I'm making my way through the Tamarack Institute's Bookinar Series with Al Etmanski. The first one is called "Setting the Table for Allies, Adversaries and Strangers". It's blowing up my brain a little today. There's so much in it that isn't necessarily new, but is bringing me back to some foundational things that I kind of forgot about as deadlines loomed in the last couple of weeks.
The new piece for me came through when Al asked Paul Born (his guest for this episode) how he nurtures personal joy. Paul spoke about how joy has always come easy to him, so it's hard to articulate. For the first time for me, he surfaced what can be the dark side of this. That while joy comes easy to him, frustration, impatience and other emotions do as well.
Wow, I know this all too well. I too find joy comes easy, but other emotions do too. Instead of letting them pass over and not judging them, I often either try to push them down or make them go away somehow. Neither of which is helpful as I end up holding onto them. How do you dance with the dark and light parts of your being, thoughts, emotions? How do we not hold onto any of it too tightly?
My answer thus far is my very inconsistent start at a meditation practice and sharing this dark side with others as well. We'll see how it goes.
Being a Force for Good 