If human beings couldn’t feel, thinking would have no purpose.

We are feeling creatures—and unfortunately, we live in a world that is completely dominated by the thinking mind and leaves little room for the raw field of human emotion. To quote Charlie Chaplan’s speech from “The Great Dictator”: “We think too much, and feel too little.” And honestly, I can’t think of a more obvious fact of modern life.

This comes at a great cost. We have developed all of these ingenious gadgets and technological devices—but we’re moronically primitive when it comes to actually enjoying the fruits of the modern world. We assume that intelligence is purely of the mind, while neglecting the most deeper intelligence of the body and the soul. As a consequence, many of us feel alienated from our heart’s purpose and are disconnected from the joy of being—and this is best exemplified by the state of mental health in the world and particularly in America.

Imagine if in school, instead of getting detention for our misdoings, we got an hour of meditation. Or rather than being forced to take classes that are 90 percent useless to us down the line, we all took a mandatory class on what it means to feel, and how to be present with the body. Life is absolutely magical, but it seems like a lot of that magic is taken away by the collective lens of modern society.

My point is that we’ve gone as far as we can with our thoughts, and it’s time we move back into the realm of pure feeling. I’ve been putting this into practice myself, as I’ve been a very head-centered person for most of my life. I am making a conscious effort to move from the head down into the heart by constantly reminding myself to bring my awareness to the body. This allows me to get in touch with the deeper feelings that have been burrowed in my psyche, probably since I was a child—the hidden emotions that have been repressed for far too long.

It can be really scary when we allow ourselves to feel what we need to feel—because some of this stuff we’ve been running away from for our whole lives. This is the sh*t we have so much built up resistance toward that we feel like we’re going to die if we face it, and we’d be completely right to feel that way.

In truth, the only thing that’s dying is our ego, and it feels wonderful once we take the plunge into our subconscious. From the ashes of the past, we rise like a phoenix—and with this new found freedom, we can move onto bigger and better.

I think that I may have cracked the filter between my waking mind and my subconscious. After nearly six years of living with a severe chronic illness, this has been a necessary step for me to take. When we’re faced with an overwhelming challenge on the external level, the only path we can take is the one that goes deep down into our own soul.

I’m not afraid of what’s buried deep down inside of me anymore, because I know resisting what’s down there is doing me way more harm than accepting it. We’re human, ya know? There’s nothing to be ashamed of—we are what we are. People are complicated, and it’s okay.

So, instead of endlessly thinking our way to oblivion, let’s simply notice the aliveness of the body from time to time. The body is the best portal to the present moment—the felt presence of our own immediate experience.

See if you can notice the simple fact that you’re alive—it’s actually quite difficult to do. When something comes up for us once we’ve opened this gateway to our deeper nature—a latent emotion or the remnants of a past experience—feel the sh*t out of it right away! The way to overcome our emotional baggage is to barrel right through it.

See it. Accept it. Feel that sh*t!

I’m going to tell you something that you probably haven’t heard before: it’s okay to be a person. Look, we’re all a little f*cked up. We all think that our problems are unique and special, and that we’re being specifically punished in some way by the ghosts of our past—but I’m finding more and more that everyone feels the same.

We all think it’s our dirty little secret—but the world is full of dirty little secrets, and no one cares about yours. Let’s take it easy on ourselves, for godsakes—and more importantly, let’s feel the sh*t out of our deepest emotions and see where that takes us. It’s a hell of a lot better than what modern culture is peddling, I’m telling ya.

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