Parvati Magazine May 2014 - Feeling Alive | Page 12

WELLNESS

WE ARE HERE
To Experience Everything

W

henever I’ve had intense emotions and sensations, I have felt alive. Most are obvious
events at the extremes of the human experience spectrum: falling in love, reaching a
goal, nearly being killed in a collision, a surprise betrayal. Juices flow, the cells are excited,
the heart opens wide or contracts tightly, a prayer or a curse is uttered, and a sharp sense
of aliveness is felt.
People often say “pinch me” when something unbelievable happens. The pinch they crave
is a physical sensation to let them know they are awake and alive. One very easy way for
me to connect to the cosmos is to take off my sunglasses. Yes, I feel the sun’s sting, and I
might squint and my eyes tear… and I don’t mind for a few minutes because I feel alive.
I also let myself get a little sunburnt. I want to know that I’ve been sun-kissed. My hot skin
makes me feel connected to the entire galaxy.
I sometimes get annoyed or impatient and I rebel against the barriers we put between the
world and ourselves: sunglasses, sunscreen, shoes, painkillers, sedatives, padding, fences
and ropes…so much “protection” from what… life? A little pain reminds us we’re alive.
As a child, it always amazed me that, every summer at Lake Simcoe, we would challenge
ourselves to walk on the gravel road barefoot. The first day was impossible – two steps and