The process of Discovery – what about it makes me feel free? What is it about swimming and flying that opens up my senses and makes me smile? There is an energy of excitement that pulls me into the present moment with an amazing alertness. I believe that this happens as a result of being in a whole body experience – no past or future concerns, no story happening in my head, no thought that asks me to sidestep what is happening at that moment. This is the most refreshing wash of aliveness possible! And, of course, it comes and then it goes.
“Discovery” seems the most appropriate way to describe what I feel in these situations. It’s about uncovering something new – or what feels like new. I believe the “newness” emerges from simply being fully present to what I am doing in that moment. Of course, if what I’m doing is something I already identify as pleasurable, then it’s easier to slip into this sense of discovery.
Suppose what I’m doing is new to me or demands something different from how I’ve involved myself before. Then I can meet the situation with uncertainty that leads to holding back and a level of anxiety about what will happen next. In my body, that feeling sense is then one of closing off, shutting down, with energy invested in a cautionary process as I approach what’s new. How is it possible to switch this, to back up and choose another route?
What happens to the richness of discovery? The openness and the quality of receiving, taking in with wide-eyed acceptance (not necessarily approval but the sense that this is what it is) or the interest and eagerness that leads to possibility. When you consider that each moment is new – it’s never happened before – there exists the opportunity to realize that this new moment holds something to discover. Of course, it does! It’s not about what’s happening now – that isn’t what gets in the way for us to be open and accepting. It’s what happened yesterday or the day or week or year upon year before that frames our present moment experience.
I would say set that baggage aside and take on a new story, one that focuses on possibility and expectation of discovery. And if you say, “Oh no, I can’t,” then call to mind some moment when you felt that freedom in the process of discovery and locate that sense within your body. Holding that embodied part of you as your centered self, take the next step. That is all.
We all have a moment like that – a moment of openness and possibility – that can carry us forward. And, like anything else, the more we make a practice of doing this, the more we can dip again and again into the free feeling of discovery.