The majority of people are like drones, nowadays. It seems as if they are living their lives in a trance – numb sleepwalkers that do the same things day in and day out – while being stuck in various routines that have accumulated during the years. Routines that give them the sensation of stability in an unstable and ever-changing world. There is no variety other than the regularly changing television program, new computer and console games or the newest scandals of celebrities and politicians. People have no time anymore to call their friends and to spend time with them, but waste hours of their valuable time online, on Facebook – checking status messages, addictively playing games, chatting with random strangers or watching videos on YouTube. You can hear people mumble, “I’m in a rush” or “Haven’t got any time” while they rush from their workplaces to their entertainment stations, called home. People have mastered the skill of multi-tasking and can perform various tasks simultaneously, but they lack the ability to focus on only one thing at a time and wonder why they don’t get anything done or why they aren’t happy with the outcome of their multi-tasked work.
Yet, the state of being a numb sleepwalker can be very promising – after all, all you have to do is lean back and start drifting through life, which can be an exciting journey full of adventurous hours in front of the television or your video console. This is one possible way of life, but there will always be the remaining emptiness within yourself that you will not be able to fill – not with entertainment, not by accumulating riches, gathering tangibles or continuously changing partners. That’s the burden of being a sleepwalker – you won’t reach true fulfillment and consciousness; to put it simply: you aren’t able to fill the emptiness within yourself.
Part I: The Active Mind
Start living your life NOW!
The sleepwalkers I was talking about in the above certainly do fulfill their specific needs for nutrition, security, love, happiness and entertainment, but are they really living their lives – actively and consciously – or are they still dreaming and behaving on auto-pilot? Let’s look at it this way… I’m sure you have heard about the people who had a near-death experience and reported about the phenomenon that they saw their whole lives flashing before their inner eyes, just like a movie. The film that was flashing before their eyes contained all the emotional and exciting moments they had experienced throughout their lives. The only question is: do you really want to see yourself sitting in front of a TV or a computer when “watching the movie of your life”? Watching yourself observing something else, when the “director” zooms into the best moments of your entire life? I certainly don’t! I’d rather prefer to see myself really living my life – not observing the fictional life on the TV screen or playing a fictional role in whatever game.
The courage to live your life to the fullest
All it takes to live your life to the fullest is courage – nothing more and nothing less. This sounds rather minimalist and easy to cope with – but a lack of courage is a key factor that prevents most people from living their lives to the fullest. These people aren’t necessarily cowards or scared-chicken – not at all – as they are simply being stuck with their quite comfortable everyday routines. To express it metaphorically: there are some dreams that you do not want to end. Courage is a crucial factor – as you cannot live your life to the fullest if you don’t dare to do it or shy the risks that could come with it.
Listening to your heart
The following can be observed ever since in the history of mankind, so it isn’t just a recent trend: young people choose – influenced by the advice from their parents (or friends) – to walk the predetermined path that was selected for their lives – a path that might have been chosen by their parents or dictated by the society they live in – often before they were born. Some others pursue the smell of banknotes and follow where the desire to accumulate as much money and tangibles as possible will lead them. There are many other examples where people make important decisions for their lives solely based on external factors – some earn a living with jobs they absolutely dislike and hate, jobs that might even interfere with their beliefs, others become lawyers just because their whole family consisted of lawyers for decades. The mistake we make is that we put way too much emphasis on the importance of external factors – such as money, family tradition, and honor, etc. – rather than listening to our hearts and following where it leads us.
You don’t necessarily have to break with your family tradition when you follow your heart, absolutely not! But there is a huge difference in between the choice to become a firefighter “because my dad, my grandfather, and my great grandfather were fireman as well” or to choose to become a firefighter as it is your true desire and you dreamt of it ever since you were a little child that wanted to help others that are in danger.
Listen to your heart when you make important decisions and try to neglect the promising external factors (money, etc.) just for a moment. Have the courage to follow where your heart leads you! Become aware of the things that your heart desires and ask yourself the question if you really think that your heart might desire something as superficial and material as money, fancy cars and jewelry. When looking behind the scenes you might discover that it isn’t tangibles that your heart truly desires, but – more valuable things such as – true friendship, happiness, love, but also fulfillment, consciousness, awareness and inner peace with yourself.
Part II: The Importance of Responsibility
Reconciling and accepting the past
Nearly all of our thoughts, questions, and worries revolve around events and situations in the past or the upcoming future. The closer you look at it, the more will you realize that only a slight percentage of our thoughts revolve around the present. If you so want, “thinking in the present” is an oxymoron in itself, as the line between past, present and future are continuously shifting, which makes it nearly impossible to continuously think about this very moment. Therefore, nearly all human beings are either very focused on the future and the changes that will come along with it or clearly living in the past full of regret about the drastic changes in the nowadays world, (overlapping does exist as well, of course).