“I don’t think of work as work and play as play. It’s all living.”
Richard Branson, via Talk Like TED
Beyond the Quote (139/365)
When you are able to live life completely immersed in the present moment, Richard Branson is dead on, it’s ALL living. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing, where you are, or who you’re with—it’s all a part of the whole life experience and we should be soaking it ALL in for what it is. For, what else do we ever have besides this moment? If we’re not living in this moment now, are we reserving life for a future point in time? When we lose touch with “the now” and mentally wander elsewhere, are we voluntarily letting go of chunks of our life? Let’s break it down.
When I think about times when I have felt the most alive, I notice that these were times when I was most keenly aware of what was coming in through my senses. I notice, in exquisite detail, what was laid out in front of my eyes. I notice I have a heightened sense of sound and can hear even the most subtle noises. I notice how I can feel the depth of the tastes, textures, and smells that make up the moment from a complete 360 degree perspective. I am immersed in the world and I am completely in tune with everything that’s happening around me.
Think about a time when you have felt most alive. Was it when you were thinking about something that happened at work? When you were watching a TV series? When you were worried about what might happen in the future? Or was it a time when you were walking in a breathtakingly beautiful natural setting? Or a time when you were performing or presenting in front of an audience? Or when you were playing with your kids in the backyard on a sunny day?
In my estimation, the times when you feel most alive, are when you are the most in touch with your senses and the most out of touch with your monkey mind. It’s when you drop the regrets of the past, let go of the worries of the future, and check in to the wonder of the present moment. This is when living becomes living. When play is living; when sitting is living; when walking is living; when crying is living; and yes, when work is living, and everything in between, too—it all becomes living. For, the longer you can maintain that sensory connection to the present and can stay disconnected from your mind—the longer you will feel that connection to life.
This is not to say that you should never spend any time in your head. You, of course, need to reflect on your past so that you can learn from your actions and calculate how to better move forward. You have to plan out your future actions so you know what exact steps to take and how to arrange your time properly. But, this should be but a small fraction of your day. This might be a grand total of 15-30 minutes of every day. You sit down and replay everything that happened, write down what went well, what could have gone better, and what you learned in the process. And you finish by prioritizing your tasks for the next day and blocking out time for each. Done.
After that, it should be a seamless flow of connected present moments, one after the next, where you can be in complete awe and wonder of the world that’s around you. Easier said than done, of course. But, it’s an aim that is absolutely worth working towards. It’s an aim that will lead you to your most blissful states and moments when you will feel the most alive. This might be a moment of grandeur while on an exotic vacation adventure, but it, more importantly, might be a moment of ordinary occurrence. A moment of watching a bird fly. A moment of speaking to a customer. A moment of walking the dog. A moment of watching your children. A moment of tying your shoe. Don’t reserve “living” for the exotic. Living happens most prominently during the “ordinary.” Open your senses and live in an unreserved way now. You might even find that what you once perceived as “ordinary” isn’t actually as “ordinary” as you previously thought.
Read Next: 8 Osho Quotes on Living in the Moment. THIS Moment. Right Now.
Don't Let the Motivation Stop There...!
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