Do we Live our lives or just Exist?

In a friendly discussion I mentioned to a friend that “ An acquaintance of mine meditates for an hour daily early in the morning before he leaves for work, some consider him crazy.”  He smiled and replied, “Do you know what is crazy? Sitting at a desk 9 to 5 for your entire life! That is crazy!”

I suppose my friend is right as the acquaintance did find joy in the thing not extrinsically rewarding. The nod for his actions were approved by him alone, he pursued it as a person and not just an employee. He set aside for himself  time to do nothing, to do anything, to do whatever he most wanted.

Do we really understand that our lives unfold as our mind perceives it? Have we cultivated an internal locus of control which stops existing at the whim of other people and allows us to develop our personal conviction and embrace it, so as to guide us?. Do we live our lives or merely exist?

Before proceeding further I need to digress in order to clarify the meanings of ‘live’ and ‘exist’. The ones I have in mind from the various revelations in the dictionary are those that are germane to this narration.

Live: to have a life rich in experience

Exist: to live at an inferior level or under adverse circumstances.

We all exist at one level or another, in different circumstances and situations that are dependent on  many issues and factors. However, to live a life rich in experience we often introspect and seek avenues and most of us do so lifelong. On realizing that they do not find a semblance of joy or contentment, some craft a game plan by discarding the 9 to 5 route to success.

To ‘live’ we resort to seek what we want to find, question until we understand and continue to dab until we find their purpose. Experiment to find our passions and reach out for the relationship we want.  Know that there is nothing we cannot have the answers to, though we may not understand them, or unearth them easily, but they are there nonetheless. Stop to spend every hour at the whim of other people’s expectations and start living how we really want to. Stop depreciating our intelligence or toning down our individualism because other people may scoff and judge out of their own insecurities or close-mindedness.

Do away with the virtual presence and remove the physical presence of those who do not serve. Stop letting the assumptions we have about other people’s judgments of us, control our lives. Stop believing that we are  only as good as someone else believes we are, and start having reckless, blind faith in the fact that most things unfold just exactly as we know they will, the only parts of life that shock us are the things we thought we did not deserve and we were not good enough to receive.

Be brutally, openly, wildly honest in achieving through an unprecedented kind of satisfaction and connectivity when we turn to someone and admit that we are struggling just like they are. The moment we take things a little less seriously, we stop refraining out of fear. An issue is just a temporary ride, and nothing will matter at the end of the day other than what we get from it and how much of that it affects others.

Travel to another state or country to see favorite places, we do not let distance stop us from buying tickets to seeing the city of love, we do not write off relationships because they may have to be ‘long-distance’. We stop “vacationing” and start exploring. Rekindle the art of joy by companionship of friends.  And ensure these aspects of life as more than just routine for survival, but rather as celebrating the act of sharing.

Do I, live or exist? My answer lies in the video below!