"Being"

For me, today, it is a day of knowing too much. I wish it meant being smarter, but instead, it feels like supreme ignorance. For some "unknown" reason I am hyper aware of everything around me and inside of me. It feels like being engulfed by thousands of watts of electricity. It feels overwhelming and confusing.

I've followed my morning routine of breakfast, meditating, walking then blogging. Normally, this is calming and prepares me to do my day's work, but today, something else is happening. Maybe if I just try "being" with the feeling.

As I wrote that last sentence, I felt that feeling of "being overwhelmed" dissipate. Just being is so simple, but often, so exceedingly difficult. Being right in this moment, just letting this moment happen, can be such a struggle. What a paradox.

And letting go of the struggle can be so freeing. Why don't we do it more often? Why is it so easy to forget that we can just "be?" As a child I didn't forget. I would go about all day just being and no one had to remind me to do it. I just did it. No wonder I had those flying dreams. I spent all day "being" myself, feeling free to "be" myself. At night in my sleep, my mind gave me wings to metaphorically relive that feeling of being so free.

Jon Kabat-Zinn tells us that this kind of "being" is the essence of "self-love."
Jennie Craig tells us that "self-love is the only weight loss aid that really works in the long run."