QC

Simply feeling is the first step towards sense- and meaning-making. Towards taking in fully what the world is like now, and what actually matters and is worth doing. Towards becoming a good, trustworthy person whose way of being will not break under emotional strain.

I didn't intend to write any of this, it just sort of spilled out. I wasn't steering towards a call to action. I don't know what to do. The problem is much bigger than you or me, and I don't want to sell any kind of false hope.

It's not as simple as just telling people to start feeling things. We don't feel things for very good reasons. We've inherited piles of trauma and conditioning going back generations. We don't want to risk losing the people we have in our lives, who have their own piles.

Along the path we can start having the opposite problem - to become overwhelmed by feeling too much, to not know where to direct the energy, or to direct it in destructive ways that hurt ourselves and others.

Our feelings are like babies who never had a chance to grow up, and babies make messes. They scream and cry. They shit and vomit. It takes a lot to raise a baby, especially by yourself. And the world isn't set up for it.

I don't know how to do it, but I know it's much too hard to do alone. The whole concept of "personal growth" is based on a kind of individualism that is actually also part of the problem. We do this together or not at all.

I feel anxious and embarrassed as I write the above. I've been mostly avoiding social contact the last two months. I've been feeling sick and hopeless and exhausted and small. I worry I've been a bad friend and I'm letting people down.

Last year I thought I had all this feelings stuff figured out. I thought I knew what to do. I thought I was listening to and trusting the wisest part of myself. And then it all fell apart, a little over a year ago.