It seems to me that we humans spend too much time doing and not enough time being. Since I completed my dissertation in March, I've been noticing all the moments in my life when it's tempting for me to fill space with all kinds of activities that ultimately only distract me from being truly present. I notice this with my patients too. So many of us attach importance to tasks that really could be left off until later or restructured to fit into a more balanced lifestyle.
In my life, the guiding principle is balance. I'm willing to accept temporary states of imbalance within a definite timeline, such as writing my dissertation, but I'm not willing to create a life structure that places me in a perpetually unbalanced state. I firmly believe that it's possible for us to create revolutionary healthy changes as a society by individually creating balance in our lives. I recognize that there are many careers in which the individual quest for balance is not always respected by the structure of the job. Before I restructured my life based on Ayurvedic principles, I was in such a career. Now that I have experienced the health of mind and body that comes with an Ayurvedic lifestyle, I am unwilling to embrace the American work ethic that demands giving everything to the job and having little room for anything else.
Major shifts happen when we think of balance as a necessity rather than a luxury. We begin to think of daily exercise, healthy eating, and meditation as necessities for our whole health rather than luxuries that we indulge in when we have a vacation. We experience the fullness of what Ayurveda has to offer.
I invite all of you to begin in your daily life to notice times when you fill free time with things from your "to-do" list rather than taking in the joy of the moment. Sometimes we become so accustomed to scheduling every moment of our lives that it feels very uncomfortable to take time out from the scheduling and just be in the moment. Being in the moment, we might notice uncomfortable feelings arising and we might realize that the reason we are filling our days with so many tasks is because we are really distracting ourselves from uncomfortable emotions. I noticed this experience for myself when I took a solitary retreat in April. Being in silence by myself was initially very uncomfortable because it allowed all of the emotions that I had been storing during the months of writing my dissertation to surface. Although that surfacing was initially uncomfortable, it gave me an opportunity to experience and then release those emotions. If I had never taken that opportunity to make it through the initial discomfort, I would not have been able to have the emotional release and then experience the pure joy of sitting in silence on the beach watching the sunrise. I realized on that retreat how difficult it had become for me to simply sit still observing my surroundings, even for 15 minutes, without planning a new project at work or thinking about what my family might be doing at that moment. By the end of the retreat, I was able to have stretches of time in which I was fully present right there on the beach, gathering seashells and feeling the wind on my skin. I was simply enjoying the fullness of the sensations experienced moment to moment.
It's easier when we extract ourselves from our daily routine to practice that presence of being. It becomes harder when we are in the middle of the daily drama to maintain our presence of mind. That is why so many people find pleasure in distracting their minds with watching television at the end of the workday. Instead of emotionally processing the events from the day, it's easier to distract ourselves from any uncomfortable things we might be feeling. It's also easier to distract ourselves with household chores and all the things that "need to get done", or even to bring work home with us and continue working late into the night.
What I find sad about doing so much that we never get to just "be", is that we rob ourselves of so many opportunities to grow. We rob ourselves of the opportunity to get in touch with our intuitive nature because when we're always distracted our intuition becomes clouded. We assign greater meaning to how much we've accomplished in a day than to how we feel at the end of it all. Being present allows us to have richer interactions with family and friends. Taking time from all that doing allows us to develop trust in ourselves and our intuitive nature. Intuition is important because it allows us to make decisions for our greatest good, to create a life that is in alignment with our best and highest self. Intuition is what aligns us with our life purpose.
It is important for our relationships, physical/mental/emotional health, and spiritual growth that we practice the art of experiencing life, which requires us to be fully present in mind and body. Rest assured that as each of you practice this every day, I am practicing also. You're not alone.
Blessings and Joy,
Michelle