Your interaction with life is pretty simple. You're either closed, or you're open. There's no in between.
Different moments of life may trigger a closing or opening response, depending on your conditioning. However, when all is said and done, each moment of your life involves you either opening up and accepting it, or closing down and resisting it.
Let's start with a very simple example. Your best friend comes to you telling you they want to talk. At this point, all you really know is that they want to talk. You don't know what about, or for how long, or why. Just that they want to talk.
Yet for some reason, perhaps due to your past, your mind starts drumming up stories about why they might want to talk, and about how this is a bad time. Not only that, but you buy into those stories.
All of the sudden, you have a decision to make. You can either play into your mind's melodrama and close your heart, or you can open your heart to whatever might come, while accepting that it might be uncomfortable.
These types of scenarios play out moment to moment in our lives at home, at work, with our kids, with our parents - heck, even with the weather - and they completely shape our destiny.
In fact - these scenarios, these moments - they are our lives. And if you pay attention, you're either open or closed to them.
If you turn inward right now and pay attention to this moment within you, you'll see whether you're accepting or resisting, opening or closing.
The answer may be subtle, but it's there. If you're sensing any discomfort, tension, or desires, chances are you're closing to this moment. On the other hand, if you feel a sense of tranquility, of love, of clarity, you're probably open.
The way to go from closing to opening? First, just notice. Notice that you're closed. Then, try being open to the fact that you're closed. Get behind the part of you that's closing to life, and from there, you'll start to open.
By the way, you can be open in times of great difficulty. Being open to life means being willing to experience not only the joys, but the deep sorrows that come our way. When there's great loss, how do you experience that loss? Do you deny that it happened and try to fix what came undone, or do you start by accepting reality, and then deal with it from there?
At the end of the day, we can meet the circumstances of life in one of two ways: with total acceptance and openness, or with great resistance and closing. Over time, whether you skew more towards being open or more towards being closed, your inner and outer world will reveal which path you've chosen.
Choose wisely. You have every moment of your life to do so.
Live with substance!
Gabe Orlowitz
