Why should you enjoy the experience rather than the medium of experience?
There is a very thin line between the two
A couple ‘M’(Man) and ‘W’(Woman) have planned to go for a movie in the weekend. This has been a long awaited date for both as ‘M’ has been so busy recently in his new project. Even though ‘M’ is not able to spare some time for her, ‘W’ has not taken it seriously and waited for the next best moment to enjoy the date. Let us see what happened next.
Instance 1: ‘M’ wanted to go for the movie later as there is no good movie in the town right now. The movie selected by his partner for the date has already got bad reviews and he is least hopeful of a fair experience of his date, leave alone a great experience. He left the home already with a bad mood and his partner could not make it to the theatre on time. His mood got worsened and he was not happy to receive a gift presented to him by ‘W’. The environment between them has now become unpleasant and that got reflected in the entire date night. The distance which ‘W’ was waiting to reduce between them this evening has become wider now.
Instance 2: In a parallel world, ‘M’ is ready to use this opportunity to close the distance between him and his partner, to whom he could not spare time these days. He want to use this opportunity to its full capacity. He has been thinking about this evening for the last two days. He did not care which movie he is going to watch or for the point that whether he is going to watch the movie from the beginning. Also, he was excited to receive the gift from her. All he could think and wait for is his partner and the moments he is going to record in the memory book of his heart along with her. The evening has been amazing and the relationship between the two has reached its zenith again.
Let me reveal to you now why the results in both the instances are poles apart. It is because, ‘M’ has given importance to the medium of experience( movie, gift) in the first instance, whereas the ‘M’ in the second instance, has given significance to the experience(watching the movie with his partner, receiving a surprise gift from her)itself. Hence, ‘M’ in the second instance is happier than the clone of ‘M’ in the first instance.
1. Cherish the experience
You will be happy only when you focus on living the experiences that life presents rather than the materialistic things which are used just as medium of the experience. If you concentrate on the medium of experience, you will always feel short of the outcome that results from the experience. As a result, you can never feel contented in your little life.
It is like expecting the compensation hike that the promotion brings rather than enjoying the experience of being promoted. It is like looking at the peak of the mountain on which you stand rather than cherishing the breathtaking view of a valley. And finally it is like looking for the comforts a new place provides you rather than loving the experience of new place, its people, and their culture.
Material things can never satisfy the needs of your physical body. The only way to be happy is to satisfy your soul with the wonderful experiences.
2. Relish the Journey
A wise man once told this
“A destination, no matter how beautiful, is of no use, if you could not record the journey in your memory and enjoyed every mile of it”
This is true to the core. It is very motivating to reach the goal, but what lessons you learnt and pass to the coming generations if you could not focus on experiencing the journey. How could you know what wrong turns you have taken, and how to avoid them in future. What next after reaching a beautiful destination? You will feel excited for a few seconds, enjoy the place for the next couple of minutes and eventually feel bored to stay at that place unless you decided to move on to the next destination. But, the irony is you haven’t experienced the previous journey, so you should start facing the same problems, same wrong turns, and then again learn from it to reach the goal.
This process is not only time consuming, but also require the same effort every time.
“The process of reaching a goal takes longer than standing at the goal. So, you should start enjoying the journey of reaching to the goal to be happy for the major portion of your life. For those who could not enjoy their journey, even the destination seems dull”
3. Be Mindful
Our life is a race. You would not take another second before agreeing with my statement, which is wrong according to me. Life is not a race, life is a journey.
A journey where you take numerous wrong turns, reverse back, learn something, unlearn something, keep on trying in the pursuit of perfection which you never reach in your lifetime.
Contrary to this concept, everyone sees life as a trained hound running in the pursuit of a thief. Once the goal is reached, we do not know what to do with that achieved goal. We even do not remember the experience of achieving that goal. This happens because we do not have a habit of being mindful while doing things because the mind keeps on poking you to worry about the future.
While planning for the future is important, enjoying the present moment is equally important for a sane and happy mind.
Do not think about something which is not going to happen in a distant future. Try to be in this moment and enjoy it.
