Lately I have one foot in a world of peace, confidence, and clarity and the other foot in a mindless, fast paced stream of struggles. In the calm, clear, positive world every movement and thought is connected but unique in itself. There is meaning and reason and things feel solid. Some days I wake up in the morning with a strong sense of purpose and direction. Every moment is bright and electric and life seems somehow amplified. In this mindset I am more focused and can comprehend subjects that I might otherwise ignore or shy away from. Life in this place is balanced and calm.

For most of my life I have existed in the stream of struggles. I have been moving with the hustle and bustle of the world without really noticing the details and importance of the individuals I am moving with. I believed I was moving toward something and kept my eyes trained on an end result but really had no notion of what that actually looked like. I moved and acted and thought in that stream as if I could not separate myself from the rest. I was not an individual at all but a part of a whole that was simply flushing through.

Emerging from the stream is a process. At times I feel firmly planted in my newly discovered terrain and I can enjoy a sense of clarity but there are times when I get pulled back into the stream. There are times when the firm terrain melts away under my feet like the suck of sand in a swift tide and the current drags me in. The solid ground is still very close to the water’s edge but I believe that with practice I can find my way further inland and avoid the pull of the tide.

And so now, metaphors aside, what exactly does this look like? What triggered my emergence and what am I doing to further it? Trite but true practices are helping to ground me. Yoga and meditation are a couple of the crucial components for me so far. Submerging myself regularly in some form of creativity and taking steps to continue growing my mind whether through research, or reading, or trying a new activity fosters my movement inland and away from the stream. This all is so relatively new to me and I am still trying to figure out what exactly connects me to the solid ground but a key seems to simply be aware of the difference.

Do you have one foot in a calm and thoughtful world? What are the steps that you take to keep you there?