Oh, how this quote resonates with me. The accompanying vulnerability, the incapacity to hold it or when an emotion breaches the limits of our understanding.
I have been listening, reading and researching a lot into re-calibrating the mind and body for discomfort. The Stoic philosophers wrote about this a lot. It’s a large concept within Zen teachings, Buddhist teachings and also Pema Chodron has really lit a fire in me to understand it more as I have been diving deeper and deeper into her wonderful teachings
The idea being that we are so desperate in our search for comfort that we are constantly running away from discomfort. Whether it be emotional or physical or spiritual its a part of our experience. In this running away from, we never actually adjust to the overwhelm of being a human being and we rarely under understand ourselves as a result. In the calm light of day, clearly this is not what we wish for on apath to being our highest grade selves is it? Can we calibrate at much higher levels of consciousness and creativity whilst also being scared of feeling shame, resentment, anger, fear etc?
I feel that David Whyte has encapsulated this process of emotion so perfectly, and added a beauty to what is really just our complexity of being human. If we can embrace this more, a richness and rawness to the human experience, then compassion and empathy is also more readily available to us.
Sent with love,
Jac x