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No matter how I tried to finish sentence, I kept coming back to that simple word, all by itself, no qualifiers.
No qualifiers? Just allow everything and everyone? But some of those people and things are a little crazy. Do I allow them to be crazy? Well, why not? For some reason that I can't understand, they have chosen to be crazy. It needn't affect me, not if I can understand there is a lesson in craziness for them. I have my own lessons and I know I would like others to allow me to learn those lessons way I need to learn them, way that I will learn them.
Allowing includes allowing me to be me. And by allowing myself full range of human emotions, by being a person who loves, gets angry, knows joy, feels resentment, cries, feels tired, experiences satisfaction, in fact by feeling every emotion and admitting (and therefore owning) that emotion, then I can be a 'perfect' human being. For that whole range of emotions is part of human experience, and keeping those 'unacceptable' (by whom?) feelings bottled up, I'm only short-changing myself.
And I've noticed that people who never allow themselves to get angry are really always angry, proverbial fire keg ready to explode. Yet how many times have I noticed that 'getting it out of my system', through yelling or tears, does actually that, it gets that feeling out of my system! Experiencing feeling isn't bad, it's living it, staying in that negative mood that's unhealthy.
And allowing ourselves to feel, really feel, emotion we're experiencing is what living in moment is all about. Yet there's a big difference between living in moment and living for moment. There's no sense of purpose in living for, while living in allows us to take all information we need from this moment, whether it be joyful or sad, and bring it into our next moment.
I found myself worrying about staying in moment, worrying that I wouldn't 'move on' with my life. But more experience I get at living in moment, I find that I make better, more informed decisions about what next moment will be. Better decisions than when I spend all of this moment worrying about what happened yesterday or what's going to happen in future.
And moments are controllable! When I live in moment, decision to stay, or move on, is definitely something that is in my hands -- and moments I can handle. Yet each moment is a forever, when we are truly in it. Learning to allow and to live in moment is, I'm finding, anything but simple. Or perhaps I should say it's incredibly simple, just not easy!
It's hard to break old habits of fear and guilt, but more I can do that, more assured I am that that's way I want to live. How do you start? By noticing where your attention is at any given moment. For example, this moment, right now, is about reading this article. If you can remember what I've written, essence of it, then you're living in moment. If you can't, then take a deep breath and read it again. Then check in. Do you remember gist now? Congratulations! And welcome to moment!
(c) Louise Morganti Kaelin. Louise is a Life Success Coach who partners with individuals who are READY (to live their best life), WILLING (to explore all options) and ABLE (to accept total support). Find many free resources to assist you in living the life of your dreams at http://www.touchpointcoaching.com For her free newsletter of insightful, practical suggestions for creating your best life, email mailto:on-536@ezezine.com