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Published: November 13th 2013
A topic that has been on my mind recently is the idea, or rather I should say act, of immediacy. I believe if we live our day to day lives more immediatly we will lead peaceful, more fulfilled, happier, appreciative lives. Here's why.
We often hear this idea, this way of life, expressed with great gusto; Be here now, Live in the moment, Tomorrow is not guaranteed, You only live once. How often do we actually apply the action of these ideas, the act of immediacy, into our every day lives though?
When you are with friends or family, at work or school, how often are you on your phone? How often are you day dreaming about vacation or the weekend? When you are eating lunch how often are you thinking about what to have for dinner? Do you taste every bite of what you are eating or do you shovel it down without taking notice of the taste, nutrition, or effects on your body and mind? To Live life we can not idaly stand by and watch, uncontiously floating from moment to moment, we must activly participate to truly be living in the moment. I am not saying
not to think ahead! Plan for the future as if it will happen, but live in the now. So, how do we begin to integrate an Idea of immediacy into an Act of immediacy in our everyday lives?
Probably, the best place to start is; what is Immediacy? That way we can decide what it means to us. We can't live immediatly if we don't know what it means to us! The dictonary states it's; The quality of bringing one into direct and instant involvement with something. To the Burning Man community immediacy is described as; Immediate experience, to seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. To me, immediacy includes both of the above and is achieved by living in an intentionally conscious state of awareness, including your physical(you and what surrounds you), mental & emotional states, participation in the moment and gratitude.
One thing all of these have in common is the requirement of your active participation both mentally and physically to occur! It is not something you can observe but
something that you must do! Now we know what it is, so how do we do it?
Lets start with a time that you may have experienced living Immediately. That gives us a tool, a feeling, to summon up when trying to find it in the now!
Travel is a great example of when we activly live in a state of immediacy, intentional or not, it is easy to fall into the flow of living immediatly when we travel. Why is that exactly? Well, when we travel to new places, often much of what we are seeing, doing, and experiencing, may never be seen, done, experienced, again and therefore we are fully absorbed in that moment.
When you travel internationally there is a good chance that you don't have your phone directly connecting you to facebook, or to text or talk to other people not immediatly around you. The likelyhood is that you are fully there in that moment, in that place, holding that experience, tasting it, smelling it, feeling every detail of it. You sip coffee in a square and feel the cobblestones under your feet and the dew in the air, hear the accents and
new languages that chatter around you, listen to the sound of birds you have never heard before, notice the angle of the sun on ancient sights, absorb the culture, fashion, food, the smells, sights, daily routines, all of it is new, and we are fully absorbinig every detail we can. Every sense is heightened and good or bad, you are fully submerged in that moment.
Burning man was the other place, and the first time I realized, that what I was experiencing and participating in was an act of living immediatly. It was the second morning out on the playa, I had just parted ways from at an art instillation, a lovely older man filled with meaningfull conversatioin and a fresh coconut, that I found myself momentairly motionless in the constantly buzzing surroundings. I came to the beautiful realization that though I had understood the concept before, there in that magical place, I was truly, and easily, able to live immediatly, consistently! It was an amazingly good feeling. Immediacy in every moment there becomes so easy because everything is in hyper speed. You are in a place where everything is all so beautufuly temporary, never to be the same
again. No phone, and for me this year no camera, so every moment, sight, sound, feeling, interaction, need, want, elation, desire, was being absobed knowing it would never be experienced exactly the same again. Every person I talked with I knew I may never know again, every gift I was given or gave holds a memory I will never forget. Emotions are fleeting and change multiple times a day, the art piece you are climbing will soon be burnt to ash, dust storm rises temporarily erasing the world around you and then pass returning your senses. Every hour is guaranteed to be different from the last. I was able, with that realization, to soak in every moment. And with the action of living immediatly I was also able to check in with myself when I was struggeling, because I was so aware of everything around and within me, I would check in with myself, "ok Vanessa, whats going on here? Why am I feeling or reacting this way?" The enviroment of Burning Man is so powerful because it is a breeding ground with no choice but to partake in the experience of immediacy.
Life is not constantly travel or
Burning Man though, and maybe you have yet to get to do either, so when might have we experienced this at home? At the concert that was so amazing you forgot to take photos and just danced your ass off, the meal you had that every bite was like heavan and even when you were full you wanted to rewind time just to be able to eat it again, the serendipitous meeting of your crush in an unlikely place and their kindness melting all your fears of approaching them away, the goal you have been working so hard to reach and finally reaching it, the appreciation from work well done, the hike to a new waterfall or vista, the camping trip that melted reality away, the realization that your inital thoughts of someone were wrong. These moments, are fully felt, the lighting, the smells, tastes and sounds, how they made you feel. Each detail so full of texture that when you remember back to them you can actually see and feel it all again!
So how do we take these moments that we hold so precious and bring them into every day life more often? How do we make
the magical sense of ~ this may never happen again ~ appear in our 9-5's, in our commute, food, and conversations? Not just in those special occasions.
I think the key is to find things to be passionate about. It is the moments that are filled with passion that we absorbe like a sponge.
Finding things to be passionate about, looking for the beauty in every day routines may take a bit of practice, but I believe that with gratitude for what we find, living immediatly happens more easily. If you are looking for something to be passionate about in that moment, the beauty in everything, beauty as in; lessons, texture, feelings, details, the positive, in amazing times, bad times and everything in between, then you are sure to find yourself actively present in that moment as you are bringing your attention fully to it.
It will be one of those practices you must implement activly every day, not one you can work towards, reach, and then move on. You will for the rest of you life, have to intentionally live immediately, but hopefully as you practice it will become more of a habit and way of
approaching life. Even once it becomes engrained into your lifestyle things will arise that will force you to once again practice as life changes... Or sometimes, does not change enough. All holding lessons and all giving us the ability to grow.
We know that time is not guaranteed, and in that knowing, we also know that every moment, extraordinarily new or mundanely the same, could be the last... Not to be perceived morbidly but instead as a gift. This knowing, is a place to start and starting is one of the most important parts.
I think the more immediately we live, the more appreciative of every moment we will be and the more appreciative we are, the happier we are. Every moment holds its own magic, its own lesson, good or bad. Now is the only thing we have for sure. The only way to appreciate what we have, the time we are in now, is to activly be present in it, the good and the bad. Then and only then can we say we are truly living.
Again, I feel a need to say, this does not mean you should not plan ahead. You must! But
don't get so absorbed into the plan, or into the past, that you lose the now. All are needed.
Next time you are with someone, put down your phone, your facebook can wait. Be there with that person fully in their presence, give them your time and attention. Look into their eyes, actually listen to their stories. They deserve that, just as you do in return. Next time you are on that same drive home take notice of the color of the trees, the sun light, the radio from the car next to you, how the people around you look. Take a new route, roll down the window, and feel the heat or cold or perfectly comfortable temperature. Cook for someone, cook something special for yourself, eat somewhere new, have someone cook for you. When you eat savor the effort, time, each individual flavor and then again how they blend to make a whole, be thankful for each bite and the energy it is giving you. Find the beauty in the moments you have. Try new food, stop and smell a flower, strike up a conversation with a stranger and discover what their dreams are, stop to look at
the sky.
When time is tough submerge yourself in the situation, do not run away from it or numb the senses, take notice of how you are feeling and reacting. Ask yourself if it's the best; for you, for others involved, for reaching your goals (yes! It is possible to be in a moment and still consider your future!), for the betterment of society and the planet (too big? I dont think so!), for the type of person you are and who you want to be. Change what you can, let go of what you can't. Difficulties are full of lessons, but you won't see them if you are not activly present and if you are not open to learning/seeing them.
If you find youself stuck in a rut no longer able to find appreciation in your mmediate life, then its time to check in with yourself, why are you there, why are you feeling this way, what can you learn, do you need something to change, if so what? If you are constantly complaining, you are not seeing the beauty, you are not finding passion, you are not feeling the appreciation for life, time to look for it, in everyone and everything around you, in the bad and the good - find the beauty. If you just can't seem to see it, then it is time to check in with yourself, how can you find appreciation, how can you find beauty, what do you need to feel happy, can you feel happy now without anyting changing, if not, is it time to change something, if so what? If you are sad, or angry, or closed off, it's time to check in with yourself, is this reaction in my best interest, in my future, my happiness, is this the person I want to be, is this the way I want to live my life, if not maybe it is time to change something.
I am not telling you how to live, how to react, what to do, to stay, to go, to be different, to be like me, or the same as you have always been. I am telling you to start holding dialoge with yourself, check in with yourself, find the depths of who you are. Fully feel everything, and then find what you need to move out of the negative emotions, the ones that are no longer benifiting you in your life and goals and who you want to be. You may sometimes not be able to answer the questions you ask of yourself, and and thats ok, in that case you must continue to observe yourself, your reactions in situations, your feelings, question yourself endlessley, and question your answers, till it feels like you have reached the inner most reason for where you are now. How many questions you have to ask, is all up to you, when the answer is right only you will know. It is a journey of finding who you are and then being authentic to yourself. Its also important to remember that the blame game will never benifit you. You choose your action, reactions, feelings, everything. This is a journey to self, which can only be found through you, not others, and can only happen if you are open to recieving the lessons.
Taking these actions will not only help you to continue to grow but will activly put you in the moment as you are taking notice of where you are and what is going on around and within you. And if you just react, it is ok too, but then after try to find out why you reacted that way, if it did not benefit you or the situation or others involved then you have at least taken action to find out why so that you have the opportunity to choose differently in the future.
Life is magical. Not only certain moments but all of it. We just have to be here now, in it consciously to see that. Life will be tough as hell and exponentially exciting, painful and hopeful, and everything in between. There are ways to make the mundane new, we just have to actively make an effort at doing it. Activley look for the love in all of it. If you just can't see it, time to look at yourself in these moments to see what will be best for you to be in your authenticity and therefore your state of happieness.
With these acts we discover a life intentionally lived immediately. A life sure to bring more of the love, lessons, appreciation and fufillment that we seem to so easily let go missing but always be seeking.
Of course, you dont have to believe me. Its certanly not going to harm you in any way, so why not try it for yourself?
I dare you 😊
☆☆☆ P.S. I know you were expecting travel news, and it's soon to come, but as immediacy is something I have had to practice here in Africa, I thought I would share my thoughts!
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Travis
non-member comment
Great to hear from you!
I like the article you wrote, inspiring! Hope everything is going well. Keep us up to date.