In trying to anchor my experience by exploring within and reminding myself about what it means to be human. Part of that work is re-learning what it means to be a good human or to do “humaning” well. To follow this thread in my posts, look for these tags:#NotesFromMyYogaJournal

Today, I’m thinking about the temporal nature of being. When we come into contact with a bit of experience, it can be painful, exciting, sad, euphoric, dread, hot, cold–any number of emotional and physical sensations. Each one of those experiences is impermanent.

At the time, they feel very real, even solid. But really, they are a passing memory. That horrible boss that made you nauseous before each 1:1 meeting? Gone, in the past. That amazing dinner party people still talk about? Just a memory. The searing pain from an injury? Just a hint of a scar left from that. The lightness of being that came with things going your way? Yesterday’s harvest of hard work.

When I think of these experiences one by one, I experience this open, unfixed quality–that my feelings of hurt, love, joy, regret–are all in my mind. My experiences are so vivid though, it’s tempting to think of them as solid objects I can touch. I really did have a wound, and now I have a scar–the very definition of change. These things aren’t as solid as they feel. Nothing solid is, in fact, really happening.

Ego is the warden of my mind-jail. Ego is what makes things certain, solid. It watches as the doors remain open while I sit in the cell, waiting for me to challenge it.

Everything is in a state of change, even if our minds cling to the wound when we see the scar.