Something that we can forget is that we as humans are containers for so many different parts,
Different experiences,
Thoughts,
Beliefs,
Many of them in direct and contradictory opposition to the other parts within our being.
And this is okay.
This is healthy.
This is normal.
Human beings are complex and contrary to what we may have been taught to believe the mind is multiple by nature.
And one thing to watch out for is that whatever your experience is at any given time,
To remember that it's not the sum total of you and it's not identity.
So for example,
If you find yourself feeling consumed by a powerful emotion or an experience like sadness,
Remembering that sadness is here,
That you are not sadness.
It's one part of your experience and it's here now for sure,
But it will pass.
It's not identity.
There are a whole lot of other emotions and experiences still accessible.
They are still available to us.
And see what happens is that our field of vision narrows to the point that all we can see and feel and remember is that one particular state or experience or emotion and it becomes the central focus and everything else fades into the background.
A helpful way to think of this is to imagine that you're out in nature looking across this expanse of a beautiful meadow with flowers and colors and mountains and blue sky and then all of a sudden you see a snake.
And the whole of your focus is on that snake and that alone.
You won't see the beautiful scene anymore.
It's still there,
Of course,
But it's just not going to be the source of your focus.
You will be only concerned with the snake.
And so in our everyday lives,
These snakes are going to pop up all the time.
Stressors,
Wounds that surface for healing,
Challenges in our relationships,
Money worries,
Whatever it is,
And they become all that we can see.
And if we hang around there long enough,
It can begin to feel like identity.
Like this is who I am.
This is just the way life is.
It's the way it's always been.
It's the way it's always going to be.
We can't see the bigger picture anymore.
Whatever experience that we're going through can begin to feel like truth and like the sum total of us and our lives.
And the delicate balance that we want to strike is to fully feel and allow all of our experiences as they unfold without being consumed by them and without becoming identified and enmeshed with them to hold them all lightly,
To be a container for it all just to pass through.
And knowing that it will pass through,
That the only constant is change and that whatever we are experiencing for however long we have been experiencing it,
It is not permanent and it will pass.
