“You need to build an ability to just be yourself and not be doing something” – Louis CK
Between the time when you send a text asking a girl on a date and the moment when she responds, there’s a long stretch of apprehension.
Same thing if you send a resume online, your head loaded with questions and anxiety. Or lining up at a starbucks, in hope a grande caramel macchiato will compensate for the nervosity and emptiness you feel inside.
A bird’s overview of modern lives shows that we spend most of our time waiting: as we commute, as we download, as we try to get an answer, refreshing our email way more than necessary.
The range of services and technological tools made available to the first world has made us a very passive and nervous breed, always expecting happiness to be delivered by Amazon, or straight to our inbox. We always feel a gap between what we have and what we should get, it’s like being just one click away from satisfaction, from real life.
Imagine a real power shutdown, a general one? We would be left on our own, our mouse dangling at the side of our desk, unsure what to do with ourselves. Freaking out, probably.
There is a way out of this vulnerable state, though, although not very comfortable in the beginning. It’s the path of sitting there, doing nothing, and watching the constant show of fears and hopes our mind runs 24/7 in our head. Just being curious about it, noticing the patterns, and gradually liberating ourselves from the disempowering processes we unconsciously set up. Practicing mindfulness works, and after a while we’ll realize that the next urge to click our uneasiness away will be less intense.
There’s nothing that we need, aside from what we already have. That serenity, that feeling of being complete, we have it embedded in our system, but it can only be enjoyed in the moment. Not tomorrow, not in 20 minutes, now. That “now” is within our reach, it’s our responsibility to make it ours.
When the gap is filled, some call that meditation, but really, it’s just about being a human.