I recently celebrated a birthday with a 0 on it. I'm not big into milestone birthdays, but this one got me thinking. With all the gifts I got from family, what's the best gift I could give myself?
I realized the best gift I could give myself was that of space. Space to feel whatever I was feeling. Space for my thoughts to exist, for my emotions to come and go, and for my inner energies to do their thing. I realized I needed to give myself the gift of allowing all of these natural, inner occurrences to take place without my involvement.
You see, our problem is not that we experience weird thoughts, uncomfortable emotions, or strange energies. Our problem is that when those things inevitably happen, we interfere with them. We try to change them. We push and pull the vibrations because we don't like them. But why don't we like them? Why haven't we learned to be okay with them?
I realized on my birthday that so much of my suffering comes about from me wishing I wasn't feeling a particular way. My suffering arises from me trying to avoid what I'm feeling by mindlessly scrolling on my phone. My suffering arises from me not giving myself the space to experience whatever I'm experiencing without trying to change it.
And that's when I realized I wasn't giving myself any gifts on my birthday. That's when it became clear that the best gift I could give myself - the best gift anyone could give themselves - is the space to experience the present moment without trying to change it.
This gift is better than all other gifts, because it enriches our experience of life. If before you saw in three dimensions, allowing yourself to experience the present moment now opens a fourth dimension.
The good news is, it doesn't have to be your birthday to give yourself this gift. My birthday came and went, but I'm still me, I'm still here, and it's still now. It will always be now.
What does your now look like? Are you in touch with it? Are you friends with it? Have you given yourself the gift to fully experience it?
Live with substance!
Gabe Orlowitz
