Are you blocking things you shouldn’t?
Its springtime and it’s snowing – here in Denver, Colorado.
When I first saw the snow, I thought, oh no, it’s going to knock all the beautiful blossoms off the apple tree!
— and it very well might.
But I started thinking….
How often do things in our life not go the way we think they should?
Do you ever find yourself saying “Oh no, this shouldn’t be happening?” Or say: I shouldn’t be feeling this?”
When life decides to — what we would consider – “misbehave” itself, we often try to block it. We try to block our feelings. We try to block our experience of it. Rather than accept it.
If you block your feelings and think, oh no, I shouldn’t be having this feeling, I shouldn’t be feeling sad, I shouldn’t be feeling annoyed, I shouldn’t be feeling frustrated, I should be happy. Then you start thinking about the ways in which you should be feeling rather than accepting the feelings that are coming up.
Sometimes feelings don’t make any sense; sometimes they are unpredictable.
Human nature is to fight those feelings.
And often, we fight those feelings with food.
We might restrict our food in an attempt to restrict our feelings.
You might start to obsess about the foods you’re not allowing yourself to eat.
You might try to avoid the “bad” feelings.
When you stuff yourself with food when you’re not hungry, it’s a way of numbing your feelings.
When you go for a long, long run or hop on an exercise bike because you want to distract yourself and run from the feelings you’re having rather than just running for the joy of it, again, you’re blocking your experience of life.
If you allow the feelings that come up for you, to be a part of life, a part of your experience …
If you stop thinking that you need to be in charge of life all the time …
You will realize these are just feelings, and they are a part of life, itself.
And oftentimes, life is incongruous.
Oftentimes feelings will come up that you don’t want to feel.
But if you overindulge in food, or obsess about food, you are blocking your experience of life …
Instead of allowing things to happen and move through on their own accord.
This snow is not going to last forever.
Yes, it may knock down those beautiful, beautiful apple blossoms, but this is what life does.
Life has a way of doing what we consider “misbehaving”, because we don’t always get the bigger picture. And, maybe, sometimes later on, we might go, “Oh, now I get it”.
You might understand why you were so sad, during what seemed to be a happy event.
Or you might understand why you were so annoyed at something that, at least on the surface, seemed to be no big deal.
So, instead of spending so much of your precious time and attention fighting and thinking this should be happening, or this should not be happening, accept that it is.
It’s happening.
It’s snowing.
Whether I want it to or not.
Allow life to do what life does.
Experience life in all of its fullness, take it all in, so that you won’t be in a state of deprivation, trying to fill up with food.
Experience life in all its fullness, so that you won’t be in state of anxiety trying to run your from emotions all the time.
Experience all of life.
When I experience all of life, I will experience the snow — and the apple blossoms.
Till next time,
Anita
So, what are your thoughts about how you block life? Please leave me a comment. I’d love to hear what this brings up for you.
For me it is a huge step of trust, to let go, to know that everything happens for a reason and for our good. We might not understand it immediately, but I like the idea that we have something greater with an absolutely clear vision for us. I find it challenging to stop pushing for a certain outcome, even I do feel a lot of resistance and frustration when I do. I’m open to see life more as a dance with incredible different movements, instead of a history written in stone.
I find this so true! Often in my life i did experience that some difficult situations were actually blessings and viceversa.there is alsoan easter story about that, teaching of not judging from the fragment if you cannot embrace the whole…anyhow…to bring an example:in nnovember i did broke a foot…actually it turn as positivy cause i had the chance to slow down, learning to ask for help and to allow myself to receive…..in spite of this knowing often it is difficult for me to accept things which change from the planning
plus with ED i keep on experience only certain colors of life, running away from my fears before tasting it….
Something really struck me as I watched this vlog. I like the thought that in time I will understanding why I was feeling sad when it was a seemingly happy event or why I was upset when everything seemed to be going so well (or whatever). That thought that ‘I may not understand this now but perhaps in time I will’ is comforting and I think will help me to accept whatever it is that I am feeling, even if it seems ‘inappropriate’.