I've been pretty MIA across all online platforms over the past few months. (Read below for why I've been MIA.) Turning in and away from social media and online connection means you end up being “alone” more often. These days with our ability to be in constant connection, we don’t get to experience being truly alone very often. And when we do, we aren’t quite sure what to make of the sensations and emotions that we are feeling. For many of us, we’ve lost the capacity to sit in sensation. And this goes for ecstasy and deep pain and everything between and around. Our mind is cycling through a loop of grasping for positive feelings and resisting the ones that don’t feel good, which has us running fast to fill our schedules back up so we can keep these varying degrees of sensation away. So we don’t have to feel. Personally I know that cycle really well. And it’s a day-to-day, minute-to-minute practice for me to remember how important it is to make the space to actually feel the entire spectrum of my emotions.

Practicing being with an emotion is absolutely vital to experiencing who we really are, and on an even deeper and wider level, I think it’s vital for the harmony of our world. Knowing who we are allows for intimate and deep connections with each other, which we all need. And humanity needs it now more than ever. If we are able to be at peace with the polarity and contradictions and discomfort that exist within us (and all of that exists within us), we get more skilled at meeting the polarization, pain, and fear that shows up around us. At home, in our local communities, and in the news. I think it’s our duty as humans to do the work it takes to be at peace with the complexity that is inside us, so that we can meet the rest of the world’s complexity with the same level of peace.