Simply Being | Simple Being

Tag: emotions (page 1 of 1)

What If

What if we didn’t express?

What if we let the feelings swim around, flowing in rivulets, pooling at bottom of the heart?
Let the Sun through, bright and wordless,
Warm radiance is all one needs, and all evaporates,
Tears, sweat, regrets, unspoken and unexpressed.

What if we released them to the winds,
Dispersed, screaming into the void—
Until unrecognizable, tattered, ripped into shreds,
Merging into the air, microscopic and littler.

Emotions, Not Emotional

“Tere khushboo mein base khat main jalaatha kaise, Pyaar mein doobe hue khath main jalaatha kaise, Tere haathon se likhe khath main jalaatha kaise,
Tere khath aaj main Ganga mein bahaa aayaa hoon, Aag behte hue paani mein jalaa aaya hoon.”

Such a beautiful song. Laden with emotion, beautifully composed, full of meaning and poetry… A few years back, a song like this one would have undoubtedly made me emotional. It would have made me go into a rumination of sorts – old relationships, regrets, moments of intense chemistry, sparks flying, unrequited love and deep longing. I would have been off the song in an instant and gone into a saga in my head, making up stories, imagining what-if situations and consequences.

Today, I have a somewhat different response to the song. Emotions arise (doesn’t art always do that?), the imagination is stirred, and I enjoy the sensations wholeheartedly. I don’t get into ‘story’ mode or ponder over what I have gained or lost, or wonder about old relationships.

Emotions are an integral part of life. They provide richness to our experiences, allow us to connect with others, and enable us to drink in life with all its beauty, color and grandeur. Emotion is the life blood of an artist. Today I am a good writer (and not shy to say that either) because I am able to express my emotions without becoming emotional. It is a vital difference and one that cannot be emphasized enough. An emotional person experiences an emotion and takes off on its wings. Pretty soon, you have lost sight of the emotion and become fixated with its object. Stories are concocted, a flurry of other emotions are generated, and really, all beauty is lost.

This song triggered a post, a couple of years ago. I suppose that was a tad emotional… 🙂 Want to read something from the ‘older’ me? Here you go – Letters from an Earlier Time.