FRIENDLY FEELINGS

Lucky me I just returned from a trip to Italy! I went with my mother and my sister and we visited the Chianti countryside and Florence for a little over one week. We had lots of laughs and an overall good time.

A little while back we found out that Alitalia had canceled the Milan to Florence leg of our trip into Italy. That left us in Milan when we wanted to be south of Florence. We decided we'd take the train to Florence, pick up our car rental and handle the unexpected, life is what happens when you are making other plans, situation.

A week out from our trip I began to feel very anxious about this part of our journey. For some reason finding the bus, that took us to downtown Milan, so we could find the train station, and then buy a ticket, and get to the track, so we could travel to Florence, and walk to the car rental place, so we could drive to the farmhouse we rented put me on edge. It seemed like too much to do after a long overseas trip.

I suggested we drive. Let's just pick up our rental and drive to our destination. It'll get us there at least two hours earlier than if we took the plane, bus, train, and then car. It was a go. We were going to drive the 3 hours and 48 minutes according to my research.

We found each other with little incident (they were traveling from NY and I from Chicago) and picked up our car rental. A stick shift of course. And off we went, once we figured out that the light on the dashboard meant the parking brake was engaged. Oops.

TEN hours later we arrived at our destination. We had been in bumper to bumper traffic for most of the trip. Bumper to bumper driving a stick shift after an overseas flight. How fun is that?!

When we arrived, the response from the owners of our accommodations was, "Yes, today is not a good day to drive." It turns out the upcoming Tuesday was a national holiday and EVERYONE was taking a four day vacation and going somewhere!

You might imagine that someplace down the road one of us said something like, "We could have taken the train." Well we didn't take the train. We drove. And we got to where we were going 3 hours later rather than 2 hours earlier than the train, or so we thought.

It turned out that there was no room on the train! The trains were booked to capacity. Everyone who wasn't driving somewhere that day was TAKING THE TRAIN! If we had chosen the train we would have been in the train station for the rest of the day until the next morning, or longer.

Moral of the story. LOVE YOUR ANXIETY. I have learned to love my feelings. My anxiety was a message telling me I was off course. Once I had decided to drive, my feelings became calm. Our feelings are often messengers if we listen. They can be guides to taking action, even if that action is to love your feelings, and love yourself.

QUOTES

"Our feelings are central to life--they are made of the raw energy that drives and motivates our existence--and to be cut off from them is to suffer a slow, silent erosion of the spirit." 
   ~ Gay Hendricks ~

PRACTICALLY SPEAKING

Notice your feelings. Often just by noticing a feeling, and the accompanying body sensations you will find that the energy moves (emotion = energy in motion) and your feeling has shifted.

Pay attention to when your feelings do not shift. Notice the sensations in your body. Tune into any images or thoughts that may come present.

Ask yourself, "What is my feeling saying to me?" Listen for the message in your feeling. Discern whether there is an action that you are being asked to take.

WONDER QUESTION:

How are your feelings a gift?

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Copyright 2007 by Leslie Karen Sann, Living by Design
Visit this link for contact information:
leslie@living-bydesign.com

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Copyright 2007 by Leslie Karen Sann,
Living by Design.All rights reserved. 
Web site. http://www.living-bydesign.com