emotion

I am a little over half way through my latest book, My Stroke of Insight by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, and one of her realizations on recovery hit the spot on an issue I have been thinking about for some time.  I have heard this type of speak before, but always in a very metaphoric, fantastic sort of way (read: hippie-speak) and never from a scientific point of view.  So I thought I would share an excerpt from her book.

A very brief synopsis: Dr. Taylor is a neuroanatomist (brain doctor) who experienced first-hand what a failing brain feels like, living to tell the experiences of her stroke and how she recovered.  Here she speaks of recovery after losing her left brain functions (calculation, past/future, details, "brain chatter").

"One of the greatest lessons I learned was how to feel the physical component of emotion.  Joy was a feeling in my body.  Peace was a feeling in my body.  I thought it was interesting that I could feel when a new emotion was triggered.  I could feel new emotions flood through me and then release me.  I had to learn new words to label these "feeling" experiences, and most remarkably, I learned that I had the power to choose whether to hook into a feeling and prolong it in my body, or just let it quickly flow right out of me.

flash back

So I knew this would happen. I was warned about it as well, but I already knew it would arrive, despite my supreme confidence that I could postpone the arrival due to increased maturity since my post-high school days.  I have about had it with living with parents. I know I am only "visiting" but my lack of motivation to finish my thesis is discouraging, prolonging my stay. I have flashed back in time to the days when I would dream of all the places I wanted to go and all the experiences I wanted to have, while being trapped in my bedroom upstairs with no apparent sign of escape. I have found distraction after distraction, excuse after excuse to not work on this thesis, and I don't know why. I will get psyched up to do it sometimes, but that always occurs in the middle of the night as I lay in bed. By morning I am again distracted.  I have made many attempts at different types of motivation, nothing seems to be working......until this. The sooner I am out of here the better. I am not bound here as I once was as a kid, despite my apparent need to think so.  I am leaving, and it will be soon. Tomorrow it begins....or perhaps tonight at 2am if I get the urge.

I need to start compiling my list of adventures again. A mental list seems to get lost, perhaps a physical list is in order.

There ain't moral to this story at all
Everything I tell you
Very well could be a lie
Been away from the livin’
Don’t need to be forgiven
I’m just waiting for that cold black soul of mine
To come alive

do it right

"We are travelers on a cosmic journey - stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. But the expressions of life are ephemeral, momentary, transient. Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, once said,

This existence of ours is as transient as autumn clouds.
To watch the birth and death of beings is like looking at the movements of a dance.
A lifetime is like a flash of lightning in the sky,
Rushing by like a torrent down a steep mountain.

We have stopped here for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment, but it is transient. It is a little parenthesis in eternity. If we share with caring, lightheartedness, and love, we will create abundance and joy for each other. And then this moment will have been worthwhile."
     ~ Deepak Chopra, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success

Life is short. Do it right. Peace.