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Been telling a few friends lately (was the topic of my previous tinyletter) about my sense that feelings are under-appreciated, under-considered, under-articulated, misunderstood, misrepresented - & all of that is a massive bottleneck. To be in tune with your feelings is sublime https://t.co/i9DNKL9f5R
Some of us can go through decades w/o ever properly coming to terms with our feelings. It is in this sphere that, on reflection, I realized that I actually do know what denial feels like. It’s spookily subtle. “I’m a fun guy” => “that’s not anxiety! Fun guys don’t do anxiety!”
The result for me was an experience that was sort of perpetually out-of-body. I’ve almost always, since boyhood, felt like I’ve lived some distance away from my body. The things that happen in my body - stress, fear, anxiety - felt foreign, almost “fake” https://t.co/gRfxO3TrCi
And my sense is - it takes “psychic energy” (cognitive, whatever) to maintain this illusion of separation of mind and body. It’s discordant. I don’t know the precise terms to use, but it “depleted my power levels” and I was, without realising it, a shadow of myself
In this state, everything is low-contrast, low-energy. Happy isn’t happy. Sad isn’t sad. I was definitely outright depressed at points. And I’ve really come all the way through, to what I’ve described as “high-voltage living”. I don’t think I’m even halfway to what I will become
One of things Marie Kondo mentions when talking about “Spark Joy” is this idea that... for a lot of people, when they touch their things, they don’t even really have any feelings at all. It’s “just stuff”, and they have to *practice* feeling the feelings. Turning up the voltage https://t.co/bX1zz1NDFj
Turning up the voltage might be a dangerous thing to do. It’s unsettling. It’s chaotic. Getting “unblocked” in some ways can overwhelm you with feelings - anger, sadness, despair. Lots of literature alludes to this sort of thing. “Unblocking your chakras”, “harnessing your chi” https://t.co/QbpOqDYqnz
I don’t really care for any specific model. The point is to be in tune with yourself, your feelings, your body. If you do this right, it goes all the way through you, and it shows in your body, your speech, your art, your communications, your aesthetics https://t.co/v3JkafQv4j
I have already witnessed, in the past couple of years, how my personal progress in unblocking myself + turning up my own voltage has affected and influenced other people, even just via my tweets. It’s a very poetic, nourishing phenomenon. I cherish it https://t.co/Rty8vgxFG1
Why isn’t everybody a natural at this? Well... learning to be in tune with your feelings takes practice. It seems frivolous when you’re starting, and it’s embarrassing when you’re bad at it. We are trained to minimize negative variance, & we throw out positive variance with it
And, also, maybe some people have a sort of “voltage ceiling”. I recognise that I’m an atypical person. Not everyone should be like me, or try to be like me. If all of this sounds like nonsense to you, that’s totally fine. I’m just looking for other competent high-voltage players https://t.co/UGN7geJ4Wl
TIL Ted Hughes used the voltage metaphor in the 1930s! (H/t @armandcognetta) https://t.co/cwjeoFfUC0
disinhibit https://t.co/R3jj81z003
I am never truly alone, for I have the light of human consciousness pulsing through my nerves. I am a verse in a song that echoes through millennia. I am Feynman and Archimedes, I am laughter and joy, curiosity and awe, discovery and delight ...anyway, support your local library https://t.co/PMs1hP0X4d
Hiding from the feds https://t.co/8tOhFkoOFd
I think getting your posture in alignment reduces the "resistance" that dampens your voltage ie, good posture = higher voltage of course, it's all connected you have to relax your belly to have better posture have to confront your feelings for that https://t.co/BZkvGnqeWS
Once you start looking for this you start seeing it everywhere For contrast: (draw a line visually from the center of the pelvis, through the psoas, through the neck and shoulders, through the top of the head) Who do you think is likelier to have back, neck and shoulder pains https://t.co/BzOJeaueMU
@visakanv Mostly in agreement but the simpler way to say is that you have to be honest with yourself. Been learning lately that when you know where you are in relation to the world (feelings included) a lot of paths tend to open up naturally. We're often our worst enemies, in a way.