Take time to enjoy the little things

Modern Life - learning to enjoy the little things

I start this essay with a term that means so many different things to so many different people. What is the definition of modern life for you? Does the term bring with it negative connotations or positive ones? Does it encompass your whole being, or just your daily mundane tasks?   

For me, modern life means the way we as humans, in a sweeping generalisation, now live compared to previous generations. With advancement in technology, and as a result fundamental shifts in the 9-5 mentality, changes in the economy and the modern family unit (read: separated/co-parenting) becoming more widely accepted, things are far far different in our world than they were for our parents – both good and bad.

I call this controlled chaos.

Take the kids to school, go to work, run a couple of errands on your lunch-break, assist at school, complete homework with use of the internet, cook-dinner, run dog, take a work call, make lunches, calm a child down after waking from a bad dream, watch maybe an hour of TV – then head to bed.

Wake up and repeat. Somewhere in there will be sports (for yourself and your kids), playdates (again, for yourself and your kids!), sleepovers and handovers (back to Mum). And we wonder, Why am I feeling stressed all the time?

OK, so that’s the week gone again. Did I find any time for myself in there???

I completely love this way of living (as I am sure many others do) but there is often that nagging feeling that permeates all the great busy-ness of our day-to-day modern lives – where did that day/week/month/year go and do I actually remember anything from it that will serve me well, mentally, for the future?

So it is here where I share the good stuff – 

Yes it has been said countless times before, but that’s because it is true – we really all need to take time to breathe, sit (or lie J) and just look, and appreciate.

This may come in many forms – a scenic view perhaps, or a piece of furniture you have had for years but have only now just appreciated by looking, that poem or picture your child completed at school and has given you today (as they did yesterday and the day before that), your dog, those trees outside your house where all those bird noises come from, the way your partners eyes move when they speak of a particular subject or maybe just the way your car gleams just so when you park it in your driveway on that angle.

It takes a while to wire your brain to think this way, that is, when these great little things are happening, to not just let them happen and continue onto your next task, but to look, listen and soak up what you are seeing. But once you have mastered it, you find yourself taking a huge breath, and thanking yourself for taking the time to digest these very moments.

Everything else becomes irrelevant, and for that few minutes or even seconds in time its just that thing you’ve noticed, and you, who exist in the entire universe.

A grand notion maybe, but one that has really started to work for me.

A view is always a great excuse to try this – just look at it and breathe. This morning I woke up at my partners house and proceeded to start my morning routine of berocca, putting-on suit and hitting the road – in a rush as always. As I paced around looking for my shoes, I was handed a coffee, and the curtains were drawn to reveal banks peninsula (looking out over Lyttelton Harbour) in all its sunny, blue-sparkling-water glory.

I stopped, I sat, and I looked. Minutes passed.

My appreciation for this natural beauty had completely slowed me down, and made me realise, I had no need to be rushed or stressed.

So for me, this is the good stuff. The little things. The things that make you realise that, really, there is more than just getting through the day.

There is living and appreciating the day.