Did you know that emotions have a vibration? Anger, jealousy, joy, sadness, fear, delight all vibrate at a specific frequencies. Ever heard the saying emotions are contagious? Have you ever noticed when you walk into a funeral service how you literally can feel the grief in the room, it’s heavy and can feel suffocating. Have you ever listened to a friend’s story about an injustice and by the end of it you are feeling as ticked off about it as they are feeling? What about when you hang out with really happy joy-filled people, ever notice how you leave that experience feeling lighter and happier? This is because emotions are contagious! They buzz all about us all the time and literally change our body chemistry if we are not paying attention.

The human body is somewhere between 65-80% water (depending on what source you cite). Have you ever watched water in a container by a speaker when music is playing? It vibrates from the frequencies of the music. Our bodies literally do the same things with the emotional frequencies we surround ourselves with.

Emotional contagion is a real thing. You are a walking emotional conductor, picking up the energetic vibration of all the busyness about you. And if you are not careful and unaware you can start to believe that some of what you are picking up is actually yours instead of someone else’s emotional debris.

Start paying attention!

Ask yourself, “Am I feeling this way or is this my friend’s stuff who I just got off the phone with or the cashier where I just check out from or the people in the room I just left?” We subconsciously pick up and carry other’s baggage with us without our even knowing and baggage is heavy!!

So before assuming it’s yours – your sadness, frustration, jealousy, anger, disappointment, etc. check it out – be an observer of yourself.

Did I feel this way when I woke up?

When did I start feeling this way?

What happened before I started feeling this way?

Backtrack in your day and look for the root. You might find that what you are feeling is not yours at all AND if it is NOT —SHAKE IT OFF!!!

Get out of your chair and shake it off!! You will feel the load lift and fall off – shake shake shake shake shake shake shake!

Are you a busy bee? I’m am! Always moving, fidgeting, wiggling about! I can remember being little eating spaghetti at my uncle’s house sitting halfway in a chair, one cheek on, one cheek off, wiggling, moving, squirming all over the place. I can close my eyes and hear him say, “Melissa Ayn sit still and eat your dinner.” I am pretty sure I drove him a little crazy with all the vibration and buzzing around the dinner table. We laugh about it now, it’s a sweet memory!

Life is buzzy! Instant coffee, microwaves, fast drying nail polish, we don’t have to sit still for too long. Waiting is a lost art for sure. Most of us have forgotten how to slow and be still. It takes effort now to do so. Our fast paced lives demand we move and move quickly.

I am still pretty fidgety – if you sit near me for any length of time you will notice. I still wiggle and squirm in my chair. Cross my legs, uncross my legs, lean in, lean back, spin my hair into a bun, play with my necklace…wiggly! I kind of drive myself a little crazy now (Sorry Uncle J, but know that I get you now – driving myself a little batty with all the vibration and buzzing about.) It’s hard to slow…

Some are better than others at slowing, letting time morph into crawl where they find themselves capturing the minutes and savoring the moments. If you are wired like me – this is much harder. Quiet takes practice and purposeful cultivating. I’m sure this is true for all types, I don’t think this day and age in our culture “slow” comes naturally for anyone but some are better at slipping into it faster. Like a favorite pair of soft slippers they can’t wait to get back to – they run to the side of their bed to find them waiting and easily ease right back into with little to no effort once the move toward them is made. For me, I have to find those doggone slippers first. Kicked under the bed, moved to that bathroom, left on the back porch? Where the heck did they go??

Making space for quiet stillness to silence and slow.

Doesn’t that sound nice? Did you take a deep breath as you read that? I did when I wrote it!

How can you silence and slow?

How can you cultivate quiet?

How can you make space for stillness?

Stillness Practice comes when I write, when I leisurely walk my dog, when I notice the sunrise in the morning and slow to capture with my camera, when I call my mom to chat while driving to pick up my kids, when I notice that full feeling when eating and stop before my plate is empty, when I sit and really listen to the stories of my middle schoolers day, when I look into my husband’s eyes when I kiss him, when I enjoy the sweat and heart pound while doing lunges at the gym, when sipping a cup of coffee with a friend and holding space for each other’s heart stories..

Being intentional in the time, causes my heart to quiet and settle. The everyday things I am doing when

intentional in the time

settles, quiets, captures and slows.

It’s so great when you can stop in at a yoga class, take a bubble bath, sit in contemplative prayer, go for a leisurely bike ride. When your schedule allows to purposefully slow – those moments are amazing, but everyday life doesn’t usually offer such expanse.

It’s not about changing what you are doing, it’s about capturing it in what is already happening in the everyday moments that make up your life.

Intentional in the time that is your life.

Faith is defined by the Cambridge Online Dictionary as, “a high degree of trust or confidence in something or someone.”

“In Greek, the root word from which we get ‘faith, the noun is PISTIS, and ‘believe’, the verb is PISTUEO. FAITH means- belief, firm persuasion, assurance, firm conviction, faithfulness.”

“Faith is the connecting power into the spiritual realm, which links us with God and makes Him become a tangible reality to the sense perceptions of a person.”

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Hebrew_Roots/The_original_foundation/Faith

“a tangible reality to the sense perceptions…”

Tangible is described as a “thing perceptible by touch” – to touch God is the working power of faith. It is with faith we feel supernatural presence and know that we are held.

I often doubt – how about you? When I don’t feel or see God’s movement in my life, when the Divine feels far away, out of reach, when I feel confused, lost, hopeless, tired, ticked off, betrayed, left out, struggling to find meaning and purpose, weary of the same old, same old. I doubt! How about you?

I have believed that THIS – THIS DOUBT – is the opposite of FAITH.

It’s NOT!

Doubt is defined as “a feeling of uncertainty or lack of conviction.” Doubt is a normal, human emotion that comes and goes with us fickle, tossed creatures. We cannot measure our faith in our feelings. We have bad days, this is true and sometimes those bad days steal us away from the truth of

who we are,

where we are,

how we are,

what we are!

But I have learned that this thing called Doubt is NOT the opposite of Faith. It can challenge our faith, it can blurry our faith, it can distract us from our faith, but it is, in fact, not the opposite. It’s just uncertainty and to be uncertain positions us to ask some really good questions for us to wrestle with. It is in this place that our faith grows richer and deeper.

Who are you God?

Where are you God?

Are you with me God?

The wrestle is real and the wrestle transforms our faith if we dig deep and do the unearthing work! Heart soil sifted to reveal the limiting beliefs, the mind-altering distortions, and pus-filled wounds that still need healing balm from supernatural medicine cabinets.

Doubt is not the opposite – it is the “set up” for the MORE God has for each of us if we choose it!

No doubt is not the opposite…

SIGHT is!

Hebrews 11:1 reminds us that “faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

Sight is the opposite of faith. It is what we see with our natural eye that robs and challenges us our “tangible reality to the sense perceptions.” When we focus on what we see on those not so good, faith lost days, we lose FAITH! Our eyes deceive us. Most of us have not been blessed with “spiritual eyes” to see into the invisible spaces. We can not see angels and demons warring for souls and destinies, we can not see Divine master plans unfolding for our good, we can not see the calculated millions of moves and moments that orchestrate the synchronicities of success, breakthroughs, births, revelations.

We cannot see! And when we cannot see, we lose our faith.

The opposite of faith is sight. I’m learning to keep my eyes on the prize. To remember and hold to promises, words spoken, and quiet moments between God and I that reassure and remind me of where I am going.

Our sight gets in the way of what we know in our hearts. What you see can sometimes discourage and distract you off the path. We can become soul lost in the journey led with our eyes.

LIFT YOUR EYES!

Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Don’t set your focus on what you SEE, remember what you have been told, remember the promises spoken over you, remember the truth about who you are and God’s plans for you, remember what your HEART knows to be true. Remember!!!