Butterflies in the stomach

What a delicious feeling is to fall in love! Those first days when everything is bliss, butterflies flutter in our stomach, we glow, the world seems brighter, we smile alone while remembering the object of our affection, time is eternal when we are apart from that person, time goes too fast when we are together.

That feeling is so wonderful; however....it is fleeting.

A few days ago, I went to a very slow yoga class. And by slow, I mean we only did like five poses. The rest of the class was just practicing awareness of every single move, our breathing, and the space around us. That is when it hit me...mindfulness is the most similar thing to the state of infatuation.

What makes feeling in love seem so delicious is that we put all our attention into one person while the rest of the world fades. In fact, even the least attractive parts of that person and the red flags all become hazy. But we don’t notice because our attention is concentrated on something else.

Mindfulness produces the same effect. We focus on the present and smaller things, and the rest of the world suddenly blurs our problems, worries, and pain. We don’t pay attention to things because they are beautiful; we make them beautiful because we pay attention.

It is inevitable sometimes it takes too long for that feeling of first love. Occasionally things fall out of track because of our egos, because we don’t have a choice. But sometimes, we stop being in love because we stop paying attention, become robotic in our interactions, and forget to be present. If you are in that moment of your life where you wish to feel butterflies again, then breathe and offer your whole presence to your significant other, to your job, to your exercise routine, to life. Make the whole world brighter. Don’t look for someone or something new. That would be a temporary solution. Go for the real deal. Only in that place where we give our all is where we find the most absolute, delicious, renewable, eternal bliss.