I read somewhere recently that at the base of all human emotion is either fear or love. That is where our actions and how we live our lives is rooted. That's it! We act/feel because we are fearful or because we feel love. I think about this theory a lot and I do think it to be true. Why don't I always share my feelings? Fear. Why do I worry so much? Love.
All of my everyday emotions I can trickle down to one of these two feelings. Unfortunately, I think fear can sometimes take over my actions. More so than love. I have no idea the right answer to the bigger-than-life question, "How do I live?" or "How do I live well?" but I feel the answer cannot be to live your life mostly in emotions of fear. Just sounds kind of sucky to me.
Something that I also have been thinking about recently is, I don't look up. When I walk to the subway, run errands, walk to the gym, walk home, sit in a meeting, sit on the subway, run through the park--I never look up. I look down. I look at the street. I look at where I'm going. I look at my phone.
One of my favorite fitness instructors today (or yesterday as you are reading this) told all of us, students, during a specific stretch to "look up." Almost no one was already doing that, looking up. We were all just crunched into ourselves, looking down. Looking down makes us feel down, she said. It makes us feel sad, depressed, blue. If there is anything to be said about the neurological effects of how we position our bodies, looking down means we are cowering over ourselves. We are introverted, uninterested in what is happening around us.
Looking up is a happier approach to life. Looking up is seeing higher and further than yourself. It is looking beyond your bubble of misery. If you believe in a higher power, I am pretty sure that up is where He/She/They/It hangs out. Looking up opens your upper body, exposing your heart. You notice other pieces of what make up your universe. You see that it is not just you.
Rather than acting based mostly in fear (looking down) I think we should be more active in our emotions of love (looking up). We should be open, present, happier, exposed. There is so much love to be seen and had when you open yourself up to it. I am very often looking down, fearful and worrisome. But, I should look up, see how I can impact others and worry less.
This may all sound a little tree-hugging or a little let's-just-all-get-along, but as I made my new years resolutions for 2017 and thought about how I can be a better being, a lot of my resolutions could be aided by me simply looking up. Looking up by being more present in the moment; looking up by seeing beyond my worrisome thoughts; looking up to where I can make an impact.
Barack Obama said tonight (last night) in his Farewell Address that we must keep believing that we can make a difference; that we can make change happen. That is a big-picture statement but it is true. Even in just bettering ourselves, or helping or being there for one other person, or making our own lives for meaningful. These are all possible in each step that we take.
Just look up.
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