Workshop: How To Feel The Taste Of Life - Self-development

The taste of life is very different, because each person feels it in his own way. For one it is a bodily sensation, for another it is a state of mind. Someone gets pleasure from vivid impressions and travels, and for someone only a book and loneliness can give a feeling of happiness. We are looking for our perfect recipe, and there are many pitfalls on the way. Not everyone can boast that they live 100 percent with genuine pleasure. As with any dish, there are ingredients in life that make it tastier, but there are also those that don't mix well or spoil the taste.

Attention to yourself

We all come from childhood, and we know the taste for life from birth. First, gaining experience from our parents, we look at how they deal with their lives, how they enjoy it, what they enjoy, and what they dislike. As we grow older, we learn to listen to ourselves and figure out what suits us, what people, activities and hobbies leave a pleasant "aftertaste", and what we are allergic to. It is very important to be able to listen to yourself, otherwise the fate of the poor boy from the anecdote awaits us:

- Petya, it's time to go home!

- Mom, am I cold?

- No, you want to eat!

The current boom of articles and books about absolute happiness and the surest recipe for a 146 percent ideal life, about the behavior of the "right woman" or "real man" seems to respond to people's need for universal advice, mentoring, and a powerful parental figure. But, relying on the opinions of others, we support the pole of infantilism and the child's need for parents to contain us, help with our feelings and desires. And here you can always fall into the trap of living in someone else's life. It is not for nothing that in psychological counseling and therapy, work with attention to oneself, to one's feelings and needs is one of the main ones. Like muscle training, this work does not bring results immediately, but after all, a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.

One of the basic exercises, for example, in the Gestalt approach to the development of sensitivity, is the awareness of actual needs

Try to listen to yourself:

• What associations do you have with your work right now?
• How do you feel about her?
• What happens to your body, muscles?
• What metaphor describes your relationship with her?

Any such questions will develop your ability to distinguish the slightest discomfort, create prerequisites for the formation of a holistic view of yourself, and also help you feel what gives you genuine joy and pleasure. Isn't this the perfect recipe for a delicious life, knowing what to add, and which ingredient is clearly spoiling the whole "dish"?

Working with polarities

Imagine that you only have red pepper of all the spices. You add it to soups, main courses, desserts and salads. How quickly will you get bored with it, and the food will seem monotonous? In the kitchen of your senses, everything is the same: if you strive for only one scale, the taste of life fades. In working with sensitivity, one of the most important points is the awareness of polarities.

As the modern poet Yevgeny Nichipuruk wrote: "The weight of love is always clearer at the end …". Often only through a strong feeling of loneliness can we realize the depth of our love, through alienation - the need for affection. The strong joy of traveling is always polarized with the desire to return home, and the pleasure of communicating with friends can be felt against the background of separation from them.

A very simple exercise that allows you to expand sensory awareness is to talk about a problem from two or more sides. If a person is stifled by feelings of jealousy, you need to pay attention to the fear of loss and loneliness. The desire to control is often associated with intense vulnerability and vulnerability. Awareness of different parts of history gives us a more integrated sense of ourselves, a more complete experience of contact both with another person and with our own life.

Developing a taste for life is akin to art: at first you focus on the tastes and advice of other people, their feelings, ready-made recipes. But time passes and you, developing your sensitivity, find in each "dish" something of your own, suitable only for you.