The Healing Power of Being Present with Ourselves.
If we want to heal, learn, and grow, we have to be willing to sit with and be present with ourselves.
There’s power in awareness, in self-awareness, in being present with ourselves.
There’s power in tuning into ourselves, in tuning into how we truly feel.
There’s power in connecting with ourselves, in understanding ourselves, in understanding the layers and nuances that exist within us.
If we want to become more self-aware, we have to learn to be present with ourselves, to sit with ourselves, to tune into ourselves.
We have to be willing to sit with and feel into discomfort, willing to feel what feels uncomfortable. We have to be willing to watch, learn, and observe ourselves — our thoughts, our feelings, our emotions, each sensation.
We have to be willing to be honest, self-honest — about what we’re feeling, thinking, and experiencing.
We have to be willing to see; we have to be willing to become aware.
So often, when we feel uncomfortable, even the slightest hint of discomfort, we give into the knee-jerk impulse to act, to move, to distract. We grab our phones, or jump up to do something, or grab food. We’ll do almost anything, it seems, to avoid having to feel what feels uncomfortable — to avoid looking at the parts of ourselves that we’re worried are “bad” or that we’re worried will make us feel bad.
But that discomfort — the uncomfortable thought, sensation, or emotion — is just trying to get our attention. It has something it wants to tell us, something that it wants to show us. It wants us to learn, to understand, what it’s trying to reveal to us. It wants to teach us its lesson.
But we can’t learn if we refuse to pay attention — if we refuse to look at it or acknowledge it.
We can’t notice something unless we’re willing to see it.
We can’t let go of something unless we know we’re holding it; we can’t release something unless we know it resides within us.
So much of this resistance — the seeming unwillingness to sit through discomfort — is unconscious. It’s almost automatic. We just instinctively balk at the slightest hint of discomfort and give into the reaction, the impulse, to avoid.
I have noticed at times over the years how my mind will try to avoid acknowledging an uncomfortable thought, especially when it feels “bad” or like something that some part of me feels I shouldn’t be thinking. The avoidance, the resistance can be so subtle. But I’ve learned, I’ve trained myself, to consciously acknowledge it.
I’ll sometimes even speak it out loud. “I feel this.” “I’m thinking this.” “I see this thought.” “I’m not saying I’m proud of it or that I like it or that it’s true, but I see it.”
If we want to heal, learn, and grow, if we want to become more self-aware, we have to be willing to sit with and be present with ourselves.
We have to be willing to be still — willing to watch, observe, and pay attention.
We have to be present with our experiences, to allow what wants to move through us to move through us.
We have to be willing to see.
We can’t force awareness; we can’t force ourselves to become aware. We can’t force ourselves to know what we don’t know or to understand what we don’t understand.
We can’t force ourselves to heal or let go or release.
We can’t force ourselves — through a conscious decision — to become aware.
We can only be willing — willing to become aware, to see, to learn, to understand.
Awareness arises within us. It blooms through the space of presence and our willingness to become aware.
Knowledge, insights, and understanding come to us, through us, through a willingness to know, to see, and to understand, through creating a safe space for awareness to flow through us.
Awareness comes through a soft willingness to be present — a gentle yet firm intention to become aware.
It comes through a willingness to hold space for ourselves, to allow all of ourselves to exist, to come forth, to be revealed.
It comes through a tender desire to know ourselves, to understand ourselves.
Awareness comes through being willing to sit with ourselves.
It comes through being willing to become aware.
It comes through learning to be present with ourselves.
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