Being…

Autaitchel
The Coffeelicious
Published in
4 min readOct 27, 2016

Being is an autumnal morning, sun shining through the mist, lighting up trees, rolling hills and water. Surrounded by rich, vibrant autumn leaves, beautiful colours, crisp sounds, feeling a chill on face and hands…

Being is listening to the sound of gentle running water…

Being is immersed in beautiful reflections, noticing details rather than overall shapes. Sun glistening on glass, tall buildings, vibrant colours…

Being is a meal with friends — listening and feeling others’ emotions rather than speaking, communicating through energy rather than words…

Being is feelings of loneliness, alienation, unimportance, being unnoticeable…

Being is listening to the rain, the steady predictable pattern of sounds…

Being is a feeling of transcendence and being aware…

Being is cuddling up to a small dog, feeling her warmth, her little heart beating next to you, her need to be as close as possible…

Being is feeling the pain of others, emotionally and physically…

Being is a sunset, beautiful coloured sky that can move to tears…

Being is capturing life from behind a camera lens…

Being is the feeling of rejection, the tears, the hurt, the pain — rational thoughts do not get a look in…

Being is mindfulness, understanding what is going on in the body, noticing the breath, what you see, what you hear, what you smell, what you taste and what you feel…

Being is sitting by an open fire…

Being is understanding and being understood…

Being is sitting side by side with a loved one — no conversation, enjoying each other’s company without words…

Being is sitting on a train…

Being is a clear mind, pure emotion, raw, authentic and real, uninterrupted by the stresses of life…

Being is when rumination has turned down, when the head has moved to the heart…

Being is silence and in the heart…

Being is not ‘doing’ or ‘thinking’…

Doing is holding a conversation…

Doing is stepping off the train…

Doing is being so pre-occupied with a task or deep in thought, that you don’t notice the beautiful autumnal morning, the sunset, the rain…

Doing is being immersed and focused and not recognising the need to eat, to drink or that someone is speaking to you…

Doing is Thinking and is finding answers to questions..

  • To the Universe
  • To your existence and place in society
  • Researching an unknown
  • Solving a problem
  • Connecting complex variables

Doing is rumination, in the middle of the night, a point your brain is unable to let go of…

Doing is the drive to succeed…

Doing is watching successful people and emulating their actions because your own actions and behaviours are different from others…

Doing is talking too much, because of fear, anxiety, a need to fit in, being overstimulated on a special interest and not noticing people around you becoming bored…

Doing and thinking ‘too much’ is exhausting but impossible to control…

Doing is losing things because of the brain focusing attention on only one area and everything else not registering in consciousness…

Doing is intense, focused and single attention…

Doing covers up insecurities that exist in ‘being’…

Doing can be a ‘mask’ or wearing a ‘jacket’

‘Flow’ is doing that can lead to ‘being’…

Doing and thinking is driven by the head, cognitive, intellectual processing of scenarios and is not something I can easily switch off or control…

Most people combine ‘being’ and ‘doing’, seamlessly, simultaneously, head and heart, actions and emotions, communications and feelings, thoughts and emotions…

Being autistic for me is an either/ or — and self regulation can be difficult…

Each are positive and necessary and complementary, but each can be destructive

  • Excess ‘doing’ and thinking can fuel anxiety and rumination
  • Negative energy in ‘being’ — rejection and isolation can lead to depression and lethargy

Understanding and predictability induces ‘being’ and turns down excess ‘doing’, a key cycle for all to be aware of…

I hope you have enjoyed this article, please feel free to share, please press the ‘heart’ at the end to recommend to other readers so it appears in their feeds and follow me on Twitter or here on Medium — @Autaitchel

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Autaitchel
The Coffeelicious

A 48 year old recently discovered ‘autistic’ female. Making sense of everything autistic and blogging about it!