Do you notice how is almost impossible not to attach feelings to the different sensations you experience in life? If you are cold, don’t you also feel kind miserable? Or if you are itchy, you may find that annoying? Or if you have intense gas, wouldn’t you feel sorry for yourself? “Poor me and my stomach full of flatulence.” Or if you smell someone’s breath, you might think of it as “bad” breath. Whatever assaults your senses, often comes with a judgment attached.

But for babies, they just experience the different stimulus of their body. For The Munch, if my dog sticks her tongue in her mouth, she probably can tell it is slimy, or warm, but I don’t think she thinks it is as “gross” as I do. Or if I eat garlic bread and blow in her face. She seems to feel the wind of my breath, and I am sure notices an unfamiliar stench, but it doesn’t stop her from shoving her hands in my mouth and pulling on my tongue.

Imagine if we could apply this thinking to all aspects of our lives. That no matter what we felt, we just noticed and acknowledged it as a feeling. A vibration. “Oh, so that is what a broken heart feels like.” Or “Huh, this is the feeling of being in traffic. How interesting.” Isn’t there a certain freedom in just noticing and acknowledging all that happens, but not insisting that it is “good or “bad?” It just is.

(The Munch feeling the sensation of being plopped in a snow bank for my amusement)