Hello and Good Morning Full Potential Beings. Another day to be grateful to be alive! And whatever you’re celebrating today.. may we give thanks to the SOURCE that enables us to have this experience. The source of life. The source of consciousness. Is that Mother Earth? Is that the Sun? Is it something beyond? THANK YOU!

I’m excited about this morning as I plan to play soccer with our local Chirripo community and it seems with the response on the chat that its going to be a good turn out today!

SENSITIVITY

Do you feel like a sensitive person? How sensitive do you feel compared to other people? Where do you feel it in your body? For example when you feel fear? When you feel love? It’s a curious question. I believe the more curious we get about the feelings in our body the more aware we become. The more connected with our body and it’s various reaction to stimuli. Either external stimuli as it’s happening or mental impressions as we replay them.

AWARENESS

Being more aware has various benefits.. but in the most practical sense, it allows us to choose our response in real time.
Rather than being impulsive when we feel something.. we can slow things down. Allow them to PROCESS. Allow them to settle. And decide where we want to focus and how we want to respond.

RESPONSIBILITY

Being response-able is a gift. You have the power to respond to any situation in the best possible way. This gives you some kind of control over your vessel and the influence you have on your environment. You are always ABLE to respond.. but pausing and giving it some time allows you to filter through and let go of impulsive responses you might regret later.. and CHOOSE from the available options the best possible response.

I find that I respond best after I let the initial emotion or impact of a feeling settle. Then I can choose thoughtfully and from a place of settled emotion how I want to respond.

This option to pause before responding is another reason why I have an eye mask and ear plugs handy at all times. I feel quite sensitive to my environment and some things can easily trigger other emotions that are still inside me and yet to process. So when that occurs, rather than feel obligated to respond in the moment, I take some time out and process the emotion. Then I might write about it. Including writing down some options and then come back to situation at hand and respond the best I can.

In some ways this approach to life is like a ‘choose your own adventure’ where you get to choose the kind of life you are creating from the responses you take the time to thoughtfully choose.

Now of course it’s not always possible to pause, some things need attention in the moment .. or sometimes an emotion is so powerful it takes the wheel and responds for me (seemingly).. and from there you ALWAYS still have the option to slow things down and thoughtfully respond whenever you become aware and realize YOU always have control over your vessel and it’s responses.

COMPASSION

We humans are still learning how to utilize this gift and power we have. Sensitivity can feel like a curse sometimes when you are overwhelmed with feeling. And being thoughtfully response-able may seem impossible when it doesn’t feel like its possible to slow things down. It’s in times like these we have to remember that we’re all still learning.

Learning how to be aware of our emotions. Learning how to respond with grace. Learning how to be better humans.

If someone responds in a less than graceful way.. take some time to appreciate the level of stress or overwhelm they might be experiencing. Don’t immediately take on their judgements or blame. When you know who you are, you’re less likely to be swayed by the options of others. And instead you’ll begin to see through the eyes of compassion that someone may not have the clarity that you do. Or the luxury to study their emotions and responses if they are in a stressful situation that needs to be dealt with right away.

The more we can bring compassion to situations involving others, the more we can also learn to have compassion for ourselves. It’s too easy to judge. It’s a shortcut to being superior, which the Ego loves. If instead we can see ourselves as more of the same, with different challenge levels based on the conditions at hand.. we can have compassion, help each other to SEE and respond in more loving ways.