There’s something beautiful about an opportunity to start fresh or from scratch. Sure, it can be scary and produce anxiety at the thought of not knowing what’s to come — but if you can look past the fear of the unknown, there is room to explore the beauty. Sometimes, the opportunity to start fresh is our own doing and sometimes, it comes unannounced. Either way, acknowledging the moment and opportunity that we are presented with is an important starting point and provides us with a chance to start anew.
Sometimes, we are so stuck in the merry-go-round of life that we forget to hop off for a second and take a look around at our routines, habits, and how we are taking care of ourselves… we forget to take a chance. It’s human nature to get caught up in the swing of things and allow our auto-pilot to take over; however, that’s where we may lose sight of the beauty of, not just life, but also our strengths, goals, aspirations, what we truly believe in, etc. If we never hop off the merry-go-round or snap out of auto-pilot to take a look around, we lose sight of who we are, what we crave in life and also potential opportunities start over.
Many of our brains have been hard-wired from childhood through adolescence and all the way into adulthood to seek success — most of society is driven by success and money and it’s no surprise that as human beings, we strive for it in all we do. It’s not necessarily a bad thing! However, these days, the cost of living is so extreme that in order to live a simple life, we are required, or perhaps feel required, to join the “rat-race”. Get a degree, land a good job, continue to advance, make money to support the family, so on and so forth. With that being said, many people are motivated by the progression through life and that’s also a beautiful thing – advancement is great, the ability to support one’s family is amazing, challenging oneself to take their career to the next step is admirable, etc. — the opportunity to add another feather to one’s cap is certainly a triumph.
What I am pointing out though, is that if we don’t stop to take a look around in this climb, we can sometimes lose sight of those little pockets in between each accolade or in between each advancement. Sometimes we get caught up in a career or pattern of behavior that isn’t actually benefiting or serving our greater good. If we get so caught up in the climb, we might just wake up one day and look back and wonder, “where did the time go?” or even worse, “I should have…” or “I wish I would have…”.
Anyway, my point is… take a look around! Look up at the sky! Take a chance on something that challenges you to dig deep! Give yourself time to sit on the hammock after work and dedicate some much needed time to yourself! These are all beautiful things. I don’t mean that you have to quit a job or move to a new state (although, if that’s what you need… then I applaud you!!), what I mean is, take advantage of the opportunities where you can create new habits that holistically support you and your journey through life — that keep you in the moment and AWAKE AND ALIVE.
Living a mindful life is a practice. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re required to sit down every morning for 45 minutes and meditate. However, simply taking a few moments to step back throughout the day and acknowledge your life, challenges, journey, day, etc. to connect with the moment and reflect can be life changing.
There’s beauty in opportunity. You might just be surprised with how effortlessly your journey unfolds when you take a second to pause and look around.
