Appointment with Life
Being with our thoughts
Wow! It has been a little over 3 months since my last post and I feel compelled to share all the reasons; summer plans, start of the school year, work, family, kids, you name it, I have the excuse. Nothing sums up where I am now better than this quote from Thich Nhat Hanh:
“We have an appointment with life. And that appointment takes place in the here and now, in the present moment.”
Having moved through a busy summer and quickly into fall, navigating demands of everyday life along the way, I keep finding myself too tightly scheduled to sit with challenging thoughts. This sort of detachment from what’s actually present leads to unwanted symptoms, i.e. anxious thought patterns, ruminative spiraling, agitation, chest or breath constriction, head aches, muscle pains, etc. Whatever the telltale physical or emotional sign of discomfort, quite often it is related to being taking away by thoughts; either grasping after our experience or resisting it.
If this resonates with you, try making time for pausing and noticing, “What is actually present for me?”. First, noticing and naming this thought or difficult emotion, then tuning into the accompanying feeling in my body. Maybe then, instead of being ‘lost in thought’, I’ll show up for my appointment with life!
Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed this post, you can click the “heart” at the top of this post on Substack or share it on social media or forward to a friend - they can subscribe at annieshackelfordlcsw.substack.com. You can also find out more about me and my work here. If you have thoughts on this weeks post or suggestions to include in the future, feel free to reply to this email and let me know!