Anxiety Support Group
Anxiety is a physical condition marked by intense and persistent feelings of distress, fear, angst or dread. General anxiety caused by routine day-to-day stresses usually passes quickly and is experienced by almost everyone at one time or another. However, such feelings that linger over time and are very difficult to cope with, and which lack a clear cause, may indicate...
It was almost painful to read about "Participation" in this morning's meditation read. Here in marshal law mandated isolation, participation feels downright immoral. Still. . . Even here in the echoes of isolation, I feel a need to participate. Luckily, I live on a farm and have plenty of non-human life going on around me. Don't quite know how to interpret today's read within the New Normal. All the more reason to share about ^it^, I reckon.
Begin quote
Participation
Don't anticipate with worry . . . Participate with joy. ~Catherine Kineavy Dugan
Participation is the only constant invitation that we have from life. This is our life. We have the possibility of living it and participating in it. Of course, if we are going to participate fully in our lives, this robs us of the option of pulling out of our lives and trying to manipulate ourselves and our world. If we are fully participating in our lives, we have very little time and energy to stand back and look . . . and worry!
It is difficult to worry when we are participating fully in anything. Worry requires distraction when we are distracted, we are not participating.
Also, participating fully is an act of intimacy. We cannot hold back and be intimate, whether it is with another person or with life. Intimacy requires all of us . . . and often, all of us with joy.
Participation and intimacy are intimately connected.
End quote
Just sharing. . . Am I being "subversive" to be reading words like "participation" and "intimacy" here in The New Normal?
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I haven't written in my diary on my computer since May because I thought that my computer was dying. I got away from writing but my computer is hanging in there. I think that I will start writing in it again. It's so therapeutic.
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First, I hope everyone is doing well, and continuing to fight that good fight! Keep up the great work on yourselves; I'm rooting for all of you!So, I started doing therapy at the beginning of the year, when I was in my most depressed state, but with my therapist, I made big changes and steps in the right direction. But, over a month ago, she couldn't take my insurance anymore, and I had to stop...
I guess we are challenged to reframe the idea of intimacy and participation in this current way of life. I’m struggling with most of my contact and relationships with others being limited to virtual and technological based connections (zoom, internet, phone) but I suppose it is still participating and there is a form of intimacy happening, either intellectually or by way of experience. Hmmm
I just found out yesterday my company will be going to a permanent work from home model. For the last year it was temporary but because it’s working well it’s being adopted permanently unless one’s role is considered essential to be in office. Mine is not. I was really looking forward to being in the office again and having that energy and contact, let alone just a place to go every day. I’ve certainly adapted so far and I’ll manage but I hadn’t anticipated it would be permanent and I almost feel like I’m mourning that loss a bit, to be honest.
So I’m going to figure out this intimacy and participation idea just to get over my little emotional hump this morning.
Processing. . . What constitutes "participation and intimacy" here in our masked and socially distant wonderland?
I am ever more grateful for the non-human critters in my life. They are much easier to understand. With them, participation and intimacy is clear and simple.
and the sharing the struggle is the “intimacy.” But damn... it has to be more than that. When you figure it out please let me know, haha!
Participate (v) - take part in an action or endeavour
When looked at that way, it doesn't really require social interaction. It's just more of just being engaged with whatever it is you're doing... being present, as it were.
I know that skirts the whole issue of intimacy and being engaged with other people, which is definitely challenging, to say the least, these days... but maybe that helps? Quality over quantity? Being really present and engaged with what interactions we do have, be they with people or animals or chores or whatever rather then phoning those interactions in while we allow our minds to spin off into a thousand other directions...
I don't know. I too am woefully short on answers, but thanks for sharing. It does provide something to think about.
Dunno, but I am still feeling fairly confident that finding answers begins with the search for The Question. The right answer to the wrong question has yet to get me far.
I agree with the part about intimacy and participation with animals. You definitely know where you stand with your critters on that matter.
It's hard not to worry with everything that's going on in this world. Having to wear a mask just isn't the normal to me and places being closed. It's like " Are things ever gonna get better"? I don't know. But I'm tired of the way things are now. I want to get back to having a normal life. Is that too much to ask? But we all must stay safe and take precautions.
Thanks Arfie. Great conversation. Italianmomma4ever
Still. . . Get me to thinking . . .
I reckon that's the whole purpose of meditation readers.