The world has pressed pause. Gatherings have been cancelled, restaurants are closed, travel is restricted and life is anything but “ordinary” these days.
Anyone else feel like they’re living in some bizarre movie?
When I was a little girl, I remember wishing for the future. I was sure that Jr. High would be so much better than Elementary School, and then when I discovered that Jr. High was awful, I found myself wishing for High School, and so on… I was always anticipating getting to the next thing.
I know that’s not exactly what we are experiencing now, but the principle is just the same.
Do you find yourself longing for things to just get back to normal?
Are you wishing for something else rather than what you currently have?
Even when the present moment isn’t ideal, or perhaps even close to it, it’s what we have. It is our present, our gift.
The Media’s job is to get people’s attention, and they do that by creating dramatic headlines that startle our brains.
They know that once they have your attention, they can keep it by giving you more and more of the same, and they are very good at what they do.
When our brains see that type of sensational news, it stimulates our fight or flight response. We want to get away from it all, but at the same time, we can’t look away.
It’s like watching a train wreck… ALL DAY LONG.
It makes us despise our current moment, and long for something different.
Sometimes our brains try to get away by fantasizing about the “good old days.”
But when we long for the past, we cheat ourselves out of the beauty of THIS moment.
Wishing this day away robs us of what is ours right now.
Instead of talking about this “new normal” in a way that makes us feel resigned to having less, can we use it to become inspired and creative as we consider what our future can look like?
When we’re just waiting and wishing for things to get back to “normal”, we miss out on the sweet, raw and vulnerable opportunity of inhabiting our lives in the present moment.
Rather than trying to escape by numbing or suppressing our fear, I’d like to suggest that we practice allowing and feeling it instead.
Accepting all of our emotions and allowing them to move through our bodies, gives us the ability to sink into the present and find the beauty of what it is to be a human.
There is so much to love about THIS moment. It’s all that we have, so let’s use it and love it well.
