Will You Live Today?
There is a difference between living today and existing – and it matters.
When you look at the outside world – all the stuff going on beyond your direct control – things are nuts. The Presidential election in the US has begun its primaries, and that tends to bring out the worst in people. The UK has left the EU and the consequences of that action are yet to be seen. A nasty virus that could become the next pandemic is doing untold damage in China.
This is some messed-up stuff going on. Unless you are living under a rock or otherwise choosing to disconnect you can’t avoid it. It’s there, it’s depressing, frustrating, upsetting, and generally mind-boggling.
For many, it causes a feeling of hopelessness. What’s the point? Those uncaring asses are going to destroy the planet for profit, rob the elderly of their retirement monies, and steal who-knows-what from the children of today.
Yes, these are matters you cannot just ignore. However, you still need to live your own life.
To be or not to be
It is entirely possible to go about your day with whatever pattern that entails. Get up, go to work, go home, chill in front of the TV, then go to bed. Rinse and repeat tomorrow. In the face of choosing to just go with it versus coping with the awfulness, it can feel like the automatic is better.
But the truth is that it is not. You get only a short span of time in that meat-popsicle you call your body on this planet we call Earth. After that time your energy transmutes to another form and who knows if you retain any of your present consciousness or not?
Every single day is different. Even when you have a daily pattern you follow it will be different from yesterday. The temperature will change, traffic will shift, people will be kind or unkind to you, and so on.
You can face this with resignation in light of worldwide awfulness – or you can decide to live today.
This is where mindfulness comes into play, of course. Mindfulness is awareness of your thoughts, feelings, and actions. That awareness brings you to the now. This moment. Today.
Some people will tell you that in the face of the world’s craziness this is a selfish notion. How dare you live when so many are struggling? The truth is you can do no good by not living your own life for the sake of others.
It is not selfish to be aware and to experience good things in your life. Neither is it selfish to put your own headspace first and BE despite the world situation. Why? Because when you choose to live today you make yourself a beacon of light and hope.
Self-awareness is not selfish
A great deal of what you are seeing of the world, and the terrible things that people are doing, is designed to disempower you. It’s meant to direct your thoughts and feelings towards those things. You are more likely to watch a news program when they have salacious and hyped-up stories than if they were to just give you facts.
Fox News notoriously spins every topic towards conservatives and all that aggrieves them, frequently counterfactually. NPR spins their topic towards liberal and progressive thinking with actual fact to back it – but the angle of approach remains.
When your focus is on these things you are contributing to the collective consciousness. The message is perpetuated and spread because, believe it or don’t, the Law of Attraction is a thing. Like attracts like. Consciousness creates reality.
These things going on cannot be ignored lest they continue to be propagated and perpetuated. But when you ignore yourself and your own awareness you disempower yourself. You give away your ability to do anything effective.
When you believe your awareness is a selfish act you are, in truth, denying yourself. What good does denying yourself do for anyone or anything else? None.
This is why when you live today and don’t just exist, you can have an impact on the greater collective consciousness issues.
How do you live today?
Short answer: Mindfulness.
Long answer: When you make the effort to be, to exist in the here-and-now, you can be more aware of your own thoughts, feelings, and actions. This pulls you out of the collective consciousness and the robotic automation it leads you to.
It’s not just about walking a path of your own choosing, but more about experiencing what life has to offer. When you are aware, you can be reasonable, logical, and at the same time emotional. This is achieved with practical mindfulness that helps you to really be.
Every day is unique. There are opportunities and possibilities that are different from day-to-day. Some are super-minor and easily taken for granted, such as what you choose to wear and decide to eat. Others can be far bigger, like learning something new that can change your whole damned life.
Big or small, when you live today you get more out of the day. You don’t just exist and go with the flow or let the pattern of your routine carry you along. Living today is experiencing today and gaining insight into possibility and potential you might otherwise miss.
Mindfulness is not an overarching quick-fix idea. It’s a practice that, with each attempt becomes increasingly habitual. When you are more in the now and present you empower yourself to do something productive and constructive to help change collective consciousness.
Some people find this idea scary. Others may find it exciting. Of course, there are probably also people who think its all bullshit and not worth the time or effort.
But that leads to the final, important point of this notion:
You may only have today
Not to get gruesome or macabre, but there may not be a tomorrow. You just don’t know if today is your last day in that body on this planet, do you?
A bus could barrel through your living room and crush you. Your heart could simply stop. That delicious snack may contain an unknown allergen that kills you. Anything can happen.
I am by no means advocating for saying “to hell with it all” and driving south to a warmer clime and drinking yourself silly. Nor am I saying give up to the inevitable. What I am saying is that today is the only day like today that is and ever will be. Do you choose to live today, or not?
There is a difference between living and existing – and it matters. Why? Because you matter. You are worthy and deserving of incredible experiences – the good and the bad. In the time you live in that body on this planet you can have incredible experiences. Or you can just exist.
No matter what those outside pictures of the world are, you are meant to live, not just exist. Be a light in the dark and an individual within the collective consciousness. The experience may suck, but it may also be incredible and awesome.
The choice, and the decision, are yours.
Will you live today?
This is the four-hundred and twenty-fourth entry to my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly articles are ideas for – and my personal experiences with – mindfulness and walking along the path of life to consciously create reality. I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world along the way. I further desire to empower myself and my readers with conscious reality creation.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-blog and share this.
The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. My additional writing, both fiction and non-fiction, are available here.
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