Absorbing

Here's the thing about absorbing: it's not passive. I know, I know, it sounds like you're just sitting there like a sponge, but honestly? True absorption is one of the most active things you can do spiritually. Think about that.

I've watched thousands of people over thirty years, and the ones who really get it... they're not trying to filter everything through their mental frameworks. They're not rejecting what doesn't fit their beliefs or grabbing onto what makes them feel good. They're absorbing. Everything. The difficult conversations. The unexpected insights. The moments when life doesn't match their Pinterest boards.

Look, we're taught to be selective. Pick and choose. Accept the good, reject the bad. But here's what's interesting: when you truly absorb an experience, you're not labeling it as good or bad. You're letting it penetrate your whole being. You're saying yes to the fullness of what's happening without trying to edit the experience.

In Taoism, they call this wu wei. Acting in accordance with the natural flow. But before you can flow with something, you have to absorb it completely. You have to let it saturate you. Know what I mean?

I remember working with this client who was furious about a work situation. Absolutely livid. For months, she kept trying to 'process' her anger, to understand it, to make it go away. But every time she tried to fix it, the anger got stronger. Finally, I said, 'What if you just absorbed the anger? Not to keep it forever, but to really let yourself feel how angry you are?'

She looked at me like I was crazy. But she tried it. Instead of fighting the anger or analyzing it, she absorbed it completely. She felt it in her body, let it fill every cell. And you know what happened? The anger transformed. Not because she tried to change it, but because she let it be fully present.

Truth is, absorption is how we actually integrate our experiences. When you absorb something, you're not keeping it at arm's length where you can study it safely. You're inviting it into your whole system. Your body knows how to process it, how to extract what's useful and let the rest flow through.

But here's where most people get stuck: they think absorption means agreement. Like if you absorb someone's anger, you're endorsing their perspective. Or if you absorb a difficult experience, you're being weak. Seriously, this is backwards thinking.

Absorbing is actually the most discerning thing you can do. When you truly absorb an experience, you're letting your entire being respond to it, not just your thinking mind. Your intuition gets involved. Your body wisdom kicks in. Your heart has a say. The result? A much more intelligent response than anything your mind could cook up on its own.

I've seen this in my own practice. When someone comes for a reading and they're in pain, my first instinct used to be to fix it, to offer solutions. But over the years, I learned to absorb their experience first. To really feel what they're feeling, not to take it on as my own, but to let their reality saturate my awareness completely.

That absorption changes everything. Because when you truly absorb someone's experience, you stop seeing them as broken or wrong. You see the intelligence in their struggle. You see how their pain is actually trying to teach them something. And from that place of deep absorption, whatever you offer back is so much more authentic.

Here's what blows my mind about absorption: it's simultaneously the most personal and most universal thing you can do. When you absorb your own experience fully, without judgment or resistance, you're not just healing yourself. You're modeling a different way of being human for everyone around you.

Are you with me? When you absorb life instead of filtering it, you become a clear channel for wisdom to move through. You stop being a bottleneck and become a conduit. That's when the real magic happens.

Start small with this one. Right now, as you're reading this, absorb these words completely. Don't analyze them or agree or disagree. Just let them soak into your awareness like water into a sponge. Feel what that's like in your body.

Next time someone's talking to you, practice absorbing their energy, not just their words. Notice how different that feels from listening with your mind ready to respond. When you absorb what someone's saying, you're receiving their entire communication, the spoken and unspoken parts.

Here's something I do every morning: I sit quietly and absorb whatever emotion is present. Not to change it or understand it, but to let it fully saturate my awareness. Sometimes it's anxiety about the day ahead. Sometimes it's excitement. Sometimes it's just sleepy confusion. Doesn't matter. I absorb it completely.

Try this with difficult situations too. When something challenging happens, before you react or problem-solve, take a moment to absorb the entire experience. How does it feel in your body? What's the quality of energy around it? Let yourself soak it up like you're a tree absorbing sunlight and rain.

The key is dropping the urge to immediately categorize or fix. Absorption happens in the pause between experience and reaction. In that pause, something intelligent moves through you that's way smarter than your thinking mind. Trust that process.

When Absorbing shows up, life is inviting you to receive more fully. You've been skimming the surface of your experiences, trying to stay safe by keeping things at a distance. But there's wisdom waiting for you in deeper waters.

This card often appears when you're facing something you'd rather push away or when you're trying too hard to control your responses to life. The invitation is to stop filtering and start absorbing. Let the experience saturate you completely before you decide what to do about it.

You might be someone who processes everything through your mind first, analyzing and categorizing before you feel. Or maybe you're the opposite, reacting emotionally before you really take in what's happening. Either way, Absorbing is asking you to engage your whole being in receiving life.

This is also a card about trust. Trust that your system knows how to process whatever you absorb. Trust that you don't have to protect yourself from authentic experience. When you absorb fully, you become more resilient, not more vulnerable. You develop the kind of strength that comes from saying yes to what is, rather than exhausting yourself fighting reality.

Pay attention to what you've been avoiding or keeping at arm's length. That's probably exactly what needs to be absorbed.