Intimate

I have been toying with a new idea these last few weeks. Conscious Living.

I am realising that so much of our life is going by, as if on a high speed chase, clutching onto the steering wheel of our uncompromising schedules, racing through the manic lists of things to be done, dodging unforseen curveballs and bound to a loop of ‘Never Enough’.

Barely being able to catch our breath at the end of each day, I wonder how much of life we are actually taking in as we skim its surface through this accelerated experience. Will it all just be a blur of indistinguishable activity at the end? Will we feel that sense of fullness that comes from leaning into a moment; a fragrance deeply inhaled, a sunset watched all the way through, listening to the beating of our own heart, the savouring of a favourite food, the feel of water on our skin? How well will we be able to describe the things that have brought us joy? I have loved the bougainvillea bush outside my front door for over nine years but only today realised that the flower is made up of three petals.

Taking time to smell the roses isn’t just a sweet concept, it’s the key to stepping out of the mindless drive of our routines and stepping into a quiet space. Stillness, silence, slowing down are way down on our priority list. In fact our life is built primarily on filling them up, yet it is within these empty pockets that we become intimate with life.

We are in danger of having our lives turn into a two dimensional rendition, very much like instagram, unless we choose to discard our unconscious patterns of relentless Doing and start balancing them with moments of Being which offer us the luxury of relishing what truly nurtures us. In soothing our soul, we become better attuned to understanding the actions we need to take to create a life that is full to the brim; not with the result of a half-understood, unplanned mess but as a consciously thought out series of choices that culminates in a great love affair. Which is really what it’s all about!

Best
Afshan x