Oh, the mind.
It provides so many reprieves from daily living. It allows us to travel in our imagination to far away places. Seize an inspired idea. Write beautiful poetry and compose lyrics to a song.
In its brilliance, it comes up with solutions for the problems that face humanity. Vaccines and alternative energy technology; clean water resources and global communication.
But I would actually say that’s a function of our intellect. Our brain’s capacity to compute and problem solve and expand and innovate.
The mind, as I’m referencing here, has to do with the habituated tendencies that encroach upon our ability to see life anew. Or let go of thoughts that undermine our well-being. Those dark thoughts that rob us of actually living life.
That part of our mind ”“ which isn’t conscious awareness, but instead a cognitive interpretation of our reality mostly based on our past stories (and therefore, fear) is most often influenced by the ego. When that happens, we trip the part of our thinking that worries about the outcome of something. We’re concerned about how we’re being perceived or what we look like or how we may benefit from something.
So what happens is we (sort of) have experiences in life. We’re like ghosts in our own lives. We’re there, but not there.
For example, the mind fabricates stories that we believe and often makes us feel miserable because they’re fantasies, usually based in “should”.
“I should be further along in my career.” “I should be somewhere else experiencing something else.” “I shouldn’t have done that.” “I should know better.” Instead of experiencing the moment and celebrating simply where we are ”“ and whatever it is we’re doing ”“ we shit on the moment, telling ourselves it would look and feel better if it were something else, somewhere else.
The mind also creates constructs of comparisons. So even when you’re trying to enjoy something you again compare it to a fictitious belief that something better is being missed.
The mind also makes us hold on to end products ”“ the finish line ”“ working toward an end result. “If I do this, I will receive that,” which again diminishes the quality of our experience. It becomes about the means to an end. Although there is no end ”“ and the means is really what we’re all after. Not the end. The end result is never as good as the experience. And once you’re at the end, it’s over or you simply have to start again. It’s not the end result of something we’re going for. If that were the case, we’d all be done once we got the one thing we wanted.
So we want to try and be more fully immersed in each moment. Not bifurcate ourselves between the mind and the experience.
What if you gave yourself the task ”“ whatever that might be ”“ to engage in an act fully. Un-self consciously. For once, what might that feel like? Not think like. Feel like.
You set the timer and for an hour you do something that requires you to let your mind take a break. You turn off the phone. You get quiet. Or maybe you go to the gym or go for a run. You paint. You draw. You act boldly. You sing. You sweat. You walk. You cook. You make love. You read. You dance. You laugh. You mow the lawn. You do. You pray. You swim. You cry. You serve. You eat. You teach. You learn.
You just allow yourself to immerse fully in the moments that unfold without contaminating them by saying to yourself, “I should be doing something else.” “This is a waste of time.” “What am I doing with my life?” You stop grabbing your phone in the middle of a task to check in with something that is going on somewhere else for someone else who also isn’t there because he has to post it. Or she has to record it.
Why are we constantly checking in through fiber optics and a remote device of what someone else already did? Just go do it yourself!
Get back to being and doing. Which is the hardest thing to do fully. But when you do, you might actually, maybe for the first time, have a fully experienced realization that you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing.
Living. Your. Life.