" With mindfulness, you can establish yourself in the present in order to touch the wonders of life that are available in that moment. " -Thich Nhat Hanh
Stuck In The Illusion
Living life in a mindful way is something that all human beings have the capacity to do. Yet very few could claim that they choose to do so.
The majority of people live unconsciously.
The question is: are they conscious enough to realize it?
Ever since meditation made its way into my life, it instantly became the most important mental habit for me. Words fail to describe how profoundly it changed my mind and my life. And to this day, I am a firm believer that it is the most effective medicine that exists. When you train your mind by meditating daily, it paves the way to living a mindful life.
Connecting To The Now
In this day and age, we spend more and more time being virtually connected to our devices, and consequently, we spend less and less time being physically connected with ourselves and the world that makes this thing called life that we are living possible. As a result, we end up becoming so out of touch with all the magical experiences that life is offering to us at every moment.
When I go hiking, at one point during my hike I like to take my shoes and my socks off, walk barefoot on the ground and hug a tree. It is such a peaceful and empowering moment to be able to truly feel the connection with the earth and to feel entirely immersed with the nature surrounding me. While this is a specific example that I do when I am out on a hike, I like to reproduce these moments of connection during my day to day life, when in the real world.
No matter the place you are in, mindfulness is always available to you.
Whether you are sitting in your car stuck in traffic, waiting in line at the grocery store, doing the dishes, on public transit, you can choose to focus on the experience that you are currently experiencing now. Be attentive to what is. Observe your thoughts. Observe your external reality.
Remember that what you see externally is often a reflection of the way you feel internally. Accept all that comes to you at this precise moment, and do so in a nonjudgmental way.
While we sure need to anticipate certain things in our lives, if the focus of our mind is constantly oriented on a future event, can we claim at the end of our lives that we had really lived? If we are constantly either thinking about the future, or reminiscing about the past, when do we ever live?
Waking Up To Life
Meditation to me feels like the first couple seconds after you wake up from a beautiful dream.
You know, the moment during which you pinch yourself to make sure that this dream was not a dream but was actually reality?
And little did I knew back then, that meditation was going to be The most transformative experience I’ve ever had.
The way I saw my internal world and the external world completely shifted.
Today, I stumbled upon a journal of mine that I carried in 2014.
A particular passage that I read really stuck with me. Upon reading it, I wanted badly enough to hug my 18-year-old self and tell her that she was going to make it through everything. And that on the other side of all the adversity she had yet to face, the most precious gift was going to be handed to her. A gift that had the potential to change her life forever if she was courageous enough to accept it, and cherish it everyday.
This gift is called inner peace. And it is worth more than anything I have ever known.
Here are some of the words I wrote in May of 2014:
(Disclaimer: It’s a rough one honey. )
" I hope that I will forget about suicide, pain, sadness and torture throughout this journey. Even though I’m sitting here, writing these lines and still feeling hopeless, I just want my inner demons to disappear forever. But they fucking won’t, they are fucking eating me out alive, cutting me so deep, which makes it so hard for me to breathe. I’ve always wondered what it felt like to be truly happy and to enjoy living. "
It may have taken me 4 years to find what it feels like to be truly happy and to enjoy living, but gosh, I feel beyond grateful for it all. Most importantly, I understood two of the most important pieces of advice there is in the department of happiness: first, your happiness is only to be found internally. Second, don’t chase it. The more you chase something, the more it drifts away.
But had I not went through life the way I did, I would not be feeling the way I do now. And for that reason, I would not change a thing in the world.