Somehow you post the exact thing I’m always needing that day ❤️ Felt myself feeling such a wave of sadness on the plane, not knowing from where exactly. My mind wanted to make sense of it, to attach to a reason — “my life is so good so if I feel sad, does that make me a sad person?!” Instead of to find a reason, what my heart could’ve used in that moment was just to be with it. To hold my body where it was feeling the sensations of the emotion, and have gratitude for the ability to feel. I’ll be thinking of this a lot today: “When you resist sadness, it lingers. When you identify with it, it becomes identity. When you allow it - without clinging to it - it passes through. You are not meant to suppress your heart. But you are also not meant to drown in it.”

This is the real work 😮‍💨 the observer doesn’t demand and scream at us to give it attention in the same way our thoughts and emotions might scream at us. It’s gentle, subtle, peaceful. I once heard a Christian writing that what is meant for us will not shout, chase, or force itself. Rather it meets us quietly, in peace. You know when you first open your eyes after waking up in the morning, and no conscious thoughts have entered your brain yet? Just empty and neutral. Just this morning, I had that empty brain and began to meditate right away. But then, my brain ‘woke up’ and the noise started to flow in like thoughts clocking in for their shift at work. “I am a photographer, I am not doing enough, I am failing, others are doing more, X person in my life did this to me, they are wrong”. For a split second, I felt the stress and anxiety of these thoughts. But then an interesting thing happened… Because I noticed their arrival, I realised they weren’t there when I first woke up and therefore didn’t have to stay. They were visitors. And what was left in their place was just the act of observing. I noticed how uncomfortable it was to just feel neutral. The thoughts so badly wanted to land, and decide that today I feel ABC and I think XYZ. When I stayed with the discomfort and newness of being neutral, the observer was calm and let them arrive and pass. All thoughts are visitors, even the positive ones. I don’t think we need to be the observer all the time, but even just that fraction of space to not identify with anything and be totally free allowed me to breakaway from the negativity that wanted to fill my brain. But it’s subtle work. Which is why it’s so hard. I sometimes wonder if the real purpose of life is not to OBTAIN (material possessions, but even wisdom). It’s to UNBURDEN ourselves of identifying with the thoughts and emotions so that we can be the observer, void and full all at once, free to create anything from one moment to the next.

I so needed to read this today! I’ve been ruminating over some things from the past, and this is my reminder to not let them define me ❤️ I’d love to welcome in the story that I am kind, loved, loving, and human which is a beautiful thing to be

I love hearing the scientific and spiritual perspective side by side ❤️ they don’t oppose each other, they complement each other. Reading this today is one small step that helps me grow the part of me that’s openminded, calmer, and grateful 😘 thanks for writing it