A Life That's Memorable - YoM Day 355

Eleven months ago I began a journey of practicing mindfulness every day and we've reached day 355. Yesterday, I talked about getting picking ourselves up after any fall. Today is a new day. 

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." - Maya Angelou

A common fear people have is that they think their lives are boring. We all have our own unique experience so drawing comparisons with each other is a bit tricky, but despite us going through a roller coaster of emotions on a daily basis, we're so used to it that it's easy to forget how much they affect our perception. Whenever we feel strong emotions we tend to remember them more easily. The stronger the response, the more they tend to impact us. Be it movies, books, songs, or even food, what makes anything timeless is how their ability to move us.

Looking back on the most memorable people in my life, they've always been people who had an emotional impact on me. Our actual memories aren't that reliable. What one might remember of an event is likely to be very different from someone else's recollection. That said, the impression we had of someone is something that sticks very well. I may not remember what some of my favorite teachers did that made them so awesome, but I remember enjoying their class and thinking that they really motivated me to do my best. To me, that made them interesting.

One of my goals with life is to live a memorable one. If emotions play a strong role in our memory, then doing things that spark various emotions in me can help me create more vivid and meaningful experiences. However, there's a need to mix things up. If I go and do the same thing and spark the same emotion over and over again, I'd eventually not be able to distinguish them from each other and it causes desensitization. The same way that we get used to anything we do over and over again (habits, routines), over time things lose their efficacy. It's the same effect that lowers our tolerance for medication, substances, etc. The more you do of something, you learn to adapt and the less it impacts you. So doing things that spark different emotions makes life more interesting.

I may not have the crazy-adventure filled life of your typical hero, but I try to live a varied lifestyle. I have a lot of hobbies partly because they bring out different sides of me. Playing piano makes me recognize and let out my feelings. Hiking makes me calm, patient, and still the mind. Meditation makes me look within and slow down my thoughts. Exercise makes me push through my weaknesses and face my doubts head-on. Drawing makes me express my ideas and subconscious thoughts. Dancing makes me let loose and release my raw energies. Writing makes me think about the connections between everything and bring them all together. My life involves a mix of physical and mental activities that each bring out a different side of me. This variety makes life colorful and interesting. 

If the world seems grey and lifeless, trying different things to bring out different parts of you helps you slowly paint a canvas that's unique and truly yours. Seeing and experiencing these different sides is a sort of mental exploration and is what life is about: discovery. Through this discovery we learn about ourselves and what really matters to us. You find purpose; meaning. It doesn't have to be flashy. That alone is interesting.

It's memorable

                                                                                                                  Peace

The meaning is there for us to discover. We just have to go looking for it.