Can you relate?

‘If we are able to allow the fear or hate – embrace it, hold it, and feel it fully in its totality – in all its texture, colour, and vividness – we will give it space to be itself.’

– A. H. Almaas

I’ve been reading The Unfolding Now by A. H. Almaas. The book is all about getting present and it is suggested that in order to get present you have to understand your mind, you have to notice the wanderings of your mind and give the wanderings no power.

Which to be fair isn’t really new news. It’s the foundation of meditation – that is to notice your thoughts, acknowledge them, and not get caught up in them.

Since reading the book, the biggest thing I’ve noticed is that it’s helped me to disengage from my ego and helped instead to forge a more playful relationship with it.

There are a couple of things (as always) that run through my mind incessantly. Past times. People. Situations. Depending on the day and my hormones the story can be on repeat and what I’ve noticed since my playful ego relationship has developed is that I’m able to laugh at and laugh off the incessant ramblings – with much greater ease.

The way it is suggested to do this is to simply notice what you’re experiencing, notice that the same thought is there and then tap into the FEELING it is generating! And then allow yourself to feel whatever it is. WHATEVER IT IS. No judgement, no analysing, just a ‘Hmmm well there you go’ sort of acknowledgement.

I used to get caught up in the principles of the Law of Attraction, in that if my feelings were negative then surely I would be attracting more negativity. But the funny thing is, the more you’re able to let yourself be with whatever you’re feeling in that very moment the quicker it passes through you. Rather than judging it and thinking ‘damn, am I really thinking this again?‘, or ‘f*&%k why am I feeling like this!?‘ you instead just notice it, welcome it, thank it and then see where it takes you.

For me personally I’m finding that the less I resist what my mind is attempting to do the more space I create. And for me, more space means more peace. I’m literally witnessing my thoughts and feelings (energy) transform into something new. Not necessarily good, not necessarily bad – just something new.

The simplicity of it has blown me away.

We are so geared to judge our feelings. Unless we are happy and feeling joy we’re more or less judging what we feel. And even then, when we feel happy and joy we start to freak out that it’s not going to last and so as a result move ourselves away from feeling the happiness.

Feelings are supposed to be felt. They’re not to be judged. Feelings change, constantly, and the better we get at being ok with them changing the less we resist what’s coming up. For as we know, what we resist persists!

‘Everything becomes much more itself, since all the veils, all the projections, all the concepts are gone. We perceive without anything intervening, so everything is naked as itself.’

– A. H. Almaas

 Simply feel the feeling and see what happens.

A practical way of doing this is to name the feeling – either out loud of in your head. Say I feel sad. I feel anxious. I feel overwhelmed. I feel like a loser. I feel frustrated. I feel little and small. I feel joy. I feel excited. I feel bliss. Stay with the feeling for a minute or so, breath and tune into it. Embrace it to the brim. And I guarantee it will move through you with grace and ease and transform into something new.

Give it a go. 

Photos thanks to Pinterest