The Secret Within: Chapter 2, The Simple Feeling of Being

The Secret Within is a book I’m writing about the art of finding happiness and peace amidst personal difficulties. 

This is the second installment. Previous installments can be found here.

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2. The Simple Feeling of Being

Without conscious effort, we transition from embryo to baby to child, then to adolescent, adult, and finally, elder. We watch from the inside, like passengers on a train traveling to an unknown destination. Internally, we don’t perceive changes in the person staring out the window: Inside, I feel like the same person I was fifty years ago.

How can that be? What does that tell us?

I watch my two granddaughters for clues. One is ten months old, and the other is four. I have no idea what the baby’s context for experience might be. None of us remember when everything was as new and fresh as it is for her.  When not hungry or soiled, she is always happy. Perhaps that’s a clue.

This past summer, the four-year-old spotted a neighbor’s house and outbuildings through the woods at our cabin and asked, “Is that village part of our kingdom?” The kingdoms of fairy tales are real to her. That’s also a clue.  

Finally, I am the cabin’s maintenance man. I see dead trees that need to be removed, a deck that needs staining, and windows that should be replaced. 

Three different people, three different contexts. 

We rarely acknowledge the role context plays in shaping our world.  I look at things differently as a grandparent than I did as a parent, just as I looked at things differently as a parent than as a teenager. 

The world comes to us not as it is but as we are. This little-acknowledged fact illuminates the pathway to building the resilience to face emotional trauma. Context governs perceptions, and importantly, changing our context is possible. William Blake famously expressed the opportunity before us: “If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to [man] as it is, infinite.”

How might we cleanse our doors of perception? Why should we care?

First, let’s address the latter question; you might remember the opening stanza to the theme song for the once-popular TV sitcom Cheers.

“Making your way in the world today

Takes everything you’ve got

Taking a break from all your worries

Sure would help a lot

Wouldn’t you like to get away?”

Life is stressful. Most of our stress [by far] arises from preoccupying thoughts. Omnipresent thoughts rule our lives. Wouldn’t you like to get away? Cleansing our doors of perception requires changing where we focus our attention. Letting go of thought and shifting awareness to the present moment brings us to the simple feeling of being. 

Here’s an example:

Summer is essentially over in Minnesota; winter is not far away. Last night, on the way home from an appointment, I lowered the windows in the car to feel the warm evening breeze. Accelerating down the entrance ramp onto the highway, I was once again a teenager back in the early 1970s. 

“Summer breeze makes me feel fine

Blowing through the jasmine in my mind.”

-Seals & Croft 

This is the simple feeling of being! We carry it everywhere we go… Unfortunately, it’s often buried in the detritus of thought. Letting go of troubling thoughts is like lowering the windows in the car to feel the summer breeze. 

Hard times are inevitable, but beauty has power over context. Think of the beauty of a sunrise, a young child’s eyes, or a piece of art that speaks to your soul. Beauty brings us to the moment, which transcends context and circumstance. The spark of energy that ignites awareness is eternal…like the moment. Danish Philosopher Søren Kierkegaard explains, “The moment is not properly an atom of time, but an atom of infinity.”

Eternal life is found in the forever now. Letting go of thought removes the burden of time, bringing us to the moment and the simple feeling of being!

Recently, our son’s medical condition has deteriorated. The future looks scary. I can’t do anything about that, so I’m shifting my attention to focus on practices that bring me to the moment; sometimes, that’s as simple as pausing to take a deep, cleansing breath to shake off my demons. Or slowing down to fully experience a beautiful moment rather than rushing to grab my phone to snap a picture. Additional practices will be shared in the chapters that follow.

We find our souls in depths beyond circumstance. Shawn Mullens reminds us of our true nature:

“We were born to shimmer, born to shine!”

Here’s a simple prescription to keep on hand when facing difficult times: Release the troubling thoughts in your head. Take a deep breath, and rediscover the simple feeling of being.

This is The Secret Within.

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Installments of The Secret Within can be found here. 

Former blog posts can be found here by subject category and here chronologically. 

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My first book, Towards A Life Well-Lived, can be purchased by clicking this link. Proceeds from sales are donated to Peace In Schools, a Portland, Oregon-based organization supporting mindfulness training in high schools.