We live in a world of relationships.Not just to other people.Not just to groups and places.We live in relationship to our feelings.How do we relate to happiness?How do we relate to sadness?How do we relate to fear?It is all a part of how we relate to life.How we relate to death is equally important.It is not just about feeling our feelings.It is about the stories we make from those feelings.It is about the meaning we make from those feelings.Is feeling joyful better than feeling depressed?Is feeling motivated better that feeling anxious?Yes, there are many feeling that are uncomfortable.So what is our relationship to feeling uncomfortable?Can we learn to be comfortable with discomfort?Can we learn to be okay when we feeling those feelings that are difficult?After all, it will all pass.Nothing stays the same.How is our relationship with change?Are we okay that the world, life, and our own body, is constantly changing?As we learn to navigate all of these millions of relationships we gain an important understanding.We learn that the thing in itself is not the main generator of our experience.It is the meaning we make from the feeling that surround it.And it is the stories we tell ourselves about the thing that generates those feelings.Which means we can change it at any time.We can generate different feelings by changing the stories.We can control how we feel about something by how we interpret the experience.We are in control of our life!It may not always seem that way.It surely doesn't always feel that way.Yet as we become more skilled at reinventing all the stories we have about the world around us, we learn how create the world we want.When we learn to accept what is, yet change how we feel about what is, we are truly empowered.There is not greater skill in life.There is not greater relationship that the one we have to life.
~ Sam Liebowitz, The Conscious Consultant