Erin Mac
LLC

This morning I was sitting at the lake looking at the beautiful scenery and it was a sensory extravaganza!  First, I noticed the wind, then the clouds, and then with the cacophony of bird noises I couldn't help but focus in on them.  I watched as two birds chased and seemingly harassed each other and landed and took off and I began to wonder why they did what they did.  Why did they land where they did?  Take off when they did?  This got me to thinking about us humans and how we tend to live by default, versus questioning and wonder.  

Now, I know part of the default living is because the brain wants us to believe that we still need to worry about survival and part of surviving is that we must learn from our "mistakes" (in quotes because I don't believe there are any) so that we don't die.  That is a legit process that is going on, albeit not real, anymore.  The other part is that we have stopped questioning the things in our life, accepting ok.  Thinking that ok is a quality life lived because there are others that are suffering and we've got it good, or at least better than them.  Well, I want you to stop that! 

I want to encourage you to question all the things in your life, IF you are not predominantly experiencing peace and joy.  I know, sounds a little hokey, right?  Well, what I know is that the first step to feeling good is having awareness, emotional awareness that is.  Are you wishing away your ill feelings, pretending they don't exist by covering them up with drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex, working too much, being too busy, social media, stress, happiness, or are you experiencing JOY on the daily?  Yes, "happiness" is another way to cover up feeling bad.  Happiness is based on external things and is short-lived, that's the house, the car, the money, the promotion, the relationship for the purpose of feeling better (which is why we want them!).  Joy is a cultivation of an internal experience where you recognize peace of mind, how beautiful the world around you is, and stillness, the ultimate feeling!  Where you can cultivate these experiences regardless of what is going on around you.

We are emotional beings.  We are having emotional experiences all day, every day.  Do you know what they are, the emotions you are experiencing?  I know before I discovered joy in my life the only emotions I was aware of were the ones that didn't feel good.  I almost always glossed over the good feeling ones to find the next not so good feeling ones, based on what I was talking about all the time, things like: the employee that wasn't doing what I wanted, the client who was complaining, the friend who did or didn't do something I wanted, the driver in front of me that was going slow, the sky not being blue enough and the grass not being green enough.  Maybe you can relate?

I want to encourage you to question everything in your life.  Not so you have upheaval, question it from a place of wonder and curiosity.  Ask yourself, "Why am I doing this?"  "Does it bring me joy?"  "Do I feel good emotionally or physically most of the time or while doing specific things?"  "Am I acting out of intention or habit?"  "Am I truly present in my life?"  And, let me know what you discover.  Happy discovering!
Peace, 
Erin "feeling all the feels" Mac