Thanks.
Improve Every Moment
Post written by Leo Babauta.
I’m a big proponent of slowing down, simplifying, doing less, and being less busy … but what if you can’t?
What if your life can’t be made less busy — are you doomed to a life of anxiety and unhappiness?
No. I’m going to share with you a very simple tool that might just transform your life. It’s something I’ve been trying in the last few months, and I can attest that it works brilliantly.
This one little method will help you to:
Be more present, so life doesn’t rush past you without you noticing.
Enjoy every activity you do more, so life is better all the time.
Feel more relaxed, so every day is as good as a vacation.
Be ready to handle anything that comes your way.
Not bad for a very tiny method, no? Let’s dive in.
Busy vs. relaxed
Normally we have two different modes in life. There’s the busy of our everyday lives, and then there’s the relaxed mode, which happens when we have some unstructured time: vacation, a day at the beach, a spa getaway, some time in the park with the kids.
Relaxed mode is one where we perhaps think less and feel more. We just soak in the sun, the sounds, the sensations. This is a child-like time, because it’s the mode that young children are in the most. We do our best to train kids not to be like this, so they can be good workers when they grow up and serve our corporate masters.
And so we grow up to be in busy mode most of the week, and if we’re lucky we get a day or two, maybe only an hour or two of relaxed mode. When the Internet sucks us in, we have less relaxed mode because the Internet keeps us in our minds, and we forget about the physical world around us.
How can we change this? How can we bring the child-like relaxed, sensory mode back into our everyday lives, not just during breaks and meditation/yoga time and vacations?
It’s not that difficult, if you practice.
