Living vs Existing...
I recently read a quote by Oscar Wilde about living and existing which goes:
'To live is the rarest thing in the world.
Most people exist, that is all.'
I think most of us have felt that feeling of the mundane taking over and our existence being more about putting one foot in front of the other.
We want to LIVE.
We want to THRIVE.
I think we feel this urge to make every moment Instagramable or Facebookable or (whatever your social media outlet may be) so that we can look back at these moments and maybe measure how much excitement we have had or how worthy our lives are or how much we can convince everyone around us how exciting our lives are...that we have LIVED.
But let's face it, life just isn't always that ... picture perfect or presentable. Like when your toddler has...let's used the word MESSED herself and the contents of which no resides not only at the source but also in her socks, shoes, all over her legs, up the back and neck! Or your dog has puked literally all over the car or maybe you have been having financial problems and just can't work out which bill is most important to pay first at this point. Maybe you were let go from your job...again! None of these things are pretty or something that you may want to share with the world at that very moment! Life is messy and that is part of the deal of life to take the messy with the picture perfect and be present in the experience.
Now by being present in the experience, I don't mean that you should enjoy every moment. No, there are some seriously sucky moments we all have to make through. Some people have more sucky experiences than others. I feel it is ok to say, it SUCKS to be doing this or feeling this or to be part of this or that in the moment. This is where the existing part comes in. Sometimes we just need a moment to be in existence. Just to exist. Just to be. Sometimes existing isn't something to be ashamed about, sometimes existing can just be taking a moment...or several moments (hours, days, weeks, months...) to just exist where you are in that moment until you find balance again.
Our everyday lives don't always give us the opportunity to just STOP for a minute and find ourselves and our balance. Our daily lives show the living and existing balance in very subtle ways and it is only when big life changes occur that we really feel this polarity of living and existing. When for example we have lost a loved one and our world as we knew it just stops while everything else seems to continue living. We put one foot in front of the other and we continue to exist for a moment. We aren't really living or thriving but we are existing. That is completely OK and often a must!
Without this period of existing.
This period of recovering.
This period of healing, we may find it very difficult or near impossible to get to a stage of balance and equilibrium again.
When we find our balance again following a period of rest, slowing down, quiet, peace, healing or existing... we are able to LIVE and find joy, love, peace, excitement and all those wonderful picture perfect things that we want to share with the world.
Living and Existing in my view aren't things to chase or repel these are natural states of being. In order to to LIVE we must EXIST...there is no one without the other.
EFT TAPPING EXAMPLE: EXISTING
You may be currently in a state of being where you feel that you are merely existing! If this is you, the following tapping example may serve you today!
Rate your feeling of discomfort in existing from 0-10 (zero being no discomfort and 10 being the highest amount of discomfort felt).
Setup Phase / Phrase:
Tap on the KC point and say:
Even though I feel like I am only existing, I love and accept this time of just being;
Even though I feel like everyone around me are having the time of their lives while I am left behind, I honor where I am right now and accept this time of finding balance;
Even though I want to feel like my life has been lived, I love and accept myself anyway.
Tapping Sequence:
Tap on each point and make a statement as follows:
TOH: I feel like I am merely existing;
EB: My life is so boring and mundane;
SE: I want to live a life of joy;
UE: I want to look back at my life and say, I have LIVED;
UN: I want to travel the world or do things that excite me;
Ch: I want to fill my day with things that fill my heart with joy;
CB: But instead I am left in just existing;
UA: My day is filled with things that make me unhappy.
Take a deep breath in and out and rate your progress on the measurement scale again. Continue tapping rounds of EFT until you reach a zero on the scale.
Always make sure you change the statements in my tapping example to suit you personally and particularly. This will ensure that you adapt the healing to you specifically and thereby increasing the speed and extent of the improvement using EFT on any issue you may be working on.
My hope for you in this blog post and this exercise is that you may start feeling that the states of being (existing and living) are both needed in life to thrive. These concepts of living and existing are merely states of being that all of us experience. It ebbs and flows naturally in all our lives. The difference lies in how we look at these states of being and our mindset around it.
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