Living in the now
The other day I heard a tale that made me laugh... it was about a man that was happy with his life because he spent a good four hours a day excercising, each day he would wake to a rigorous regime of health food and gym... he was proud to claim that it was adding a good ten years to his life. To which a close friend dryly noted that: 'yes, yes it does add ten years to your life, but it is added to the end of your life and you are missing out on 1/8th of your current life dreaming of the future...
It reminds me of an interview I read with Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) about his song 'Time'. In the interview he said that the song is looking at that period in your early 20s, a time 'post education' but 'pre adult'... that we spend so much of our time 'preparing' ourselves for tomorrow, educating ourselves, improving ourselves, working hard, hoping to reap the harvest tomorrow... but life can't be lived like that, at some point you have to appreciate what you are doing now. Waters' song looks at this grey area of life and questions how we are using it. I have a job I like, but I spend 60% of my time imagining that it is 'complimenting my university education and empowering me for something else', some great impact that is yet to come.
Another comment I heard recently is: if you are in the office dreaming of the beach you cannot possibly be efficient, but if you are at the beach worrying about the office you also won't be enjoying yourself... where your mind is at greatly affects how you appreciate your surroundings. How often do you concentrate on the now? How often are you wondering about things that are outside the scope of your immediate influence? Is it possible to find joy in everyday activities?
Pink Floyd - Time
Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
And you are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun
It reminds me of an interview I read with Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) about his song 'Time'. In the interview he said that the song is looking at that period in your early 20s, a time 'post education' but 'pre adult'... that we spend so much of our time 'preparing' ourselves for tomorrow, educating ourselves, improving ourselves, working hard, hoping to reap the harvest tomorrow... but life can't be lived like that, at some point you have to appreciate what you are doing now. Waters' song looks at this grey area of life and questions how we are using it. I have a job I like, but I spend 60% of my time imagining that it is 'complimenting my university education and empowering me for something else', some great impact that is yet to come.
Another comment I heard recently is: if you are in the office dreaming of the beach you cannot possibly be efficient, but if you are at the beach worrying about the office you also won't be enjoying yourself... where your mind is at greatly affects how you appreciate your surroundings. How often do you concentrate on the now? How often are you wondering about things that are outside the scope of your immediate influence? Is it possible to find joy in everyday activities?
Pink Floyd - Time
Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
And you are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun
posted by Westy at 8:01 PM
4 Comments:
I think putting into practise the concept of 'living in the now' is actually a really difficult thing to do, even though you can read all sorts of theory about what it means and how to do it and why it should be done. For me, it's just a culmination of all these different exposures to ideas about living in the now, built up over many years, that one day just somehow clicked and i was like "oh, i get it now". (I think in this respect it is quite similar to learning the power of forgiveness.) And even then it can be a difficult realisation to hold on to, and one i often let slip.
But it can be done and it is worth doing. Like all good things though, balance is required, and there's nothing wrong with spending a little time today preparing for tomorrow.
As for your job, you don't need to spend 60% of your time imagining that you are doing it just for your future. You do have a job that can bring rewards today, both for yourself and for others. I have a really powerful memory from my own experience, I was still working with my LC, sitting in a bar in Canberra and looking around at 10 or 12 trainees that I had brought to Australia over the past couple of years, they were all drinking and dancing and having a great time (living in the now themselves), and I felt a really good sense of reward about my job then. And you can get that each day. Do your everyday tasks to the best of your ability, and start by taking a little pride in that.
I have to say we have the rare opportunity of turning a hobby into a full time profession. What openned my eyes was meeting the guys from Africas and some of the designs coming out of Macedonia, that ACTUALLY had a really powerful impact on their communities... and in two very different fields (HIV/AIDS and IT).
Maybe it is coming from the era of 'tomorrow's leaders today'... of 'developing leaders' etc.
It's days like these that I am thankful to be paid for doing something that I would happily do, and have done for many years, for free.
Once again it makes meditation powerful because it helps you to increase your presence. Indeed, in today's society, people are too future oriented and now knowing that they lost the joys at this moment.
John, great to hear from you, I have been a reaonsbly frequent visitor to your blog and its great to receive your email updates on the latest in your adventures. The post on living in the now is awesome, one has absolute power to live a life of vitality. I only recently got this and it is very empowering.
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