Oh yeah… THAT feeling
12 08 2007
They may not admit it, but I have never met anyone who doesn’t know THAT feeling. It is an inner thing, like a gulp - the same kind of gulp that forms a lump in the throat when we’ve been found out. But this lump usually forms deeper than the throat, felt instead in the chest, the solar plexus or the gut.
It usually creates anxiety, and it happens when we are challenged. Sometimes the challenge is not all that deep, but inevitably, if you keep going deeper and deeper inward, you are going to encounter it. Got a tough change or improvement to make? It’s always there. Getting bit by the same thing over and over? It will easily defeat you. And typically, when it flares up and exposes itself, the recoil occurs. “I’m outta here,” we say. Placed there like a traffic barrier, its presence detours us from going further down the inner road.
Putting on a happy face on the outside, but life’s not quite right on the inside? This inner recoil is one of the greatest problems we face. And we nearly always deny we are recoiling.
How right you are brother. I have experienced that feeling often enough to know it, and it always means I have work to do on some aspect of my life. Thank you for the kick in the gulp
Peace and Many Blessings!
Make so much sense - thanks for sharing
Yes, Irving. After a while it is nice to begin to view that feeling as a good friend, not an enemy or threat to be feared.
Thank you, Nasra. I hope Oman is well.
I love what you just wrote… to know that feeling as a friend, not an enemy or a threat to be feared. I’ll try to take that advice!
I’m so glad to see you post again. Welcome back, dear friend.
Yes, Jon… a friend. There have been many times, however, when I have found it very difficult to view and experience that feeling as a friend. But I compare it with anything that feels scary at first, like the first time riding a roller coaster or going on an airplane or having surgery. At first we are scared, but then after going through the experience we often look back on it and smile at our fears, or even laugh at someone else who is the latest novice preparing for their maiden experience. Maybe we need a name that describes the realization that something that feels like fear or anxiety is actually our ally.
What an amazing coincidence that you were talking about this. I’m in a situation where I have to confront what I realise is long-term bullying - and one of the biggest issues I face is this feeling welling up inside when confrontation takes place (or even at the thought of it). I shall think long and hard about taking it as a friend.
Welcome back, btw - you’ve been sorely missed!
Nice to see you back!
Peace Mark
A perceptive post, as always. Yes, the gulp! I know what you mean. In times gone by, I would ignore it, but once you know it’s there, it really never goes away until you face the thing you fear.
Ya Allah!
Abdur RAhman
Indeed.
Diving headfirst into fear-type things oft evaporates them.
Oh yes, I know all about THAT feeling! And nothing brings it on stronger than a misunderstanding with someone else. Change also usually brings this feeling into my life. Sometimes it feels like sick butterflies crawling around my stomach, not the happy fluttering butterflies.
Hope you’re doing well, Mark!
I think of fear as the most elemental of negative emotions. Of course, it’s a positive when reality based and avoidance is called for. But much of it isn’t that and is an impediment to getting on with life.
Hi Mark.
I often find myself getting up from meditation just as it is beginning to really connect! It’s a powerful mechanism isn’t it?
Best wishes to you, Rob
Mark! You are soooo missed. Please blog more often, or come visit my blog, or email me and say hi or something!
((((hugs)))
kay
PS - “Unforgetting” is gone. Gone long gone.
This world they say is an illusion….a dream. Our thoughts and actions are like threads of a net that we weave around ourselves. A veil has been drawn over our mind’s eye and we live out our lives bound and blind folded. Life, they say is a play of shadows through which most of us sleep walk.Few have awakened from this sleep and have tried to show light to the rest of humanity. They succeeded only partly, passing away, leaving behind empty forms to be distorted and misused by their followers.Holy books, sacred messages, rites and rituals, they say, are mere shells. The spirit within, having long departed, along with the Messenger. These shells and forms are mere signposts for those who seek the formless…..and only the true seeker, they say, will find the Path.
http://ashodara.blogspot.com/