Just Be With Them

I remember about 12 years ago asking my then-bestie, “What do I do with these awful feelings?” His reply: just be with them.

WHAT? How do I do that? How can I possibly just be with all of this discomfort? How can I be with my racing mind? How can I just BE?

The problem isn’t that I ask the questions. No, the problem is that the answer comes through daily living. The universe says, “OH, you want to know how to just BE? Let me help you!” And the next thing I know I’m collapsed from emotional distress on my shower floor. Oh man, so many of my lessons were hard to learn. Sometimes they still are—but usually when I fail to listen to my inner wisdom.

Don’t let me mislead you; listening to my inner wisdom doesn’t make life easy. It makes it … make sense … bearable … purposeful … fulfilling … fruitful. Easy? Sometimes yes, sometimes nooooooooooo.

Learning to just be allowed me to hear my inner wisdom. It allowed me to tune in, to sense my own feelings, to hear my own thoughts, to see my own dreams. Learning to just be with those painful feelings helped me to have dignity in turmoil. It helped me to support rather than sabotage myself.

There is so much treasure to be found in just being with whatever arises. I was talking with one of my yoga friends the other day, and he reminded me of the saying that goes something like this: we practice so that we can respond intelligently to whatever arises.

YAAASSSS.

Life’s going to be life. Sh*t is going to happen that we don’t expect. People are going to say and do things that trigger us. But as we learn to be with ourselves, we learn to be with others, and we ultimately learn to be with life.

What about you? What has your experience been with your inner wisdom? What has your experience been with “just being?”