Some people on a spiritual path experience that they are picking up feelings that aren’t theirs, and feel some distress around it.
In a limited and conventional sense, it may be true they are picking up something from others.
We can sense what’s going on with others, to some extent. Either through picking up signals or even at a distance without any obvious connection.
If this is a pattern and feels overwhelming, there are several ways to work with it. We can practice respecting the boundaries of others, and setting our own boundaries more clearly. We can explore different ways of grounding. We can energize our system so it’s in better condition to deal with what’s happening in our surroundings. We can strengthen our etheric field. (The energy field closest to the body.) And so on.
And there is also another side to this.
THE WORLD IS MY MIRROR
The world is my mirror. Whatever story I have about someone else, or even a particular feeling, I can turn it to myself and find specific examples of how it’s true – here and now and in the past.
When this happens, it’s an opportunity to get to know more sides of myself, and often sides I have shunned in the past.
BEFRIENDING
When people say these things, it’s often because they find the feeling uncomfortable.
So this is an opportunity to get to know the feeling and whatever stories we have about it.
How is it to meet and allow the sensations?
What does this part of me want to tell me? How does it see me? In what way is it trying to help me? What advice does it have for me? How can we find a better partnership?
What story do I have about the feeling? What do I find when I examine this story?
EXAMINING STORIES
Beyond this, what stories do I have about the other person? The one the feeling supposedly comes from? What do I find when I examine these?
Is it true the feeling comes from the other person? What do I find when I examine this story?
What other stories do I have about this situation? And what do I find when I examine them?
HAPPENING WITHIN AND AS WHAT I AM
Whatever happens in my world happens within and as what I am.
Whatever happens in others or the wider world, to me happens within and as what I am.
Whatever happens here in this human self happens within and as what I am.
Most fundamentally, I am capacity for all of it and it’s all happening within and as what I am.
All of it has the same nature. It’s all what a thought may imperfectly call consciousness, Spirit, and so on.
It all has different forms and it’s all “one taste”.
Note: This article is originally from one of the Brief Notes posts.
INITIAL DRAFT
“I AM PICKING UP ON FEELINGS THAT AREN’T MINE”
I keep seeing people talking about picking up feelings that are not theirs, and so on.
When people say those things, they seem to talk about their reactions to a situation they find themselves in. And our reaction is always ours.
Not only that, when it comes up, it’s an invaluable opportunity to see more of what’s here, get to know it, befriend it, shift how I relate to it, see underlying beliefs and issues, and invite in healing and maturing around the whole thing.
So (1) my reaction is my reaction, and (2) why would I want it to be anything else when it can be so valuable?
Of course, this all depends on our orientation and how invested we are in healing, maturing, and waking up.
The more invested we are, the more inclined we are to embrace whatever comes up and use it as an opportunity to heal, mature, and clarify for ourselves what we are.
There is more to this as well.
The world is my mirror. What I see in others or out there in the world in general is also here in me. I can take any story about anyone or anything in the world, turn it to myself, and find genuine examples of how it’s true now and in the past. If I divide too strongly in “yours” and “mine”, I again miss out of an invaluable opportunity to “own” what’s here and use it to explore and find healing, maturing, and clarification of what I am.
And to me, the world happens within and as what I am.