Tears
I sit here at my desk, quiet, tears still dripping from my eyes. Just a few seconds ago, my face was tense and my body filled with sadness. Not because something sad happened in that moment, but because I chose to experience this emotion.
It's funny, I thought, that this is something that usually only actors can do.
It was interesting to observe the path that this feeling takes in my body. It starts somewhere below my sternum, travels up, passes my throat and the back of my neck, through my skull through my eyes and eventually reaches the tip of my nose.
And interestingly, if instead of focussing on the sadness for having spent only a limited time with you, I focus on the profound gratitude for having had the honour of witnessing this part of your journey, the joy takes a very similar path. It also brings tears to my eyes and eventually reaches the tip of my nose.
It seems to me that the energetic process in my body is quite similar and just the interpretation of the mind and the expression on my face are different.
So it seems to me that if you want to experience this intensity of joy, one way of training the body to do so is to also allow the same intensity of sadness.