During my last project where I led a group of twenty artists at a meditation artistic retreat in Thailand, and in order to make them benefit the most from the experience, I tried from the beginning to make them understand that ‘it is not the same to be here than to be present’. The Sun, a plant or even the couch at your living room ‘are there’, but they do not have the ability to use their consciousness to appreciate time; we do. We can keep walking along life as just passing by or we can start to squeeze every second to appreciate the genuine value of time.
If at a particular moment we are connected to technology or even to other thoughts, we are not completely enjoying that moment, but only a percent of it (perhaps 30-40%?). It may seem exaggerated, yet not being a single situation but a behavior which has become a way of life, that is the actual percentage of the time we are enjoying/taking advantage of.
The longing of youth, nostalgia for a place or desire for the company of a person, are feelings that keep us living in the past, reliving situations that have already occurred. It may sound cold, but from the practical point of view, to miss situations, places or people is not a constructive behavior and turns our time into less valuable. Instead of living this particular moment by learning the circumstances around us and by working to build situations or beautiful friendships, we remain stuck in a past where we already had the opportunity to learn from it; undoubtedly, we will not change anything from those situations now.
If we spend days dreaming about something that is not in our reach, everything we manage to carry out will automatically seem to have less value. This situation leaves us with only two options: to seize our dreams and aspirations according to our capabilities in order to collecting results that will satisfy and enrich us; or simply to follow fully our dreams, whatever they are, but always being fully aware that most likely they will not be fulfilled. Therefore, we must be open to observe and to learn along the way, so that not only we evolve but so our dreams do. The difference between goals and dreams is that goals are savored only when we achieve them, whilst dreams are to be enjoyed as they happen; they are motivating and inspiring and they make time more valuable during the process of living.
If we live in fear or shyness which prevent us from performing specific actions or saying certain things, again we are not fully living as we should, but we are letting potentially sweet situations unhappened exclusively by our choice. Feelings like jealousy or resentment push us to develop emotions linked with hate, and thus they add burdens that impede our progress naturally. All these factors act as strings that, despite being stretchable, they keep anchoring us to harbours from the past.
Not spending time with the people we love or losing friends/beloved ones because of pride also plays an influence on the value of our time. When we lose important people we are forced to seek new friendships and relationships, which is not only exhausting but also makes us ‘lose’ time over and over on the same task, becoming often tired and, eventually, hopeless.
I often reconsider my life; sometimes I fail and sometimes I shed a tear, but I never look back nor regret something I did not try, did not do, did not say. Maybe if in the future my life halts, but by then it will be too late for having wasted it, because I have found out the genuine value of time. I enjoy with all my passion and energy every second of every day as if it ws the last one, and at the same time with the uncontainable thrill as if it was the very first.
There is a saying “Life is not measured by how many times you breathe, but by the moments that take your breath away” words of such poetic beauty that is difficult to refute. However, I disagree completely; I think life is measured by moments when we learn, by times when we draw a smile somebody next us, and, above all, by the days we manage to be happy enjoying every second and being fully ourselves.
