What makes you feel good? Happy? Fulfilled?

So often, when I ask these questions, I get three monosyllable words back: I. Don’t. Know.

When I dig a little deeper, I either learn that the person is in a difficult phase in their life and just can’t see clearly, or that their priorities in life have changed and they are no longer in touch with who they are. Regardless of the life situation, what seems to be common is this underlying sense of ‘numbness’. It is as though they just can’t get to the feelings they are searching for.

Think about a visit to the dentist where you had some work done that required them to freeze your mouth. While a numb mouth can be quite frustrating, especially if you start to get hungry, the reality is you cannot do a whole lot to speed up the process of feeling your mouth again! You simply have to give into the pace and trust that the numbness will slowly and naturally fade away until you get your sensations back.

So what would the slow, natural version of de-numbing your feelings of happiness and fulfillment look like? If we leverage our knowledge that thoughts create feelings, perhaps the first step is to no longer ‘think’ you are numb! If you no longer had this thought, what would you start to feel? What sensations would come back?

This week, commit to monitoring your thoughts. When you notice a life or feeling-numbing one, kindly usher it out of the way. Allow space for life-affirming feelings to flow in and remember to trust the process.

Seema Sodha