Blog
What moves you?
by Elizabeth Ruske
August 12, 2010
This month, one of our Tiara practices is to recognize and capture when we are feeling moved. The weekend I began the exercise happened to coincide with my in-laws 60th wedding anniversary. Throughout the weekend festivities we had plenty of time to feel and be moved. And as the month has progressed, I found countless other experiences that moved me: a beautiful sunset . . . a lovely bike ride along the lake. . . watching the waves roll in while on a conference call from the beach . . . helping my niece find a job and experiencing her gratitude. . . a young woman I mentor identified an opportunity for her own growth and powerfully stepped into a new situation. Without looking to hard, clearly there have been many opportunities to feel and be moved.
However, at the very same time I was recognizing these positive things I was also experiencing hurt, anger, and frustration due to some loved ones’ mistakes and negative behaviors.
It occurred to me that these negative emotions also moved me; i.e., they share a similar intensity to the positive occurrences and I felt a dramatic shift in my emotions and my energy. If I’m honest, although these negative emotions moved me – they also scared me. How could I feel so proud and happy one moment and within the next 24 hours feel such intense anger and frustration about the same person? It made me feel like I was doing something wrong; like I “should” not feel the frustration and anger – only the love.
Then something else occurred to me, I reminded myself feel how much I love this person and at the same time I told myself that loving and honoring myself (even knowing I may not be being my very best self) was perfectly OK. I recognized it was a gift of acceptance, of me, of my son, and the situation. And that moved me!
My lesson learned is that feeling moved and inspired doesn’t only come from happy moments . . . it comes from living life and feeling alive.
So, what moves you?