14 Feb Receiving Replenishment
We are all likely to agree that today’s life is absolutely exhausting. While technology and globalization have led to many efficiencies, they have also led to a speedy complicated 24/7 lifestyle that has fueled stress, anxiety, sleep deprivation and a host of other mental, emotional, and physiological challenges. Whether our primary work is parenting, leading organizations, or being a coaching professional, we are often absorbed in a depleting pace and schedule. No wonder a variety of self-care, well-being, and other therapeutic initiatives are sprouting like Spring bunnies.
While I deeply value many of these wellness initiatives, there’s something super-simple, albeit counterintuitive, that is often missed: our capacity to receive replenishment from our experience in the moment. This natural, free, and simple remedy only requires the capacity to experience what’s going on in a different way – a way where we can tune into the beauty and fulfillment available at almost any time.
Our brains have built-in mechanisms
called neurocharms that enable us to be
energized by the experience of beauty.
This can be beauty in art, poetry or music, in nature, or in a process or conversation. Upon slowing down and pausing to notice the beauty around us or in a situation, we become filled with an almost mysterious source of renewal. Try it for yourself. Next time you’ve completed a phase of a project you’re proud of, or walk by a tree, or hear a bird singing, stop and take it in. See what happens.
Note the language in the sentence above – “take it in”. This speaks to a counterintuitive way of engaging in the world – an antidote to quickly moving on to the next thing without savoring the present moment. It’s a way of allowing ourselves to be affected by things; to be touched and moved. It’s about receptivity – a feminine trait available to both women and men – a state of vulnerability.
It’s a state we can access only when we
are truly present to our direct experience
in the moment – when our hearts are open
and our minds are calm. Inexchange we find
a new wind beneath our wings.
by Ipek Serifsoy