Yesterday’s day struck me. It was beautiful. Not for what we might commonly think, but for the evolution of the journey that continues and always offers me new insights. Insights I like to share with you and hope might also be useful.
Yesterday I appreciated the day for multiple nuances. First of all, I finally lived at its best what I call active presence: living the present moment fully, those moments when we’re not doing anything particular. Paradoxically, a sort of boredom managed with awareness. Not constraint, but competitive advantage.
The old pattern: the obsession with “I must”
Before, society complicit and undeniably so, I lived moments like yesterday with the obsession of “I must play, I must read, I must go golfing otherwise I won’t recover and then it’ll be worse”. If you remember, I might have already mentioned this concept. It doesn’t work that way and makes things worse.
Yesterday, for the first time, I truly perceived the concept of active presence. Actually it wasn’t the first time ever, but certainly the first time my metacognition showed it to me in its depth and value.
What really happened
I played a little. Read a little. But in getting bored I relaxed. My mind recharged from the week. My mind had insights, work related ones too.
And I’ll add something. That work one, I would have acted on immediately in the past. Yesterday, no. I perceived it, processed it and set it on my mental table. Tomorrow Monday, certainly with priority, it will be acted upon.
Notice something? Having internalized the concept of boredom, having processed the discourse of active presence, led me to live a day like yesterday at its best. Offering me gold in the moments when I played and read, and perspectives for the days to come, not only work related, not only family related.
Forgive the expression, but it was bloody brilliant.
I increasingly feel reading, gaming and gradually golf entering into flow. And the more I feel them entering, the more they lead me to recharge and the more they bring me into the propositional circuit.
The cognitive bandwidth expanding
The foundation of all this is our cognitive bandwidth. Becoming aware of processes, for example through metacognition and meta awareness, leads us to push noise further away: anger, rumination, various enemies.
I’m not saying I didn’t have moments yesterday when that internal negative voice, what I call “Bastard 2.0”, tried to hit me. But it was managed. And I feel this fluidity in my mind growing. I increasingly feel the tools in hand and the actions in my possession. My agency.
Is life Happy? Are there no problems? Absolutely and categorically no. But I can manage them and I can reach a state of wellbeing. These steps are there.
And agency, let’s listen: research on active aging suggests that developing the mind and possessing a sense of internal control has the capacity to significantly impact not only perceived wellbeing, but longevity itself. An element we find confirmed even in people whose overall lifestyle wouldn’t be considered optimal according to classic parameters. The mind matters, big time.
The evening: an unexpected surprise
Yesterday didn’t end there. In the evening Greta, with friends, two families of Marco’s schoolmates, organized a surprise dinner party for me.
It was cool. It surprised me. Never had one in 44 years of life. My reaction, paradoxically, was also strange because I’m not used to it. But I was Happy and I’m Happy about yesterday evening.
Could I have been more relaxed? That’s part of the journey and gradually I’ll get there. But I lived it well and with satisfaction.
Another step. Another stage.
An invitation for readers
I’d like to leave a message now regarding what I write. Something not connected to this single post, but rather to all of them.
Read them. Observe the generic ones as well as those, especially lately, personal ones. But then abstract. Observe the keywords. Search for them, deepen them. And start thinking about them.
Every piece has been key. Every piece has helped me and led me to new pieces and new paths. It’s not finished and I don’t even know if it will end. But the result I see, the reactions and more, I like. I’m cleaning my mind and thoughts from the past, from the junk food they had. And moving forward I truly feel more control, even in the moments, especially work related, complex ones I face.
It won’t be easy. Maybe I’ll even receive derision. But who cares. The result repays everything.
Abstract, deepen and don’t hesitate to write me or ask me. If through conversations I can paradoxically become part of a rhizome, you know well I’d be proud of it.