The Subtle Art of Feeling Good
– Emotional Intelligence in Summer
We all would like to have that complete Summer experience we see in the movies, full of good vibes and eternal laughs - when in fact it is rarely something we find, it is something we notice. Looking for the “idea” of Summer, often takes us away from the one that’s truly happening.
But somehow, “looking” for it, is making us forget that.
Summertime brings the opportunity for all of us to come back to what it is the basic of feeling good. More than things, it highlights what we consider the most important thing in the world: us - our relationships with others and ourselves. Above all, this is what is really important:
1.Sharing Decision-Making
- a simple practice for emotional balance
Vacations are all about the ones we have choosen to share with, so, somehow, we already trust on them and their own decisions.
Groups carry a quiet intelligence — a sense of what matters — if we allow it to emerge. When we let things flow, the group naturally includes us.
For sure, as everyone, we have learn to value an prioritize our choices and tastes. Although, even if a group is following our choices, a complete experience, has always a little bit of everyone.
As in the daily basis we have to manage departments, companies, projects and even families to achieve a goal, Summer invites us to remember again that this world belongs to all of us. Trusting in others choices and splitting the daily programs of summer, by everyones subjects of talk, places to eat etc, not only is “balanced” as also reminds, that we are not only our tastes, our worries, our subjects. We are also theirs.
When we switch of a role of talking and invite listening to come in, we have a summer with more diversity, opportunities, newness and surprises. Sharing decisions doesn't mean losing control - it means discovering the beauty of being part of something larger. Lightness comes in when we experience summer as if we were us plus them.
2. Summer requires very little
- how simplicity helps you feel good naturally
Summer does not "need" for occasion - Summer is the occasion. We all start to pack asking, "what will I need if that happens?" But Summer is already saying so much: "people i give you the heat, time, fresh ingredients, friends and family availability, water to dive, nature to explore - all completely free of charge. What else is it more important than that?"
So, the invitation for a small trolley or a backpack, is on the table for quite sometime, and maybe… it is time for us to learn Summer language: everything we really need, is already taken care of for us, in order, at least at this time of year, we only have to take ourselves.
3. Preference about physical contents and entertainment
- unplug to stay present
Getting completely involved with what is around us includes letting go the habits we keep for a whole year. The right content is exactly what is already in front of us.
For beach days, local physical magazines and newspapers can guide us through daily content selected by professional journalists — for us.
To be inspired, we don’t need the latest social media updates, but the right spark of creativity in front of us.
Having some physical games (rackets, cards, volleyball) promote not only our physical health during vacations time, but most of all, bonds the group in activities where we’ll see it for ourself: laughs will rise from within.
4.Mindful Eating and local connection
- a simple practice for emotional balance
Modern evolution brought us the chance to find and experience what is new, different and trendy with our self phones. Thats great! Now we have the change of choosing something that is not on our site. However we all do that all year long.
The invitation is to try to choose without our phone. Choosing local places, is choosing a food service that is part of the context we are in: what we see, smell, and value in front of us…it is choosing something that someone has already though to be present when we are present. Even if it is not on the top-rated in the apps, we are choosing, local ingredients, a local cultural service and what is easy to be available. To choose what is physically next to us may not be “the best for everyone ever” but the best for us at that moment, in that place, within that context.
5.Collectiveness
- be present
Common subjects appear when we empty ourselves a bit. Our own perspectives have their own space which is secondary to what brought us together with someone.
Modern tendencies push us to share what we use, like, and do — as if those small habits define who we are rather than what we experience.
It becomes easier when we start by listening. When we let the other person talk, a common subject will rise in time: it always does.
In all cases, what’s truly important for both is what’s happening right in front of us — so start by celebrating that, and let the rest unfold naturally.