Many of us live day to day in a precarious balance, just barely able to tolerate the amount of stress we are under, our fears and anxieties about the state of the world around us, and the subtle yet powerful fear that we are not really living in our life as we should or wish we could be.
These fears come together to form a kind of malaise, and then when we are cut off in traffic, or have a difficult conversation with a loved one, or a bad moment at work, the balance tips and we are angry, enraged, or in tears. Sometimes, in moments like these, we wonder what is wrong with us, or what is wrong with the world, or, perhaps more often, we think to ourselves that there must be more to life than this.
I am continually amazed at the power just allowing ourselves to be has to transform this precarious balance into a grounding in our inner strength and joy. When we are caught up in stress, we tend to feel that we have to "figure something out", but truly, the key is so simple, yet often elusive. When we learn to have faith in ourselves and our way of being in the world, when we become okay with just being who we are, a tremendous burden is lifted. Some discover this through spiritual seeking or recovery from an addiction. Some discover it in the yoga studio or on an extended retreat in nature. And others find that the therapy room becomes a retreat nestled in the midst of one's life, which suddenly makes it okay to feel.
However it is found, it is a universal experience. It is the universal experience of the joy of just being, just being who we find ourselves to be, right here, right now.
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