By Marija Eljuga | Featured Contributor
Living in London I cannot help noticing a few of the least fortunate of us, sitting out on the street and asking for help.
Do we give them the money or do we not? What good does it do? To us? To them? I have no suggestion as to an answer to these questions, at all. Except that we follow our own feelings as we choose to give or choose not to give. To support charities, to hand food or money directly? I don’t know.
I see sometimes passersby dropping a coin or two while hurrying about their business, often possibly avoiding to look at the person whom they give the money to. I keep wondering if it might be possible—instead of just dropping the coin or a sandwich in—that we could also glance at this human being; for one second, a fraction of a second, to give them our full attention: You are a fellow human being and I can see you. A nod, a look that says it. You are a human being and I see you. You do exist. I can see you. I feel this would be the greatest gift we can give them. Without pity, judgment or intrusion into their psychological space, whatsoever.
A fraction of a second, you might ask? Yet if about twenty percent of us—of the crowd passing by—would take the trouble to do this, maybe the unfortunate fellow human being would receive enough space for themselves to start feeling that he or she can find the way to also stay present, give attention to what is troubling in themselves—and through this reach the start of their own healing process.
For what troubles us heals and eases out when we give enough attention to it. One little step at a time. Very gently. To observe each detail of the troubling element by consciously choosing to bring our attention to it – to what the story line of it is, how we feel, and how our body responds as we bring our attention to it. This is the path to heal even that which may have brought us to sit on the street.
For none of us knows what the future holds, but whatever it does, we can heal…
◊
If you would like your writing to be considered for publication on PhoebeMD.com, visit here for information regarding submissions.
Categories: Featured Authors
Thank you all for your very kind comments. Each comment I read and take in, many times. They mean a lot.
The main point of this post is to say: let us stay present to what our experience is in this moment, of being human. For this heals us.
Every human being suffers I am sure, from the homeless man/ woman on the street to the famous star or royalty. We make a difference when we choose to stay present, to fully experience what our experience is, by observing our thoughts, feelings and sensation of each minute experience we are in. To experience our experience in full, just as it is, is to heal.
When we see someone who is clearly acutely suffering…, one moment of our presence together with them, may give them a sense they are seen, and thus They Can Be Seen. They are a human being in their own experience of being human, in this moment. Judgement of their situation or pity towards their plight in my view reduces our full presence.
In many if not all of my posts I try in different ways, from different angles to show what this may mean.