Call it in

One of the cornerstones of yoga, meditation and other “spiritual practices” is that feelings aren’t facts – they are not immutable truths about you or anything else. So while I’m a big fan of feeling your feelings and not denying or running away from your emotions, there’s also much truth in the idea that we can significantly shift our experience of our lives.

This is different from someone insisting you should “cheer up” or count yourself lucky, the kind of toxic positivity that leaves us feeling unvalidated and lonely.

It’s considering the times when we can call in some kind of positive emotion that will lift our mood and experience of a situation.

I’ve picked up a gratitude practice again, but this time instead of counting my blessings at night while I lie in bed, I’ve started writing them down in the morning. From the tiny things to the big things, they are my reasons to feel thankful.

I did it because I don’t want to be a slave to my feelings and forget to see all the good things right in front of me. It’s a life-changing practice. Coming from a place of gratitude is coming from a place of fullness and richness instead of scarcity and insecurity. It feels very empowering to imagine I can “call in” feelings of gratitude, joy, hope, strength, bliss.

I’ve played with this when I meditate, visualising these feelings coming into my body – sometimes feeling them as a colour or with a form, like a light or moving through me like smoke. I do it when I move in a yoga practice with my hands or spine opening to receive a feeling, or when I run through the house playing chase with my daughter.

I do it when I remember to stop. When I stand on the back step and feel the sun on my face or the wind whipping up, as if nature can shift my state (because it can, of course).

If I was having a terrible day or a terrible time generally I wouldn’t imagine I could wave my wand and transform my feelings – we’ve got to be true to our experiences otherwise it feels like a lie we’re telling ourselves. At times of fatigue or sadness I just feel what I feel. But when the energy lifts or a door seems to open somewhere, that can be a time when it helps us to remember that we’re more powerful than we might think. That we have the ability to cast small spells on our perception of life.