I think we have become a society that has forgotten how to feel…or perhaps we just don’t feel because it is easier to go through life numbing out at the situations we do not wish to face. Life passes, as water trickling down a drain…with no reverence for it or contemplation of its sacredness. The water is taken for granted…as is time, people, occasions, and life lessons. The moment has come not only for people to start living in the ‘Now’ but living in the ‘WOW’!
As I continue coaching people in support of bettering their lives, I find that as much as we think we are feeling, it is all surface emotion. The real deep dark emotion is buried and covered, almost protected, for fear of being felt. Out trek through life leads to many scenarios that would allow us to feel deeply: we withstand births, deaths, marriage, divorce, triumph and tragedy…yet rather than to truly feel pain we opt for a lesser more numbed experience of it. By doing this we also do not get to experience the joy as fully…for without one we cannot have the other.
The human race, particularly the westernized culture, is so good at putting on the facade of ‘everything is just fine’. Why? Is it the fear of embarrassment at being seen? Have we taught our generations that it is not alright to feel? Are we afraid that if we feel we won’t be able to turn it off?
Well, none of these are a good enough reason when we see what we are doing to our bodies, our children, and the world at large. We have become a society of pill popping, mind numbing, addicted auto-bodies. Addictions lay all around us and serve to nurture and harvest the greatest dis-ease of all…Pack-It-Away And Deal With it Later.
Whenever something comes about, the natural response is… show some emotion and move on. Just pack it away in a tight little space and deal with it later. As we do this, we harden, become anxiety ridden, increase the level of depression in our country, and prescribe to other agents for the use of drugging ourselves.
For some people it is alcohol, street drugs, or high class meds. For others it has become food. What better way to stuff our feelings than to stuff our bodies to satisfy the needs and wants, cravings and desires, emotions and fears? A lot of people use work… so wrapped up in your work, there is no time to think or feel about anything else and life just passes by. Some people sleep there lives away sinking farther and farther into depression where days become endless periods of night. Our children use television and video games as the addiction to not facing reality. But for most it is sugar… and it is an unconscious addiction. Sugar is probably the worst kind of drug because we don’t even realize what we are doing and it tastes so good. It is in almost everything. Sugar is a known addictive drug and suppresses the ability to feel emotions within the body. If it were introduced today to the FDA, it would be denied saleable because of its addictive nature. Try cutting sugar out of your diet for one month and see the results. You will experience a withdrawal as is typical with drug abuse and then you will experience a surge of emotions.
It is not the purpose of our existence to live as zombies, to dump bottles of pills into our bodies, or run to therapist after therapist to fix our lives. These things are occurring simply because we have gotten away from listening to our inner selves and trusting emotions. It is our journey to experience life and move through fear and pain to experience joy and happiness. All emotion, whether designated as good or bad is part of the human experience and should be relished. But as we lock ourselves away from our own bodies, the ability to know ourselves and our truth becomes banished from the realm of possibilities within our existence. We are so busy doing, we have forgotten how to be…just be. It is time to stop and be in the now. It is time to stop and recognize the WOW of every moment, event, circumstance, and opportunity.
I took my son to his first soccer practice the other night. Beside me was a woman sitting and sewing as her 5 year old son desperately tried to be noticed. He acted out from the moment they got there until the end. He never participated with the group and repeatedly came to the Mom to be admonished back to the field, as she continued sewing. As I watched, I felt sad for the little boy because all he wanted was to be seen, to be watched playing soccer, to have his Mom’s full attention. I felt sad for the Mother also. She had buried herself so deeply into ‘work’ that she was missing one of the greatest WOW moments of both of their lives. Now many may say it was just a soccer practice, he will live through it but what are we trying to get to if not just the experience of one another. Her thought may have been ‘I do not have time for myself.’
Too much credence is given to multi-tasking. How do you experience anything if your mind is divulged in so many directions? It is time to simplify and breathe in what is occurring when it is happening.
Wow moments are only that if we take the time to recognize the importance and sacredness of each experience that we live. The simplicity of a child’s laughter or their attainment of a run across the field has impact on the psyche of a small mind. It is especially impactful to know if you are making Mommy or Daddy proud. How much of our own lives are guided by the constant pursuit, conscious or unconscious, to make our parents proud of us. They are our first Gods until we have conscious recognition of a greater presence among us.
WOW moments are not things that occur at special times, they are abundant in their occurrence. The human experience has fallen into a state of monotony, not allowing itself to recognize the WOW in every single breath, smile, step, achievement, milestone, and accomplishment. Why do the WOW’s reminders have to come after hearing of a death or a loss? Why does it take that type of event to make us remember that each moment is a miracle in itself and a WOW moment?
I challenge you today to stop multi-tasking…to take in each experience and know it fully…to breathe as if it were your first and your last. Allow yourself to drop all defenses and feel fully…Live in the WOW!