How Crazy, silly it seems to us, how something so subtle, so seemingly
random, something as S o f t as
Surrender to precisely What Is
could be the undoing of the Ferocity of Anger,
Depression, Desperation.
The flap of the butterfly's wing that E b b s the hurricane.
I want You to know that i only post to this particular blog when I am having a harder kind of a day. As reference to What Is. To make sure it rings true and checks out.
No rhetoric,
no theory.
Depth of Practice.
Breath.
Recovery from Depression as the Journey of Self-Discovery
We generally do not stay in one emotional space. When we do feel stuck in a negative place, this is Depression and we seek treatment.
Recovery from depression is not the polar opposite to this- the feeling stuck in a positive place. Emotion should be like a river, and movement of that river is its current which is very necessary and healthy. A river without a current is a swamp- no matter how pleasant the water is, without movement it is rendered unswimmable. And so movement is something that will happen in our emotions. Practice is the awareness of when you are feeling stuck, noticing it, and returning to center.
How do we do that?
We build practices in our lives using a number of tools, activities, and outlooks, that help us to return when we feel out to sea. We will return, and return, and return again, coming into the understanding that we must go away in order to come back. That we can let go of the fear of sadness, for sadness is one place through which the river flows. It is actually the fear and resistance to the sadness that is misery, and gets us really stuck. The “Swamp Phenomenon” is an indication of resistance to that which is happening. The resistance to what is happening creates stuckness. Our anger at ourselves for “creating” stuckness is the next trap and around the swamp we struggle, driving us deeper and deeper down into its muck. And so instead we begin to let go of stuckness by simply becoming aware of it. Becoming aware to What Is Happening. Recognizing our resistance and letting it go. Allowing for That Which Is Happening, so that it can move, which is what emotion naturally wants to do, in its own time. Again, this Awareness and Allowance is a practice.
Our practices can allow for the inclusion of every emotion without judgment. We can have preference for how we’d like to feel, without its becoming a rigid demand. The acceptance of where we are, who we are, and how we feel in a moment, is the first step in softening out of a very tight spot that perhaps we’ve felt squeezed for a mighty long time.
It is amazing how something so unbelievably simple can change everything. Radical being with exactly what is.
You may be thinking, “This author obviously does not understand how I feel. I am depressed, I am stuck and there is no way that I am going to accept that. This all sounds good and it’s totally unrealistic.” Awesome. Perfect thing to be feeling and thinking. None of this is easy and discussing it as if it is, is not honoring the significance of how what we call depression, feels. What we can do is choose to soften for a moment, and consider everything as a simple hypothesis. However you feel, you are certainly not to blame, and no one here is saying that “hello, all you have do is… and you’ll feel better.” What is being offered here are possibilities.
Possibilities to be taken in from a soft place within you.
Notice your brain tearing them down one by one, telling you why they are ridiculous and will not work for you. Let the brain do its thing, and softly take in these hypotheses anyway. The place within you that softly reads on in spite of those thoughts, is far more powerful than mind. The mind is a kicking little brother having his tantrum, seeking attention. Within you is a remarkable and loving older sibling who gently ignores him, and in the meantime, takes care of the home and fills it with a feeling of peace and quiet.
We are That.
"The peace that passes understanding."
We include the mind. We are not the mind. We include the emotions. We are not them.
Endless l o v e.
Donkey is guru. Slaying the Dragon with so much love. Drown it in the Love you are :
