The mind tries to explain, rationalize, and control our worlds. It tries to make everything we see relatable, like it all makes sense. We have our jobs, our friends, our schedules, and routines. Everything just makes sense. Then suddenly, we’re hit with a pandemic. Things don’t make sense anymore, as life as most knew it is flipped upside down. Not surprisingly, if you turn on the TV, you’ll constantly hear that people can’t wait to just “get back to normal.” This makes sense of course, but think deeply about it for a second. What are we waiting for exactly? Normal doesn’t exist, it never has and never will. Normal is just whatever people want it to be. It used to be normal to smoke on planes. It is normal to eat cows in many countries, while in Hinduism the cow is a sacred creature. Less than a century ago, it wasn’t even considered normal for women to wear pants! The mark for what we consider “normal” is constantly moving.
We can’t control what happens tomorrow, or change what happened yesterday. We can only “control” what happens right now, because all there ever is, is this. This very moment that’s happening right now, as you read these words aloud in the mental voice in your head. If you’re like most people, though, you go most of your time avoiding this truth. Instead, it’s all about what’s to come in the future, like what we’re doing this weekend, or how happy we’ll be once things finally go back to normal. Weren’t many of us complaining about our circumstances in life before all of this started happening? Like our boring jobs, long work hours, having to go to class, etc. I bet now many of these same people would do anything to go back to work or attend their 9 AM lecture.
We have allowed our happiness and well-being to been taken hostage by external circumstances out of our control, when they should be dependent on one thing and one thing only: ourselves. When we want to get mad at things outside of ourselves, this is a sign that we must look inward.
Now, this isn’t to say that we can’t feel sad or angry, or that life isn’t going to feel difficult at times. Rather, it’s that focusing on things we can’t control while holding onto all these negative emotions does us no good in the end. Our perspectives literally shape our realities. So ask yourself, why is this moment so bad that we can’t enjoy it? What is it about our present circumstance that we must stay helplessly victim to it? Because our mind says so? Our minds say many things that end up being not true, and thinking to ourselves that we can’t be happy in this moment, wherever we may be, is the biggest lie of them all.
Life is necessarily uncertain. Things happen for no particular reason, but they happen because they need to happen. We can’t fight the current of life, no matter how hard we try. All of our planning and attempts to control can only go so far until a monsoon of sudden change comes crashing onto our shores. Nothing hits harder than reality when we’re not fully living in it.
Let’s not wait for things to “return to normal.” That day will never come, and while waiting, we’ll be missing out on all the fulfilling experiences we could be having now. Instead, how can we make everything feel “normal” regardless of what happens outside of ourselves? How can we change our perspectives on these experiences to maximize our own well-being?
I believe living in the present is how we maximize the present. And if we maximize our present, then we can only in turn maximize our future.