When was the last time you stopped to fully live in the moment? Have you noticed how you make comments mentally even when walking along the beach? You may look at the sea while on a trip and think, how you wish you can live near the sea. Or you may think, the weather is hotter than usual and share this thought with a friend. You have seen the sea on TV, on the internet and it’s not the first time you have seen the ocean. Due to the lack of something new, nothing catches your attention to the ocean. If you are experiencing COVID-19 fatigue, you might even just take the sea as second best to where you could be now, while wishing for well-being. But the truth is, you can renew well-being with the familiar is possible in every moment.
Fatigue With the Familiar
As children, we were fascinated by our environment and what we could explore. Even during play, we never really got sick of some of the toys we played with. We could conjure up new stories or new ways of playing with old toys.
But this ability to renew the familiar things in life has largely been lost. The education system has taught us many things. From language to calculating the motion of objects, we learned to see our world with minds that believes it knows all. We learned the systems of society. We began forming opinions and close our minds to what’s possible or what’s not within our knowledge.
That has unfolded in ways unimagined by many in the 2020 US Election. The battle of idealogy is the inability of a tired mind to be open to accepting the other’s truth.
Truth can be observed with methods of science. Scientists are curious and they observe and make calculations and experiments to prove or disprove theories. We can do the same simply by being open-minded to ours and others’ experiences and observe with curiosity.
How to Renew Well-Being with the Familiar?
Every day may seem the same due to the routines we do. However, observe your thoughts, your mood, and even your body when you wake up every morning. Are they really the same? Have you noticed that today you may have woken up with backache while another day no aches? You may wake up one day feeling fresh and another day feeling tired.
You can also change your routines intentionally to refresh what is familiar to you. For example, you can choose to brush your teeth before washing your face, if you are used to cleaning your face first. You can also choose to eat your breakfast before brushing your teeth. With the routines you intentionally decide to change, you can watch how your mind and mood changes along with it. With these small changes, you can learn about yourself. You can see for yourself if you have already sunk into a familiar comfort with a closed mind, or if you are still willing to be curious about your life moments on earth.
We Only Have Moments
If you stay observant and curious, you might notice that all the memories you recall are in moments. We do not recall memories based on days. We may look at the time and calculate the amount of time we have every day. However, time is not fixed in your experience. Have you noticed that when you are particularly busy (in your mind) time passes quickly? When there is nothing much going on, time passes slowly?
For those suffering depression, the mind is particularly busy. You have noticed if you have suffered depression that days and months pass without you noticing much because you could be occupied with wanting to be lifted out of depression.
So you see, when we take a moment to breath and to know we are breathing we are cognizant of the moment. One moment cognized is a moment lived in fullness. Each moment we can cognize we learn to renew well-being with familiarity.
You can learn to cognize every moment with mindfulness exercises. You can choose to learn and to practice mindfulness online with us, or in a group at the workplace. Learn to refresh each moment and you will feel well-being.
