*Disclaimer: this post does not necessarily represent the specific objectives of this blog*
Sitting on a quite Saturday drinking my coffee with the perfect atmosphere for a relaxing afternoon, but without a direct cause I feel anxiety building up within ruining all the mind-over-matter-ing that I've been doing.
It is life. It is time. And the passage of both with the notion that we will run out of them surrounded by noting but our little-ness creates this unescapable constant feeling of stress and overwhelminess. The constant demands of our modern life makes our eternal very human dream of self-actualization un-attainble. And while we are stuck in the vicious cycles of these demands trying to achieve the life of our dreams, we fail to climb up Maslow's hierarchy of needs. we live, we may or may not achieve our goals, we die. But how many of us complete their lives and not just end it? Will I sit on my death bed today, next month or 40 years from now and feel that my entire life served a purpose, fulfilled a journey and it is okay that I will be passing to the next stage regardless of what that might be? Or will I die bitter and sad over all the things I should've lived but I didn't?
The way I finally grew to see it -regardless of whether or not I fully practice it- our entire life is an end in its self and not just means to reach out for our dreams. Our dream should be living this moment to its best possible potential, because those little beautiful perfect fulfilled moments will eventually pile up creating a complete life lived to the fullest! I know, all of this sounds refreshing, lovely, almost spiritual but how could it be practical? How to turn this abstract meaning of life into a way of living?
Look back at my perfect Saturday afternoon that was ruined by my anxiety, my fear of not achieving the things I want to achieve, my stress for not doing the work that I should've been doing. I could've lived those moments to the fullest by setting a plan and executing it. Time management? Stress management? YES PLEASE. If Im constantly working and doing my best while at the same time knowing that what matters is The Now and how I feel about it, wouldn't that be fulfillment? To know that I am making the best of what I have and that is The Present?
What if Maslow was wrong? what if his hierarchy wasn't a hierarchy in a pyramid, but parallel paths on the same plane? Why can't one work on one's career, relationships, self-esteem and life's purpose all together in a single continuum rather discrete milestones that leaves one internally dry for the rest at each step? Would looking at life this way change our quest from need to need to need, into something more graspable than infinite needs? If all I need for now is what I have now? will there be any stress left to stress?
Time is precious. And the current moment is all what we really have so make the best out of it.
Reference: non of this was the product of a single mind, but the collective efforts of every word I read and/or heard. Names to be mentioned: Maslow, Eckhart Tolle, Frued, Frankl, time management literature, my friends close and far.
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