Do you feel pressure to be “happy”?
For many, “happiness” has become a burden, something that
must be maintained throughout the day or otherwise you feel you have failed,
that you’re not grateful enough, that you have lost contact with some “secret,”
or that something is wrong with you. That you’re not doing it right –
relationships, work, parenting, meditation, healing.
Is it true that if some sadness, doubt, or confusion is
arising in your immediate experience that something has gone wrong? That some
cosmic error has been made which must urgently be corrected? That you must
immediately rush in to change, fix, or “let go of” these uninvited guests? That
you must, at all costs, replace what is appearing now with something different?
Is it the visitors themselves that are the cause of your suffering and
struggle, or is it the project of replacement and self-abandonment that is so
painful?
As a sensitive human being, open to all of life's energies,
you walk in a vast meadow, in which very alive and unpredictable thoughts,
feelings, and emotions will sometimes surge. Despair, tender vulnerability,
great fear, a moment of jealousy, unexplained shakiness, profound hopelessness,
raging sorrow, restlessness, and raw uncertainty: these ones will join you in
the meadow as they seek sanctuary in your vast heart.
Before you prepare for war, concluding that these ones are
enemies or obstacles along the way, shameful stains on your brilliant
enlightenment, or blocks to your peace, please slow down. Invite the guests in,
see what they have to say. For they are not what they appear to be.
Listen, be
present, and open your body to them.
They are not mistakes or signs of your
unawakened failure, but emissaries of integration, come to remind you of your
unlimited nature, your ability to hold ALL of life, and of the full-spectrum
nature of what it means to be human, a vast field where you can dance and play
with even the most disturbing energies.
Let us not fixate on a future goal called “happiness,” but
create a living sanctuary of love together, where we can embrace the entirety
of what it means to be a powerfully ordinary human being, providing a home for
the messy, the confused, the lost, and the broken … as well as the awakened,
the clear, the peaceful, and the whole. Let our spirituality include all of
this, and embody the kind of happiness that knows no enemies, a bliss that is
not a goal, a joy that is causeless and whole.
And let us give our open hearts to this weary world which,
perhaps now more than ever, is so in need of a little tenderness, kindness,
slowness, and humility.
- Matt Licata & Jeff Foster
My new book – The Path Is Everywhere: Uncovering the Jewels Hidden Within You – is now available
The Way of Rest summer retreat – registration open now (we're about 85% sold out as of June 1)
