
but isn't avoidant, and getting rid of,
and hating on all that difficult stuff.
It's hanging out in a space that really encompasses and allows
all of these to be part of us,
and takes care of them properly. All of these difficult things are where we
learn, are where we grow.
If we didn't have these parts of us,
life would always be great, and happy, and everything's wonderful.
But there would be no
challenge, there would be no opportunity for growth, we wouldn't get better. Whenever you hear an
inspirational story, it always comes from the fact that there is this really dark,
difficult, horrible situation
that you learned from, and overcame. That's where the learning comes from,
and oftentimes we don't see these difficult parts of us
as this beautiful opportunity for growth. We're often frustrated and hate on all these parts
of ourselves.
So, ultimately
it's a matter of learning how to take care of these parts
and embrace
all of it. And the more that we kind of enter into this "see" part, this "mama bear,"
this loving acceptance of everything, the more we actually end up experiencing
all this joy, and this beauty and these experiences. Because we've taken care of these
parts of us, our "see" parts enough to let them pass through, and this kind of
starts to fill up even more. But, it's not a matter of trying to be there. It's
actually lovingly embracing all of it
which ultimately allows us to spend more time here than we expect.