For those of you who know me and follow my work, you are probably well aware of my love for redefining words, by dissecting them and discovering deeper root meanings. (Do you know the English language has over 1,000,000 words? That oughta keep me busy for awhile 😂) So today, I thought I would share my slant on the word 'avoid.'
The online definition is:
avoid [uh-void] verb. keep clear of; stay away from; keep out of the way of someone or something.
This tells me that anytime we successfully 'avoid' something, we create 'a void' - a space between us and that thing. This is fine when we want to dodge a nosy neighbor, or prevent something potentially dangerous from occurring, but what happens when we seek to avoid our own feelings?
Life is about living, which means feeling everything - the highs, lows and in betweens. It's about surfing the waves of life the best we can and being able to savor and deeply appreciate the highs because we allowed ourselves to fully feel the contrasting lows. It's how we learn, grow and become wiser. It's how we expand and become more and more conscious, which if I'm not mistaken is a big part of why we're here. But when we attempt to sidestep feelings we don't wish to feel, by reaching for things repeatedly to help ourselves 'feel better' (drugs, food, alcohol, sex, shopping, television, etc), it only makes matters worst, causing 'a void' that keeps widening between ourselves and life itself.
Like I mention in my first book, it's not about feeling better, it's about getting better at feeling. The things we reach for in our attempt to 'feel better' are simply void-fillers that often become addictions if we continue down this path. This downward spiral overtime, can lead to emptiness until the gap widens so greatly that our lives become entirely 'devoid' of meaning.
Of course, we always have the power to turn things around at anytime. We do this by confronting whatever we have been evading; feeling whatever we have been running away from. We do it by dumping the vase, dropping the baggage, taking out the trash and refilling the barrenness within us with a whole lotta love. As we lessen our load and allow ourselves to feel what we feel, when we feel it, we become lighter, more mindful, more alive and present in each moment.
Now that's some good living!