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Oct 26, 2009 
People nowadays talk about the need to put down the remote (and the fork) and get your body moving but have you considered that your feelings need working out too? There’s a great word, apathetic, that I see too much of. Here’s Webster’s definition:
Main Entry: ap·a·thet·ic
Pronunciation: \?a-p?-?the-tik\Function: adjectiveDate: 17441 : having or showing little or no feeling or emotion : spiritless
2 : having little or no interest or concern : indifferentsynonyms see impassive— ap·a·thet·i·cal·ly
\-ti-k(?-)l?\ adverb
Interesting synonym in “spiritless.” Apathy is from a Greek word that means literally without patheia, no passion or feeling. Wikipedia describes it as being linked to the phrase made widely known during World War I called “shell shocked” used to describe soldiers who grew numb and desensitized to the horrors of war.
Thankfully, most of us haven’t had to go through that level of intensity and despair but if we look around and within we see what I consider alarming numbness
What does it take to get your emotional self off the couch? Do you feel anymore? Do you allow yourself to feel? When was the last time you cried? You can tell a lot about yourself by looking at what moves you – what makes you feel happy, sad or mad – or by your lack of movement emotionally.
Start by making a list of movies that have made you cry.
Here’s some of mine:
- The Notebook - if you didn’t cry in this one something is wrong. Don’t get married unless your boyfriend/girlfriend broke down at the end…
- The Lion King - my kids had to move a couple of rows over in the theater during this show so they wouldn’t get sloshed by my sobs. When Mufasa died, when the older Simba looked up in the sky and heard his father speaking to him, when Simba gazed out over the land at the end – all tear-worthy.
- Whale Rider – one of my all time favorites! I lose it (gain it?) every time Paikea gives her speech – “My name is Paikea. I come from a long line of chiefs.” Even just writing that – ooohh, chicken skin!
What about you? Put some titles in the comments. Allow some patheia in your life.
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