Weathering the Ups + Downs and Staying Open

In order to blossom, that requires us to allow ourselves to be open. We have to stop ignoring our experience, our mental-physical-emotional experience day in and day out. We have to witness the highs of joy and ecstacy and the lows of emotional and physical pain with openess. It is intense. But anthing short of that is to die a little to life.

We have to witness our urges, our longings, our feelings, and let them show us the truth. Once you are in-love, you forever know what it feels like to be in love. The glow of timeless being togetherness, savoring of closeness and fulfilment of desire. But we rarely acknowledge that what is also part of that love is the sweet agony of longing, the painful tearing at the soul in parting, and the depth of loneliness before we find that love or when it perishes, not to mention the ecstatic bittersweet pain of longing for each other throughout the development of the relationship.

Where typical Americans are encouraged to become hardened to the raw intensity of experience in order to become more efficient, more rational, more conformed to social norms and mores, the truly conscious person goes in the other direction. Can we remove every barrier between us and reality in all its raw, fearsome, swe-striking, ambrosial beauty? Can we forge ourselves in that fiery intensity of sensation and become open to the world? This enables us to feel everything, to miss nothing, to find inner peace in all circumstances and gives us the strength to live the truth of our hearts and thus an extraordinary life with no regrets.

It requires us to witness it all. The raw, dull ache of loneliness or longing. The sharp tearing of loss. The flush of fire in embarasment and anger or injustice. The open, expansive joy of loving. The feelings of aliveness that comes in all of this. This is real life, this is reality; not the sanitized, vaccuum-sealed consumer friendly version of life that serves corporate bottom-lines well, which we are sold in our ridiculous culture. Happiness doesn't come from giving in to conformity, it comes from knowing and following your very own heart.

Stay open. Witness your experience. Talk to others or rest in stillness on your own. Connect with nature. Use powerful hobbies like music and art and writing to move the energy through you and allow it to become a creative force. Out of the force of our experience in life comes all inspiration and art. From stillness arises insight, from insight arises freedom.