WHAT IS ACTUALLY GETTING DONE?
Functioning vs. being alive
One of the most exciting states for us as humans is when we get things done. We LOVE to complete the tasks on our to do lists and finish the projects that we’ve been working on. It makes us feel like we have accomplished something. That we’ve been productive or successful and now we can just relax for a little awhile without thinking about getting things done. While it is a wonderful feeling to complete things, why do we wait until the “end” of something to feel a sense of completion or relaxation? Are things ever really done? It is true that when we are finished with a task such as washing our car then the task is complete, but we all know that the car will get dirty again. We know that once we’ve finished our day of work it is done, but that we will go back and do it again tomorrow. While we might finish one project, there will be always be another one around the corner. If we make the activities of our life about getting them done, then we are simply living to get things done. While this might at times feel good from a productivity perspective, you must assess whether your life is merely functional to get stuff done or if you are truly living life.
Some people reading this might be asking what it means to truly live life. How do you know if you are living life with the activities of life contained inside of it, or if you are just doing the activities of life? One key indicator is whether or not you have a sense of fulfillment while you are doing whatever you are doing. Are you simply focused on the tangibility of the goal or the objective being achieved & going through the motions to get it done? An example of this would be taking a shower just to be done with the task of showering and having a clean body. While this is completely valid, it is functional rather than being infused with aliveness and presence. Another example would be grocery shopping. Are you there just to get it done and be finished as quickly as possible so that you can move onto the next thing? Again this is a functional perspective, nothing wrong with it, but it is devoid of presence and therefore of the experience of really being alive inside of your experience.
When we come from the functional perspective we just want to get things done. We close ourselves off to the mystery, to synchronicity and to the spontaneity of what being in the present moment brings. We miss out on our experience of living because we are busy. So busy. So so busy. How many times in a day or week do you feel busy and find yourself rushing? This is a great indicator that you are not present, aka not really living but just doing. Life is not just one big task to get done and over with. It is an unfolding experience that is full of magic and yummy juicy aliveness, but you miss out on this if you are too busy getting things done.
CHOOSING ALIVENESS
In love-ness
Choosing the experience of aliveness might not feel like a choice until you first become aware of how you operate in the perspective of functionality. If you find yourself focusing on the stuff of life more than the experience of life this is your opportunity to reorient. It really is just the reorientation on the experience of life rather than on the goal your mind makes up. You will likely still achieve the goal, such as finishing your shower or obtaining the groceries, but it’s not about the goal. The goal is a side effect of you first orienting towards the perspective of living. You can absolutely keep the goal in mind and continue to move towards it if it excites you and feels aligned to do so, but you must be self-aware to not latch your focus onto it’s completion as the sole intention.
What actually gets done when you choose life? Whatever needs to. Whatever doesn’t get done didn’t need to occur. This can be challenging for our mind to accept because we tend to think that certain things must get done and look a certain way when they’ve reached completion. If you entertain the idea that there is nothing to get done then you are left only with living, because that is the only thing that remains. Yet most people think that there is stuff to do. They don’t trust their own excitement and alignment to guide their actions in the moment. They don’t believe that they will be guided by the magic of presence, so they don’t ever just pause and be. There is just an immediate reaction to do something, anything. So what happens? They impose rigidities on themselves rather than feeling their way through what is actually alive in each and every breath. Life gets mundane, stagnant, and we settle for less than aliveness hoping that all of the activities will be over soon enough.
It is in the pause, the slow down, and the reconnection with feeling that we discover the present moment. This is really a massive reorientation for most. When you are present and not focused on getting things done, you suspend agenda. You let life show you rather than insist that you know what’s happening or where things are going. This is not a passive process. You are actively awake and actively listening with your entire being. This is not a “waiting to see what happens”. It is a full merger with the mystery. It’s like being led in a dance where you know some of the moves, but where you have no idea where you are going or what new moves you might learn along the way. You are just dancing for the sake of dancing, because you enjoy dancing. The dance will end, but it’s not about the dance being done. It’s about the dance itself.
Same with living. You are living for the sake of living. It’s not about getting the activities of life done. Yes they will get done because everything has a cycle of initiation and completion, but it is about expressing life through the activities. Just like you must bring your enthusiasm to the dance floor in order to have a good time, you must bring your excitement to living. You must want to be where you are. You must actively choose it to be on the dance floor of your life experience. If you keep fantasizing about some other dance floor somewhere else, somewhere that you think exists after the completion of another task, then you will never come to the experience of living. Life is meant to be lived, not completed. Yes it will complete, but that is not the point. Slow your mind down, breathe, feel, receive and find your yes to this very second. Fall in love with this moment. Presence is nothing other than being in love. In love-ness is where you see and know magic and where you come alive inside of life.
Dr. Amanda Love, Network Spinal Chiropractic & Somato-Respiratory Integration, Boulder, Colorado
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