Sometimes, the most straightforward solutions to the most complex problems lie dormant, hidden from view, by our calcified thinking. Sometimes we have been driven and conditioned and kicked into submission so many times that we forget that we are creatures of FREE-WILL. We abhor control over "us." We reject the notion of a mastermind that tells us what to do. And yet we succumb. We let the past and perceived future dictate what we experience right now.
Over the weekend, I watched the disturbing dystopian comedy "Lobster," It's plot isn't so important. Like other dystopian films of its ilk such as "Brazil," "Hunger Games," or "Soylent Green," it emulates the worst kind of hell imaginable; forced living in a society and structure that goes against the very nature of humankind; the desire to be free from the bonds of an overseer.
Apart from these forced forms of human enslavement, we can allow ourselves to become slaves to our thoughts. We become strangers to the kind of JOY that is only experienced in the present.
The Joy of Being
"To alert you that you have allowed your self to be taken over by psychological time, you can use a simple criterion. Ask yourself: is there joy, ease, and lightness in what I am doing? If there isn't, then time is covering up the present moment, and life is perceived as a burden for a struggle."
"As soon as you honor the present moment, all unhappiness and struggle dissolve, and life begins to flow with joy and ease. When you act out of the present moment awareness, whatever you do becomes imbued with a sense of quality, care, and love - even the most simple action."
Here is an example from my weekend.
Many of you know I am recovering from total knee replacement surgery. My meds are such that I am wide awake at all hours of the night. I usually have a snack at 1 am. Recently I have been enjoying leftover homemade gnocchi and red sauce. Suki made the gnocchi, and I made the sauce. Every night I savor each feather-light pillow of ricotta gnocchi and remark the next morning that it might be the most flavorful experience I have ever encountered. At 1:00 am, there is nothing else on my mind except the aroma and taste and texture of the lightest gnocchi I've ever met.
On Sunday, I had the last bit of gnocchi as lunch midday. It was good, mind you, but before I had a chance to enjoy the dish, it was gone, as I was preoccupied with the peripheral piffle of our polished lives. I sat there in disappointment. I had just missed out on something that was in its unaffected state exceptional, yet I allowed it to be affected by, I can't even remember.
In the cauldron of our socially distanced exile, I've stumbled upon an experiment that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt the power of living in the present.
And hence, here we have the moral of the story.
Amplify Joy by creating a practice of presence and intention. It's scientifically proven.
Quotes from Ekhart Tolles, "The Power of Now."
Photo credit: Suki Ellsworth: "A study of gnocchi."
