I have to tell you about the coolest story that illustrates how we create the feelings in our bodies out of thin air. I really love this one. So I’m doing webcam sessions with one of the graduates of Gulf Breeze Recovery, the drug and alcohol rehab facility where I work part time. She learned all about the Three Principles there, and she’s really kicking, despite some challenges in the current set up of her life. She’s learning how to “relax into it” and live from her wisdom more and more. Here we go…
During our first session after she’d gotten home, she told me about the most awful feeling she had when she drove up to her house and walked in the door for the first time. She said it was like a “huge gloomy weight. I felt sick and it was hard to breathe, kind of like a panicky feeling.” Wow! A full-on nauseous feeling… the mind sure is powerful. I didn’t bat an eye when I heard this because it makes total sense given the circumstances. And in a minute it will make total sense to you as well, if it doesn’t already. I actually thought something like, “Wow, that’s so cool!” Again, the mind is very powerful.
I asked her how long this feeling lasted, and she the rest of the day and night. She woke up and it was totally gone, though. So for several hours, basically. We’ll take that. It beats a few days or weeks, and it beats an alcohol relapse. And here’s the cool part. It could have easily lasted only a few minutes, certainly less than an hour, with more understanding and practice. That’s why I tell all the current guests at GBR this story so that they’re prepared. But the rest of the day is not bad at all, so I say to her GREAT job!
Next, we talked about where this feeling came from, and as we talked she knew. The memory of her alcohol issue came flooding back in the moment she walked through that door. In just an instant, without the time to consciously do any remembering or thinking, her mind brought to the surface all the lies, stress, guilt, shame, regrets, and energy consumed with hiding this habit from her fiancé and her daughter. It all came flooding back at once, and the body did what it always does – it reflected what was going on in the mind. That’s all a feeling is, after all – a reaction to thinking. And most of it is not conscious thinking. It’s more like how we’re seeing things at that moment. So it all came up and the body felt a “huge gloomy weight,” which was both nauseous and panicky. Wow, what amazing creators we all are… seriously! [Hint: we’re probably going to focus on this last sentence some in the future here. I did it with a feeling of frustration this weekend and the feeling vanished, leaving me clear to see what it was I was frustrated about. And it was an awesome growth experience].
We’re living in a world of thought, folks, and the more you see it in action, the less heavy it is. It’s lightening up for me all the time. I even had some chances to practice this weekend! I love this story of the huge gloomy weight because it’s so extreme. It shows us how real it can seem. She literally felt like she could throw up! And it’s anything but reality. How do we know this? Because her fiancé and daughter didn’t feel a thing. Nothing! She alone created it and she alone experienced it. Wow. And we’re doing this all the time!
That’s pretty much all I peddle here and at my coaching & counseling practice, an understanding that this is what’s going on for all humans all the time. And each year that passes, it sinks in more and more deeply. And more and more peace emerges. And that huge gloomy weight eventually becomes a joke. Before long I’m going to introduce the idea of asking some “wonder questions” about these feelings so that we can take a deeper look. All in time good time. Happy practicing, and let me know if I can help!