Enrich life
This is not advice.
I rethought what I could do to enrich my life.
You can just ignore it or perhaps you oppose it.
But I would be grateful if this article could be something also for you to rethink about your life.
1. Feel the light
Maybe I can say this since I’m a photographer. I don’t remember how I used to feel before anymore.
What I mean by ‘feel the light’ is to feel that the light is actually shining on you and it’s being given to you.
Also, to see that beauty which light and shadow make.
It’s easier said than done.
2. Eat and taste it
Yeah, it might sound dumb. Because we of course eat and of course taste it when we eat. But are you sure that you are there when you eat something? Using smartphones…, thinking about other things…, these are things that distract your mind from eating.
No matter to what you’re eating, instant noodle, caviar or whatever, if you’re not focusing on food you are not tasting it much.
And never forget to appreciate food. I became able to taste food obviously better than before since I started focusing on eating. Just by focusing! I can even feel happy about the fact that I have a meal today too.
3. Exposure to stories
I love any kind of stories. movies, novels, comics, sad, scary, touching and etc. Our every life is also a story to tell and there would be countless stories in the world.
I believe exposure to stories allows us to obtain a sense of diversity.
The more you know diversity the less you get fooled by ‘normal’. And maybe you can be kind to others and yourself too.
No matter how busy I am I always try to read a novel or watch a movie.
Or I should say I can’t live without them.
Don’t you think that will be waste if you die without knowing other stories?
4. Use something nice
For me, it is really important to use something beautiful or something that excites me. I won’t hesitate to splurge on those things.
The point is to buy them not because they are expensive or brand but they are nice.
I don’t know why but I love stationary and cutlery.
Years ago, I replaced all my cutlery with Kay Bojesen which I think the best cutlery in the world.
Even a small tea spoon costs over $10 so some people might think that’s waste of money.
But believe or not, I feel so satisfied every time I use cutlery even after few years I bought them. It’s gonna be the most efficient way if you can feel happy every time you use something.
conversely, I throw away anything if it’s lame or ugly.
I’ll never buy such a thing, though.
5. Think about death
Let’s say you’re about to eat a chocolate bar.
It would be a quite different eating from 1000 left and eating from 10 left.
You would taste careful or feel special if it’s only a few left.
Life is the same.
Thinking about death is the only way to bring our lazy habits and stupid brain to a sense of 諸行無常(Shogyou-mujou which means ‘nothing stays the same’).
I see many people think death is negative, sad or bad omen but I don’t agree.
Death is just a deadline which we don’t know when it comes.
Anything will be a pain without a deadline.
And a deadline is the thing that is pouring the joy into work, play, and anything.
We all know we can’t go anywhere ignoring a deadline.
Yet people are trying not to see the deadline called Death.
We only have ‘now’
We need to feel ‘now’. And we should taste each moment. Everything will come and leave like nothing unless you try to pick up moments carefully.
We would think ‘I can be happy when I finish this’ or maybe ‘I will be happy next year’. But those ‘when’ or ‘next year’ are also gonna be ‘now’ at that moment.
Be sensitive about ‘now’ is perhaps the best way to enrich our life, I think.
