beautifully written! can say i'm going through the same thing i.e productivity over presence. How do you think i can start to gradually change that? I thankfully don't push my feelings away..
I love this Eri! I was thinking the same thing. Not being present means that we aren’t really there while our life is happening. While we are on a task, we aren’t thinking about that task, we are thinking what we are going to do next or for the rest of the day. As a result, we aren’t enjoying anything, we are only counting what should be done. I loved the part about where we need to relearn to sit with our feelings, totally relatable. Not sure how though, so need to relearn.
i loved this post sm - thank you for sharing. also i do the EXACT same thing in pilates (will report back how many times i checked after my class this eve - wish me luck!!).
Erifili, this was brilliant, thank you. I love this line: "Completing your step goal, logging your books read and movies watched, turning everything into something measurable and quantifiable and somehow into a marker for progress. Progress towards what? Towards being more productive? Having checked more boxes? Whatever that means. Because it’s definitely not progress towards living a better life."
I'm guilty of the step count pursuit to the point where I'll be in my bathroom late at night walking in circles to hit that magic number, get that magic pop of dopamine when my watch congratulates me. For what! you so rightly ask...
And the most sinister of all, 8-year-olds and short-form video content. I shudder to think what that's really doing to their impressionable minds, and continue to feel immensely grateful to have experienced those sticky teenage years when social media was practically fetal.
"I guess we’re not really taught to value presence, neither is it something that society shows you is ‘rewarding’. Productivity is valued a lot more than presence, and the cost of that is that productivity favors our output-obsessed culture while presence favors people experiencing fuller lives."
This is the problem - are we acting from a place of what we individually find rewarding, or are we too focused on what society and others think? I love this idea of presence enabling a fuller life - one that is centred in abundance and the energy and time of now. Now is all we ever have. Productivity is all about output, whereas presence is about input to ourselves. Stillness can speak louder than movement, and it's where the small whispers and nudges can be found.
so relatable and well written, deriving meaning from progress is such a double edged sword
Thank you for reading 💗
beautifully written! can say i'm going through the same thing i.e productivity over presence. How do you think i can start to gradually change that? I thankfully don't push my feelings away..
I think practice makes perfect - meditation can help start this at the beginning!!
I just know that, as an overthinker, whenever I allow myself to be in the present moment, my mind becomes quiet and my soul feels at ease.
Thanks for sharing that Erifili
loved reading this!
I love this Eri! I was thinking the same thing. Not being present means that we aren’t really there while our life is happening. While we are on a task, we aren’t thinking about that task, we are thinking what we are going to do next or for the rest of the day. As a result, we aren’t enjoying anything, we are only counting what should be done. I loved the part about where we need to relearn to sit with our feelings, totally relatable. Not sure how though, so need to relearn.
Thank you so much Rayda I love this comment 💙
i loved this post sm - thank you for sharing. also i do the EXACT same thing in pilates (will report back how many times i checked after my class this eve - wish me luck!!).
Pls report back!!! Thank you for reading angel <3
can confirm i looked at the clock no more than 5 times yesterday 😂
I figured out a way to beat Don't Check the Clock!
No clocks 🤣
Honestly I wish there wasn’t one in the studio hahahah
Yeah it's not exactly in the spirit of being mindful haha
Benefitting from the attention economy by actually being present, doesn't seem hard until you try it..... worthy reminder, thanks.
Thanks for reading :’)
Erifili, this was brilliant, thank you. I love this line: "Completing your step goal, logging your books read and movies watched, turning everything into something measurable and quantifiable and somehow into a marker for progress. Progress towards what? Towards being more productive? Having checked more boxes? Whatever that means. Because it’s definitely not progress towards living a better life."
I'm guilty of the step count pursuit to the point where I'll be in my bathroom late at night walking in circles to hit that magic number, get that magic pop of dopamine when my watch congratulates me. For what! you so rightly ask...
And the most sinister of all, 8-year-olds and short-form video content. I shudder to think what that's really doing to their impressionable minds, and continue to feel immensely grateful to have experienced those sticky teenage years when social media was practically fetal.
I really resonated with this.
"I guess we’re not really taught to value presence, neither is it something that society shows you is ‘rewarding’. Productivity is valued a lot more than presence, and the cost of that is that productivity favors our output-obsessed culture while presence favors people experiencing fuller lives."
This is the problem - are we acting from a place of what we individually find rewarding, or are we too focused on what society and others think? I love this idea of presence enabling a fuller life - one that is centred in abundance and the energy and time of now. Now is all we ever have. Productivity is all about output, whereas presence is about input to ourselves. Stillness can speak louder than movement, and it's where the small whispers and nudges can be found.
Thank you for sharing Erifili!