TORNADO WATCH IN MOTION:

FROM TWISTED FEAR TO FEELING THE VIBE

Audio of TORNADO WATCH IN MOTION (11 minutes)

Strange things to experiment with, here in the midwest.

So it turns out even how you get through a violent storm is all about focus.

And your power to focus is something you can consciously control, whether you use (develop, hone) that power or not.

Click on button just above (below subtitle) to skip reading and hear the 11-min audio version.

Photo of a tornado and dark, ominous sky with a field in the foreground from Nikolas Noonan on Unsplash.

I have always been afraid of tornadoes. You don’t need a big story for that to be true. Violent wind conglomerates that can twist a house off its foundation and give it a new address—that’ll do right there. My dad did have a childhood tale of trying to race a twister home and getting plucked off his bike and deposited unceremoniously (also unscathed) in the cotton field up the road a ways.

So I was predictably feeling fear the other night when a tornado watch had been declared till midnight. Watch means the conditions are right, so pay attention for the screaming sirens that mean the actual demented winds have been sighted—then head for the basement post-haste. I’d made the trip downstairs the week before with my 89-year-old mother, so I could still access the felt sense of that particular warning system—uncomfortably weird, eerie, relentless. (I could use the same words to describe the song of coyote packs, which I also occasionally hear from my bedroom, but I consider that sound divine.)

I decided it would feel better not to go to bed for real, but to lie fully clothed on my made-up bed. Solid plan, if based in fearful vigilance: just lie on the edge of trembling for a few hours, ready to walk my unsteady housemate downstairs if need be.

Photo of blurred figure near a window with a blurred nighttime storm visible through textured glass from Emanuel Haas on Unsplash.

I’m practiced at and now predicated to think in terms of feeling better. I also treasure the concept and experience of presence, so I make it a point to get back to body awareness as quick as I notice I’ve left it. In fear, I left. In noticing, I wondered right away what else I might do to feel better.

The breath is always a great first thing to tune in to and bring in as a felt sense, and doing that brought me back to my senses. I could see and hear the lightning storm exploding in the darkness behind my blinds. I could feel the power of the storm, something charged in the air even here inside the house. From that conscious contact with body and breath, a better-feeling thought came in on its own: There’s something I like about this. That singular thought shifted everything, as I then chose to make it my predominant thought—my focus.

I decided to bring the storm closer and let it make its impressions on me. I opened the blinds, then felt inspired to crack the window, and that felt okay. So I lay back on my bed, not quite relaxed, but curious. I was going to allow myself a fuller, more sensory experience of the storm and just let my fear be in the room too. Beyond my uncovered window, the lightning was so striking (okay, no pun initially intended, for real), with traveling craggy patterns and gorgeous, intermittent sheets of light. The cloud shapes staggered in and out of luminescent relief against the darkness. Here I was in a light show!

I could also smell the storm-drenched air. It smelled good. The sound, uninterpreted, was magnificent. The more I felt into the storm and engaged with it in a sensory way, the more (and more quickly) my experience shifted. The noise went from scary and bomblike to interesting, intense, insistently alive. Everything felt vibrant.

This was the crux of the feeling state that ended up eclipsing the fear I’d begun with: vitality, wide-awakeness, aliveness. In this now-moment, the storm was my connection to life. Lying within that perspective, allowing that to take over my focus, I didn’t even care about tornado or no tornado anymore. (And it never manifested.)

follow the whispers & impulses that call you to feel alive

Photo of lightning in the night sky from Ahmed on Unsplash.

Culturally and thus individually, we’re predicated to focus on thinking rational thoughts and taking appropriate actions. In fact we think of focus as meaning focused thought, focus on a task. You don’t need to throw all that out (there’s a baby somewhere in that murky bathwater), but what if you played with more focusing of EMOTION? What if you first paid attention to and worked with and mastered your feeling states? Then from a place of feeling how you want to feel (perhaps something more easy, relaxed, clear, confident), you could think and act accordingly. This has been my grand experiment thanks to the teachings of Abraham-Hicks.

It was amazing and surprising to bring it to the storm. I’ve never done such a thing before—just tried with more or less success to soothe my fear and tell myself calming things. My predominant emotion at the beginning of the storm was fear. Lying on the bed consciously seeking to drop down tense muscles and find some flow in the breath, I tuned in to a new possibility of focus. Storms may be scary but they’re also beautiful and fascinating in their electrical fervor. Immersing myself in that didn’t exactly take me to a relaxed, peaceful vibe, but I don’t need peace as a constant emotional setpoint. Do you? I don’t want anything as the only thing I ever feel!

And feeling (not thinking about, not taking an action against) the power of the storm took me to awe, wonder, vibrancy—states that emotionally feel way better than fear. This is the power of presence. I left the dream of danger on the horizon (which was rushing my way in a screaming crescendo), I shifted to feeling solid in my body and connected to the breath. Through my senses, I became connected to the storm, no longer separate. The story of being snatched in the night evaporated because it gave way to actual experience and a chosen focus that brought a wanted feeling state.

I think if I can do it with tornadoes, I can do it with anything.

I think you can do it with anything, whatever the particulars of your amazing life, whatever your senses may bring in as you bring yourself to presence in any moment, in whatever circumstances, and scooch toward your best possible focus here and now.

I’ve written about the importance of just feeling better, of prioritizing feeling good. I invite you to a strong intention to keep catching yourself feeling bad for any reason (and it’s so easy to justify feeling bad because … life), and vow to walk yourself, PRACTICE walking yourself in one way or another toward better, better, better … good.

This comes straight from the teachings of Abraham-Hicks. The more I play with, learn, practice, and support others in the concepts and processes offered from Abraham, the more I like myself and my life. The more I hone the power of my focus. The more things around me look like more of what makes me feel good. I want this for everyone on the planet.

This stuff can freak people out a bit, as we’re taught to be suspicious of too much well-being or feeling good. We’re suspicious of feelings, period. With and without helpers of whatever kind, I invite you to risk feeling good too much of the time and play with meeting yourself and your life head-on, whatever the current conditions.

For the record, I love to combine these teachings with coaching processes. I’m very skilled at helping you look into your thinking, notice what you’re prioritizing, find how to create worthwhile experiments to test these principles for yourself in the lab that is your life. I strongly believe that you (anyone!) can find the power of generating more of the feeling states you want, and from there more of everything that makes your life something beautiful and fulfilling that must then be a blessing to the beings of this planet and the Earth herself.

Love & blessings, Jaya

​Did you notice this post has an audio version? See button just under the title.

trees & coral put to proper use (more on perception & presence)