It is so amazing to finish a spiritual retreat and feel so uplifted. I think it is how some people feel when they increase their dose of prozac, zoloft or paxil. Those meds are used for depression and work by stopping the body from digesting/breaking down serotonin. This hormone is usually lacking in many of us and when levels are low, the body reacts with giving feelings of sorrow, gut doesnt work, love is not in your vocabulary and stress is poorly tolerated. My family sees me as happy and I eagerly get to my meditation pillow as often as possible to maintain the feeling. Imagine, the only thing that starts this amazing cascade of hormones in me is listening to a week of lectures by very inspiring and charismatic healer/ teachers and eating healthy.
In contrast, not practicing meditation, lacking time in the day to exercise, surrendering to the call of processed food, can make one feel short tempered with an altered interpretation of surroundings. Events in life are "to offend me", theres "not enough time" in 24 hours for me, slow traffic is getting in "my way", "my internet" has crashed. Ego based living is kind of what we reinforce from childhood. It is ok to teach a child about him/her being individual and separate from everyone else. The concept of social boundaries is good in younger years so development of other more complex social skills like love and devotion can happen. I believe the problem is when an individual stays in the concept of social separation and the idea that this world is put in place to serve me even into college and married life. I see this with alot of men, we don't allow ourselves to emotionally express joy and love. It is taught in tough guy (high) school, using phrases like "I love you" or "you inspire me" or "I feel great joy and bliss" are things you dont say for fear of being labelled as "gay" or "fag". Even now, many of the guys I know will use those phrases but have to "soften" them by adding "brother" or "dude" or "man".....(ie "love you man" or "love you brother") And that is ok. I love the way women are so connected and share feelings with words of expression without worrying about misinterpretation (amongst themselves)....say these words to a guy and and suddenly you are a stalker or "she wants me" comes up. My daughter has a gift of this, she will end conversations with "love you". These two words punctuated at the end of a telephone call will change the way another person feels. A simple discussion with friends ends with the friend being surprised and sometimes politely encouraged to answer the same. Even if the "L" word is gently forced out of someone to respond to your "L" word, the dynamic of that person is changed even for a millisecond by saying it. (Then one goes back into stress living after they hang up)
Interesting study Wayne Dyer talks of when scientists wanted to find out how much giving an act of kindness affected someone. They measured serotonin levels of the person getting the kindness and levels were elevated as hypothesized. Then they measured the levels in the blood of the person giving the kindness and they were elevated! Then they measured the persons blood levels that were just witnessing the act being performed....they were elevated!!! It is too bad that being comfortable with one's self and not being afraid to share or express emotion usually comes with the price of taking expensive courses or just getting into retirement age and finding all those boundaries earlier in life didn't make a difference in the end. More importantly, dropping the word "love and caring" shouldnt just be shared behind closed doors or in the bedroom or on Christmas Eve. Imagine how your world would be if there were just free expression with no remorse of misinterpretation!!!! (It seems to be just the opposite now, free expression of violence/hatred with no remorse or thought to consequence)......Don't be afraid to tell someone you love them today!
