The reserve light is on bright red and the sound of the alert is getting more urgent to refuel. We have almost spent a year under the grapple of Covid-19 and we are spent. Where does one get the resources to refuel? Some may even ask what the point of refueling may be when hope of an ‘end point’ to this is still not fully in sight.
We have trialed and errored our way through the pandemic. Initially thinking it would be short lived; to then resisting it as it persisted; and finally surrendering to the idea that it might be here to teach us something. If we couldn’t beat it or change it – could we allow it to have some purpose and meaning in our lives?
According to Existentialism, life has no inherent meaning. We have free choice, and therefore, we should create our values and sense of purpose.
One of the main overarching lessons I have received in my search for purpose to the pandemic – is the power of Conscious Living. The realization that the only real existence of life is the present moment and that the ‘end point’ to anything in life is in fact unknown, unexpected and uncertain.
My personal search began with a book called A New Earth – Awakening to your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle (a highly recommended read). Along side this, I listened to the podcast developed by Oprah and Eckhart as a chapter by chapter study of the book (you can find this on your podcast app on your phone/ electronic device).
Eckhart states that “acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance”. This echoes the quote by the Dalai Lama in his book The Art of Happiness that reads “we need to learn how to want what we have, NOT to have what we want in order to get steady and stable happiness” (read this again to make sure it sinks in!).
Isn’t it so true that we have been conditioned to want more in order to feel fulfilled, happy or to own a sense of worthiness. WHEN I get that qualification… WHEN I get my own house…. WHEN I find a new job… WHEN I meet the right person … WHEN I make enough money – I will be happy. What if instead we test out the idea that if you begin to focus on what you are grateful for in this moment, rather than waiting for WHEN the pandemic will end (or your own personal WHEN) to find life again, perhaps this would help to keep fueled up. If you could try to connect with the present moment (because that is all that actually exists) versus the past that has already happened or the future that is imagined, perhaps you could feel more in charge. These are concepts that I have talked the talk as a Clinical Psychologist but questioned whether I had walked as diligently and consistently as my knowledge dictated. At the start of the pandemic I began to test this out fully, I began to focus committedly on simple abundance and what I already had in my life that was good, instead of all that I or my life lacked. The universe began to open up and all of a sudden I wasn’t ‘locked down’ – but rather freer than I had ever been – seeing and feeling all of the beautiful simplicity right before me that I had dismissed in my conditioned search for more! Not only was this knowledge (a distant notion) but now it was existing in my life with vibration (real and present).
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