Stay

Stay is a powerful word.

                                    

Stay with me

Stay the course

Stay in the moment

Stay for awhile

Stay with those feelings

Please stay.....

When the feelings of "fight or flight" come up, I'm generally the first one out-the-door.  But more and more I am learning to stay. Simply stay. 

It's far too easy to go off to the movies, downtown shopping, veg out on the computer or TV, or take a two week trip to Belize (did I just say that?) to avoid an uncomfortable situation or uneasy feelings. I now recognize when I start packing my suitcase for a quick unplanned road trip, I'm usually running from something.

First it's being aware that I'm "heading out of Dodge" in one form or another.

I allow myself the option of still taking off but first I try to figure out what I'm trying to avoid. Just like mom always said "Stop.....Look....and....Listen".

If I have the ability at that particular moment to stay with those feelings for at least a little while then I feel that I can grow as a person.  Usually just being aware & thinking about the "pink elephant" in the room is enough to calm the angst in me.

                                

We all need to take a breather or just get some distance from a situation for a different perspective but doing the inner work takes courage and is great for the soul.

"Seeing Ourselves Clearly - When we begin to see clearly what we do, how we get hooked and swept away by old habits, our usual tendency is to use that as a reason to get discouraged, a reason to feel really bad about ourselves.  Instead, we could realize how remarkable it is that we actually have the capacity to see ourselves honestly, and that doing this takes courage.  It is moving in the direction of seeing our life as a teacher rather than as a burden.  This involves, fundamentally, learning to stay present, but learning to stay with a sense of humor, learning to stay with loving-kindness toward ourselves and with the outer situation, learning to take joy in the magic ingredient of honest self-reflection.

                                                            -quote from Pema Chodron "Taking the Leap"

I love those words...especially........stay with loving kindness and a sense of humor!  Oh yeah AND learning to see our lives as a teacher rather than a burden! 

                                                            

“It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.”  
 - Albert Einstein