Enjoy The Present Moment (Part 1)

Every soul seeks happiness. While happiness itself is searched for its own sake, every other goal – health, beauty, money, or role- is valued because we expect it will make us happy. Today, we have made a lot of advancements in the eras of medical science and technology, but when it comes to attaining this blessed and beautiful state of happiness, not much has changed and we could arguably conclude that we have made no progress at all.

➤We often end up feeling that instead of being filled with happiness, we have wasted our precious moments in anxiety and pressure to attain something, which would eventually take us to success, and then we would experience and achieve happiness. 𝐇𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬, 𝐚 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐥, 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲, 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐩𝐡𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬.

➤As children, we were full of life and joy naturally. We could share our experiences of such joys in response to simple events like hearing a bird chirping or sharing lunch with a friend in school. 𝐀𝐬 𝐰𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐥𝐝, 𝐰𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲, 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐚 𝐣𝐨𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠. If we go against our own nature to be happy, we will never reach anywhere.

➤Each of us has a picture, however vague, of what we would like to accomplish in this life. We aspire for different types of success. It could be money, health, and social relationships. How close we get to attaining that goal becomes the measure of the quality of our own lives. If it remains out of reach, we feel hurt and become angry. The problem arises when we become so obsessed with it, that we stop deriving joy from the present moment. When this happens, we give up our own chances of contentment.

(Continues tomorrow...)