It's the feeling you get when you dare to open yourself up and share vulnerably with someone else. They listen to you, they see you, they get you, and they reflect back what they understand and what relevant things awaken in them because of it. You learn more about yourself as you hear through their lens and listen to their reflection of you. You get to see the care and compassion they have toward a part of yourself that you have tried to push down, stamp out, control. You feel compassion towards yourself, and step towards healing and loving and accepting and integrating all of yourself.
It's the feeling you get when you step into an "other"s shoes as they share their feelings and human experience about a topic you see very differently. As you catch this glimpse of how the world looks through their eyes, you see what has hurt them, what has shaped them, what they protect and what they value. You see the distinction between their influences and their person and, seeing that they might not be fundamentally different in nature from yourself, you feel both compassion for them as a person and a bit of hope that humanity can reconcile.
It's the feeling you get in a great jam session, looking at a problem with a group of people you trust and resonate with as you brainstorm and bounce ideas around and make sense of a crazily complex challenge. You build on each other's thoughts, point out further gaps to address, and coalesce into a breakthrough solution that transitions the system to a new attractor in the gravity landscape of incentives and behavior space. At the end, your brain is tired but you look around the group and feel a pride in what you've seen and done, something which none of you could have accomplished on your own.
It's the feeling you get when you really belong to a congregation, or a church, or a startup, or a tight-knit community aligned around common purpose. You are on a mission together, and you know and trust that everyone around you in this community shares that sense of purpose and that drive to do the great work together. You trust in the values of the people around you, and the reciprocal care and support that you all bring towards each other. This is your tribe, and it feels safe and nourishing and powerful and triumphant.
It's the feeling you get in the quiet of your innermost soul, of peace and fluidity and presence. Defused from many attachments and suffering, you soar through an expansive space of perspective, dancing in the freedom of being beyond your old limitations.
It's the feeling you get of authoring your piece in the story of all humanity, of ascent and of fear and of love. You feel connected to your ancestors going back a thousand generations, and to descendants numbering in the trillions. You are a single grain of sand in a massive desert, and yet the whole future of our species may blow in the same direction that you choose.
It's the feeling you get when your conscious awareness sees itself, and you embrace transforming into the person that you want to be, in order to meet the challenges we need to face.