Embracing The Awakening

People often experience a certain numbing while on medications. Emotional responses might be blunted, attention and empathy might be dulled, and imagination and creativity might even be blurry.

A beautiful part of getting off medications involves a “re-awakening” that occurs whereby the senses and systems of body and mind are once again called to vibrancy.

Yes, this can feel confusing and even painful at first, but it is a sign that something very healthy is happening.

There might be a flurry of negative emotions and memories that wash over a person during healing—a cleansing that must occur to usher in rebirth.

There might be pains and discomforts as signals and systems of the body “come back online.”

This is normal.

Ultimately, the re-awakening process is a beautiful thing that opens a person up to a better way of living.

Perhaps for the first time in a while, you can feel more fully alive and begin to know yourself in an authentic way.

Getting off prescription medications and going through the healing process reinvigorates a person, but as with other aspects of wellness, we must put in some additional work to experience life more fully.

What things help you to feel more fully alive? That is the question I would like to examine this week.

What helps a person to feel more fully alive?

I’ll give a few examples from my own life.

I feel more fully alive when I am exercising and making sure that I get some daily movement. This helps to clear my head, it helps to relax my body, and it helps me to feel more confident and inspired. Running especially is powerful for me, but I also enjoy walking, weight-lifting, elliptical sessions, and as of late playing pickleball.

I feel more alive when I am in nature, also, especially when I can get some sunshine on a nice day. I love to be at the beach, or walking in the woods, or simply sitting at a park and taking notes.

I feel more alive when I am giving myself new adventures, going on trips—even if just daytrips—to give myself new experiences.

And I feel more alive when I am writing, exploring my ideas and new ways of expressing them to others. This I feel is a God-given gift that I can use, and as such it is a way of communing with God, saying to Him “Thank you for this gift. See, I am using it to make you proud.”

Laughter helps a person to feel more fully alive, too, and this past weekend I went to a comedy show with my wife to see Kevin James (from King of Queens fame) perform. It was great!

People were laughing, hard, and that sparks a sensation of invigoration.

Give yourself little things to look forward to each day, give yourself little adventures each week, and give yourself every opportunity to experience life more fully as time goes on.

Embrace the reawakening process that is happening, and vow to do more of the things that make you feel more alive.

Your life is special. Be excited about where it might lead you.

Have a blessed week,

Michael