“But if you travel far enough, one day you will recognize yourself coming down to meet yourself, and you will say – YES”
Marion Woodman
As humans go through life and age with the seasons, the chances increase that they will move further away from themselves. What do I mean by this? Well… life is sometimes chaotic: there are bills to pay, mouths to feed, and many things we tell ourselves we should be doing. All in service of getting somewhere. That somewhere is always outside ourselves. Somewhere out there is not here, now. It is not you. It is what you think you should be or must do.
Society, culture, people… they all influence this idea that the present moment exists in service of tomorrow; of what could be. In turn, people miss the now. The wind blowing through the tree right in front of their eyes. The sweet laughter of a child playing with toys. The embrace of the one you love. These moments are precious and worth savoring.
In order to soak in the beauty of life, to really feel it… one needs to come home to their body, their soul, their essence. Simple for me to write. Much harder to practice. Most people split off from themselves with their mind. A mind that thinks it is in charge. I see clients riddled with anxiety and consumed with obsessions that split them off from their true experience in the here and now. Anxiety and obsessions live out there…. They live in concert with one’s perception of what should happen tomorrow. Beneath the surface of anxiety, is the illusion that one needs to control.
What if you let go?
What if you acted like your 3 year old self and colored with crayons…
…or stared in awe at a palm tree?
Each of us is more than our thoughts. More than our anxieties. And much more than a machine producing outcomes.
Today is here.
Live it.
Be IN the day.
Notice the little things.
Come home to yourself.
Come home to the place that existed before the world told you what you should be doing or how things should be. Stop shoulding on yourself! You are worth existing. You are worth being. You are worth having a lived experience right now. It’s hard to undo years of wiring, and coming home to yourself may take practice. It has taken years of practice, failing, and getting back up for me to be in a place today where I can truly say my home lives within. My hope is that you find yours. The door is unlocked, will you choose to walk in?
blog also published on PTSD-ADHD Website