Emotions have muscle memory
Practice, for the best ones to come back
Donna Ashworth’s poem, ‘Joy Comes Back’ has been floating around my brain a lot in the last few weeks. I typed it all out in full in a previous newsletter.
Today, I discovered another poem, this one by William Martin.
Do not ask your children to strive by William Martin Do not ask your children to strive for extraordinary lives. Such striving may seem admirable, but it is the way of foolishness. Help them instead to find the wonder and the marvel of an ordinary life. Show them the joy of tasting tomatoes, apples and pears. Show them how to cry when pets and people die. Show them the infinite pleasure in the touch of a hand. And make the ordinary come alive for them. The extraordinary will take care of itself.
Perhaps we have to practice the emotions we want to experience more, in order to build emotional muscle memory.
Ashworth’s poem, Joy Comes Back, seems to indicate that we have to practice noticing positive emotions, in order to realise when we are experiencing them. We have to be open to awe, in order to be struck by it. We have to not have our head down, charging along in a rush, in order for awe, and joy, to have space to land in our brains. Martin’s poem tells us to do the same for our children, but it might as well be ourselves.
Perhaps we should think of joy and awe as small birds. Highly skittish, only with us for a second, they need a nanosecond of openness and peace to light in the mind, before buzzing off again. We must pay attention, if we are to notice them. And then, if we practice, they come back.
A little experiment for you as you enter your busy week: today, and all week, practice being open to joy, and awe. Take a photo every day of something that moves you. Have a look through the photos at the end of the week. See what happens next.
Take care of your beautiful mind, dear friends, and I look forward to speaking to you soon. Your next series of Walk the Pod will be here on Monday 18 November.