Hard work makes me feel full of aches and filled with pain. So full. So filled.
PROMPT: Hard Work
1
Tag Archives: Sensation
PROMPT: Feeling
Post-breakfast satiety with a side of caffeine rush.
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
Night Swimming [Free Verse]
Trudging into lapping waves
On a dim and dusky eve.
Chest deep
One pops up, pressing one's chest
Onto the water,
And swims toward a distant
Silhouetted rock outcrop.
But it doesn't stay silhouetted.
Soon, one is heading into
A grand, black abyss,
There is no shape in this world,
Only the feel of limbs -- pulling & kicking.
Sounds grow ever more feeble --
And ever more rare --
Until the smell of seawater becomes
A bright and vivid sensory experience --
Layered & textured.
Rolling onto one's back, one can see
Patches of sparkling stars
In the cloud gaps.
One lays upon the waves --
Feeling as though one conforms to them
As one floats like a piece of driftwood --
And sees the twinkle of distant stars,
In a world too vast to understand.
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
PROMPT: Nervous
All sorts of stuff — e.g. gabby strangers approaching me unexpectedly when I’m in a low mental energy state. But when I observe the sensation of that nervousness, without rumination or feeding of the feeling, it fades rapidly. As Twain [allegedly, but possibly never] said, “I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.”
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
PROMPT: Negative Feelings
Feel them, but don’t feed them. By that I mean take time to be aware of the feelings, but do not let the mind go into its default mode of fixation upon the object informing these sensations and worst-case scenario building. Give the feelings your attention but recognize that you influence your experience of the world and don’t give the mind free reign to build an illusory scenario that it accepts as its reality. (i.e. Remember what Mark Twain said, “I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.”)
The biggest problem with negative feelings is that the go-to modern strategy is attempted distraction (by vice, by entertainment, by activity, etc.) this leads the body to turn up the heat. If you give the sensations your attention without adding value judgements, it becomes impossible to obsess. For yoga practitioners who’ve done Yoga Nidra (Yogic sleep) the experience will be familiar. One often begins by being attentive to sounds, by giving the sounds attention without judgement, your mind starts to lose interest and it becomes harder for those sounds to distract you throughout the practice. This approach to negative feelings is much the same.
Also, breathwork that extends the exhalation component of breath will shift the balance toward rest and digest activity.
Ultimately, realize that these feelings are just sensations your body and brain use to turn your attention in certain directions. They have no more power than that, other than what one grants them. They are not identical to — or inextricably linked with — the events of the world that triggered them, and — therefore — you get to be the master of, and not the slave to, your feelings.
The next time you find yourself getting bogged down by a negative feeling, give the feeling a minute or two of pure undivided attention, and then think, “This is a wonderful opportunity to learn how my body and mind work.” See what happens.
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
The Cave [Free Verse]
Jagged window
on the world:
All light and sound
deadened,
but from one opening --
The cave mouth.
From behind
nothing stirs,
nothing glows,
shadows are subsumed
by shadow.
Eyes and mind
frame the cave mouth,
making the mind
a cave within a cave:
layered silence
layered remoteness,
and all input of a single,
common source.
How many caves deep might
this thing go?
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
Feel the Breeze [Free Verse]
Feel the breeze upon your face.
Let it be all you know.
Don't ponder atmospheric lows.
Just feel the breeze upon your face,
and know:
There is a breeze.
(Though it may not be
what you think it is.)
You have a face.
(Though it may not be
what you think it is.)
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
Ghosted [Free Verse]
What passes through me?
I can't say.
But I feel it move,
causing bone reverberation
of a subtle kind.
I feel it deep within,
but it fades quickly.
I'm moved, but to what,
I can't say.
All I know is that something
has passed through me,
and made me feel like a ghost.
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
World Windows [Haiku]
the world we see is framed and bounded. what lies beyond?
Share on Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
Train Rattled [Free Verse]
It's like sticking one's head out the window of the southbound night train. A rushing thunder fills the ears -- almost deafening -- and that's before the passing northbound train shears past, letting wail the whistle in one long blow. And (now) one is deaf, but the cyclone eddies shake one's flesh & rattle through one's bones so hard that one can whole body hear: one's entire skeleton vibrating like those tiny inner ear bones. It was dark before the scintillant streams of strobing light burned a void into one's picture place. There's no smelling a thing in that crossfire hurricane, but one can taste big gulps of train exhaust -- exhaust with a cotton candy consistency but foul tasting to the last bite. And then it is quiet and dark and peaceful, and it's not clear whether one is alive or dead, and it's not clear whether one cares whether one is alive or dead.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 