Three weeks in and I actually feel like I’ve climatized fully to the lifestyle here. Other than occasionally missing Jose, I feel right at home in this lifestyle. Walk among the village in the morning, have breakfast over the rice paddies then do a couple of hours of work. Usually I spend the second half of my day walking to a lunch spot, chilling out by the pool and doing some unwinding. It’s been a great rhythm so far and honestly I really could get used to this.
One thing I did notice was how at the 3 week mark, perhaps because I’d gotten used to everything, my old habits began to kick in. The overthinking, being in my mind and not my body started to occur more frequently. I stopped admiring the views on my walk because I’d gotten used to them- I needed to intentionally remind myself to soak it all up in order to not be desensitised to it. It’s like switching gears- perceiving with my head VS my heart.
It dawned on me this morning that there are three levels we can experience and perceive life- through the mind, the heart and the soul.
We experience a different reality when we perceive life through our body and soul, instead of just our minds. Although many of us primarily live through the mind, the body and soul are always an option.
Often we are so busy living at the mind-level, trying to make sense of everything, wanting to understand, explain and predict life with our ‘logic’ but that’s only half of the equation.
There's no way to explain everything away- life is too mysterious to be contained with the mind. And even if we begin to believe we've 'got it', it's subjective.
We can also choose to live at the heart level- allowing ourselves to feel and experience moments with our bodies. I realise that when I am too consumed in my mind, busy thinking, I cannot simply feel. My ability to feel the pure experience I’m having is tainted by the judgments of my mind and its need to understand. But I believe a huge part of life is and what it means to be human is just to feel! To BE!
Instead of censoring or judging the experience we’re having, we are allowed to just be in it. I think specifically for me, I always feel the need to understand something before I can accept it but the recurring lesson for me in surrender is to release that. The mind is a tool, but it is not the whole essence of who we are.
The third level of living and perceiving is through ‘the soul.’
When I think of the soul-level of living, it’s like there are no labels, rules or boundaries. There is a pure and childlike trust in the intelligence of all life, a deep reverence for the spirit of all things and an acceptance of what is. The soul-level of living is the mode of ‘surrender’, in my opinion. It’s unattached to form, detached from all structures and expectations.
I believe when we live soul-fully, we don’t suffer- it’s not possible. True surrender offers zero resistance. There may be physical pain and circumstantial hardship but the soul does not suffer because it is truly free. It accepts, allows and yields to whatever is in front of it.
The journey of life will invite us to many different places. How we experience it is up to us. I believe this three-fold dynamic of living (either mind, body or soul) is not meant to be separate at all. They are fluid and we are invited to experience life through all levels- that’s why we have them! Here’s what I’m realising about the 3 levels of living.
The head (mind) level says “I think”
The heart (emotion) level says “I feel”
The soul (spirit) level says “I know”
Each level goes deeper into our essence, our core.
As I think about where I am mostly living (see! I’m always thinking LOL), I see myself reverting to ‘mind-level’ too often. I can see how I miss out on the many gifts of life when I don’t allow myself to feel and experience life through my heart. In the same way, my spirit can feel downtrodden and discouraged because I’m suffocating it by denying the divineness of life.
If life is not just meant to be experienced through the mind, then maybe releasing the need to understand and have an explanation for everything is how I cross the bridge of living from the head to the heart.
And more importantly... perhaps the more connected I am to life through my heart, the more aligned I feel to this experience of life. That is, a soul-full life.
It blows my mind that the heart is our connection point to all of life. It's where we experience emotion- which is the portal to connect to any frequency. If all realities are energy, potentials waiting to be experienced, emotion is the key.
Harnessing the mind, leaning into emotion and surrendering to the intelligence that rules it all.
Anyway, from me to you.
Chat soon.
x
@ Lahangan Sweet
Comments