I was emailing with a woman who said she feels lost.
She even capitalized it. Depression and darkness and fear are present, unwanted circumstances are happening, a handful of painful thoughts are constantly repeating, and I feel LOST, she said.
I was curious about how, in the middle of plenty of other stuff, “lost” was the part she seemed to be most concerned with. Lost was worthy of caps lock.
Lost is judgmental. Lost is saying this shouldn’t be happening.
Lost gives the mind a job, which it loves. Uh-oh, we have a lost person on our hands…let’s get them found!
Lost is an abstract mind conversation that distracts from what is actually here now. It allows us to escape into a story about being lost, found, turned around, how did this happen, how will it resolve, who will save me…
…rather than simply feeling what’s here, now.
Feeling what’s here now is the direct path toward what we’re looking for. It’s the only path.
A story about being lost is your mind providing an innocent, unhelpful distraction.
