An Invitation to New Ways of Living!

During this coronavirus quarantine, I started to see some to-do lists on IG.

“Oh since life has paused for a while, you should get a new skill, you should complete these tasks, you should achieve this, you should accomplish that, etc.”

Do you see the conditioning behind these to-do lists? We are still trying to hold onto the old ways of living instead of taking advantage of this time to take some rest, reflect, play, and heal!

Can we use this time to look at the big picture and realize how we are not able to function if we are not busy? Because our understanding of worth has been shaped by being productive, as being busy. We measure a well-spent day by our productivity, according to the things we have proceeded or achieved. Accomplishing more somehow makes us more successful and worthy hence we can feel good about ourselves, right?

What if we don’t do anything, just sit under a tree, watch the birds, observe what’s going on around us, breathe, and simply just enjoy being? Honestly, how do we feel when we do nothing? Or how do people around us see and label us? Wasting time maybe? There is always something to do, something to run for, something to complete! Then we can deserve to rest. Then we can be peaceful. Then we can allow ourselves to have fun, right?

I’ve been observing the habits of people during this quarantine time; how we are attached to “doing something” instead of just being. There is always a lot to do because no one knows how to just sit and be. We don’t know how to deal with our emotions thus we try to keep ourselves occupied with things! This was never our nature! This is how we are conditioned to live! “We are human beings, not human doers!” once my yoga teacher Godfrey Devereux said. We are not as worthy as the things we have done in this life. We are worthy just with our existence, just with our presence. Even if you don’t do anything, your existence is still precious and deserves abundance.

Let’s take this time to accept our worth. Let’s stop chasing. Stop addressing our success with our productivity. The real success is to connect with your true feelings instead of escaping from them by keeping yourself busy. The real success is comfortably being present, calm, and aware; and just enjoying being alive.

“We can’t go back to normal. Normal was not working.”

Can we please wake up?