“When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful, look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.”
The Prophet, Gibran Khalil Gibran.
“Life is a tear and a smile”. It’s neither this nor that; it is everything in between. I noticed lately that whenever I feel joyful or happy and instead of enjoying this delightful feeling, I worry about the possibility of not remaining in that state.
Photo by Jared Rice on Unsplash
“Be Present and enjoy the moment” is a very well-spread notion of the mindfulness theory. Instead of worrying about the future or thinking about the past, mindfulness invites us to live in the moment. Because both do not exist but in our memory, and imagination. Only this moment exists.
The theory is always good until we have to apply it in reality. I remember reading about a tribe that takes this whole living-in-the-moment thing seriously. The tribe hired someone to ring a bell now and then as a reminder to stay in the moment.
To remain in the moment, we need not only an internal or external reminder to stay in there, but we also need to develop an ability to let go of everything, the “bad” and the “good”, the positive and the negative emotion, and everything in between.
Goodbyes are difficult. Saying goodbye to a project, team, or trip, it’s as if we’re deleting them from our lives. Yet that’s not entirely accurate. When we close a chapter of our life, we start a new one backed up by everything we learned through the previous one, regardless of what it was.
No matter how you started your day, whether energetic or not, happy or sad or not, angry or not. You made it till the end of the day, and celebrating yourself is okay.
Celebrate something you did well today, a positive experience with a person, a place, or a thing, or a time you felt proud of yourself or someone else. Write it down in your journal or share it with someone who loves to listen.
And don’t forget to let go.
I am the tomorrow. Therefore, I write.