It’s been an interesting day to practice observing the present moment, and my presence within it. Every time I caught myself with a brief moment to spare, I tried to pause what I was thinking so that I could remember this big, beautiful world we live in.
I paused to be grateful for the chance to participate in this world, setting aside all of my judgment as to how well or how poorly I have fulfilled the opportunities it’s given me.
I paused to breathe in the air, and breathe it out, letting go of resistance to receiving as well as resistance to letting go.
I paused to feel my heart beat, and recognize it as a reflection of the living, breathing world that sustains me.
I paused to simply be a part of this world, and not in the very least apart from it.
With practice, being one with the present moment is easier than when I let myself practice forgetting it.
Beautiful post. Pausing is something I don’t think our modern society values much. Moments when I pause are the golden moments of my day. Just to watch a bee buzz around a flower, a cloud float on by, even cars going past–when I pause everything is just so…different….”It’s funny how we can feel apart from this world,” you begin. I wonder if cell phone addiction–constantly checking, texting, etc–is symptomatic of a collective feeling of being apart; a dis-ease, if you will, effecting more and more of our world.
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I really do think you are right! I sort of feel there’s a social pressure to disconnect from in-person, in-presence contact with the world around us. Since supposedly the tech addiction is to “stay connected” it might sound odd to call it a social pressure to disconnect… until we sit with the idea and feel the difference between texting someone distant, versus smiling and saying hello to the person right next to us.
I’m happy to see more people making a point of setting aside the tech that pretends to connect us to one another, taking moments to REALLY connect. The more we call out the illusion for what it is, the more practice we have in seeing things that are right in front of us.
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I agree, it is a strange phenomenon that there is a social pressure to disconnect while, as you say, the tech addiction is to stay connected. An interesting dialectic which, I think, is, in a way, working itself out.
Your second paragraph reminds me of an “assignment” I gave one of my classes a few years back: put down the cell phones/ipods until our next class (two days later)–or at least try to go as long as they could without picking it up (even to check the time). I think the most someone lasted was six hours. Some lasted around three, others didn’t even try. Those who lasted around three said they began to feel anxious, which, defined from the psychological perspective, speaks to a fear of the unknown. That being said, I wonder if there is an element of the need to control (and the fear of losing/not having control) underlying the addiction. I for one don’t have a cell phone and when people learn that, they ask me “how can you possibly live without one?” I usually just shrug and smile–after all, I have lived 37 years without one just fine.
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Tech addiction is a recognized thing! I have a cell phone and use it to coordinate via text with my husband, possibly a few times a week. Sometimes I need to coordinate with someone else, so it’s good to have when email isn’t their thing.
But one thing I don’t like people to do is stop to look something up while we’re in a conversation (unless it’s important and time-sensitive). I love exploring ideas and what we THINK something might be based on what we already know or have heard of. If you’re wondering about the history of a word, for example, you can’t stop and have fun discussing the root parts of it and the oldest reference you can think of, if you have already gone to Dictionary.com to look it up!
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Ah, yes, etymology–a big, big fan. I particularly like etymonline.com and I have the American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European roots. Indeed looking up the history of words is thought provoking, helps me look at things from different perspectives, and like to consider how meanings of word change over time. As a Religious Studies professor, for example, it is of interest to me that the word “religion” was not used in reference to a system of belief until roughly the 13th century. The first recorded instance of such came from Scotland. And speaking of “addiction,” the root of the term means “to give voice to.” This is of particular import to me as an alcoholic in recovery–makes a bit of sense in that with addiction, one’s voice, one’s means of expression, one’s self, is given over to the substance of choice.
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Now I didn’t know that about the word Religion! Religious Studies was once something I thought I’d make a career out of, instead of “merely” a life out of!
I also didn’t realize about the root of “addiction”. Given my experience of “addiction” as our bodies’ and minds’ way of giving expression to needs we won’t allow them to give voice to, that seems so very appropriate.
Thank you so much for mentioning both of those! Much for me to dream on tonight!
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Well sweet dreams then and good night
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