Change is afoot in almost every area of life these days. Rapid advances in technology are quickly changing what does and does not work in business. People are under tremendous pressure to keep up in our fast paced culture. How much time does that leave for forming lasting friendships? Is it possible to allocate enough time to nurture our relationships? How much time do we spend with our partners at home, our families, and our friends? Does that leave us time for ourselves? Do we value some of the simple pleasures such as reading for pleasure, pursuing whatever we call fun, accessing our creativity, puttering in our garden, putting together jigsaw puzzles with our families?
Time seems to be at a premium and balancing all the aspects of oneÕs life looms as an impossible juggling act. People are caught up in the race to get ahead or to make a living, and so often forget the importance of their own humanity. Possessions and money become goals unto themselves. People lose sight of the joy of being alive and of loving each other. We are all living out our own personal dramas. There is no way of escaping the human experience; we are all caught up in the cultural web of human doing.
What is needed is the realization that our lives are our own creation. We are sitting in a movie theater watching our very own movie. We interpret this movie as real. Sometimes we forget itÕs the drama of life and begin to take ourselves too seriously. We lose all perspective regarding the separation between who we really are and the movie we are watching. By the way, the star of this movie is us! It is easy to forget that we are also the producers!
Each time we take a breath and stop for a moment, we are getting in touch with our beings as separate from our doings, i.e. our role in the drama. This allows us some perspective in our lives. We can then employ our sense of humor to realize that we donÕt have to take things so seriously. We can actually laugh at ourselves and at the messes we create. We can give ourselves the permission to make mistakes. We can even begin to make different choices about how we allocate our time.
Breathing helps us get in touch with our ÔhumanbeingnessÕ. When we get in touch with that inner safe space, it encourages us to spend more creative alone time, time with people we love, or time with nature. It is the natural choice that gets covered up by all the fear based drives to achieve more.
It is not as if we have to reprogram ourselves. We are already wired correctly. It is about letting go of all the things we think we need to be and do and have, in favor of our natural state of being. This is a simple solution, but not an easy one to achieve.
We are inundated with messages from the media that we need to work harder, look younger and have a more expensive lifestyle. No on is telling us to return to the simple values of life. Billboards are not showing us how rewarding it is just to be at home and spending time with our families. Commercials are not praising the value of wisdom from the elders of our community. Actually, as far as Madison Avenue is concerned, we have no elders!! Everyone is looking to get rid of his or her wrinkles and to obtain some kind of perpetual youth. In other words, our culture is based on being how we are not. We are continually in pursuit of the something that we do NOT have! If you think about it, every life has all that it needs, if we just took the time to look for it within.
No one bothers to focus on what we do have. Why? Possibly this is so because love and friendship are free and are readily available. Our economy is based on making money and not on fostering healthy human beings. Why not have it all? We can begin by campaigning for balance in our lives and for living from the values of love and friendship. For without those important values, all achievement rings hollow.
If we take time out to breathe and to create a perspective that supports our lives, there is so much enjoyment to be found. Stop and actually smell the flowers, watch the clouds move, appreciate the freedom the birds have flying in the sky, or whatever else might light you up. Take a moment out of your busy day to experience joy and the connection with nature. In that moment, you will have created some space between the real you and the Ôactor youÕ in your life drama. In that moment you can choose to make your relationships equally as important as your work. You can nurture it all, and experience the beauty and fulfillment that life has in store for you.
Express what is in your heart. Touch others and donÕt be afraid to share your feelings. Being connected with those around you creates a foundation of meaning. Life then becomes a dance in which you joyously participate. It ceases to be a struggle to survive.