Stillness 9-9: The bright and shiny things we’re drawn to are not better than what we already have. The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence. A peaceful life, if your life is busy, is not necessarily more wonderful—and nor is the opposite true. Isolation as a single person is neither better nor worse than the stress of having to take care of a family or cope with a struggling relationship. It’s just different.
Sometimes life might feel harder or more unsatisfying than at other times, but that’s when we can change our mind about it. We can venture out of the deep dark woods, and climb down a strange, slippery staircase to a new adventure. Most of us live the lives we’re living for good reasons. It’s not usually a new life we seek but a new way of looking at the one we have.
How? By trusting our feelings more. Talk to them as though they were a beloved child. Be tender toward them instead of cross and impatient. Be kind. Be patient. Ask them for more details and clarity. Learn to trust your feelings more than your over-busy, critical, judgmental mind.
Let your imagination soar into the exciting, delicious, fairy-tale world of your emotional life. You’ll discover usually that you don’t have to quit or move or give up—it’s that you need to enjoy. Free yourself of preconceptions and expectations. You can’t think your way into freedom and change … it has to be felt.