What if our lives have been based on the wrong question?
And what if the key to unlocking our creative, joyful selves starts with asking the right question?
Let me give you an example: In our world to measure worth, we tend to ask questions related to lack, such as are you successful? Are you rich? Are you top of your class? Are you popular with the boys? The girls?
Yet what if instead, we asked: When do you feel fulfilled? When are you happy? Think of a time you felt safe? Felt loved? What would a balanced, just world look like?
When I was a teenager, I remember one of my teachers asking about the definition of success. Even then I said that it depends on the individual and that each person needs to figure out their own version of success. Allowing society to do it for us is a recipe for disaster, as is giving our power up to someone else such as a parent or partner to figure it out for us.
We have been living too fast. We have sold our inner selves to the devil of speed, efficiency, money, hyper-connectivity, “progress.”
~ Alan Lightman
There’s so much pressure in our society to have our lives look a certain way when really they should feel right to you. Yet this can take months, years even, so perhaps we should buckle in and enjoy the ride. And perhaps while we’re doing that we could try slowing down, not always zipping from one thing to the next. Taking time to smell the roses as the old saying goes.
Practically since the start of the pandemic I’ve been doing the New York Times crossword with my mum online (we live over 3,000 miles from each other) and that’s turning out to be one of the best things I’ve been up to since COVID-19 took hold. She loves it and it’s helping our synapses fire together, which is true bonding IMO! It makes me happy and it also makes me feel safe and loved. I wouldn’t have suggested to my mum that we do this as I’m usually too busy, but because I couldn’t see her in person, I wanted to do something that brought us together during this challenging time.
One of my favourite authors, Alan Lightman writes in an article titled The Virus is a Reminder of Something Lost Long Ago that We have been living too fast. We have sold our inner selves to the devil of speed, efficiency, money, hyper-connectivity, “progress.”
So now when we pause longer than we think we should, perhaps we’ll see that our inner selves are beckoning us to do something different with our time.
Perhaps you decide to start playing a musical instrument, or take up bird watching, or simply watch the dogs play on the back lawn longer than would normally be acceptable. It is this slowing down that will allow you to eventually take back your life as you realize the small moments of beauty that greet you each day, even during really hard times.
And just maybe as we slow our pace we’ll imagine into being a world that’s a bit different from the frenzied pre-pandemic one we left behind.
To learn more about bringing creativity see: 21 Day Writing Meditation
So true Lissa, when I was studying kinesiology 20 years ago, the first thing my body told me to do was to "slow down". We can be moving through life so fast that we miss it! I love the zen proverb "If you don’t have time to meditate for an hour every day, you should meditate for two hours"! My experience taught me that the "downtimes, make the doing times better". I learned that time spent doing a 10-minute meditation in the morning help me to be more focussed, effective and productive during the day.
An inspiring story about sharing time with your mum too, very precious times indeed.
Thank you, Deborah! I love that Zen proverb. So true! LOL. And yes we don’t need to spend a lot of time to change our perspective. Just ten minutes in the morning can do wonders for increasing focus and presence during the day.