Here on the Vivisum blog, we often talk about meditation and recognizing what is happening in the present. The entire idea behind this is to take a break from thinking about the past, the future, and even stresses in the moment, to experience the small things that occur in your immediate surroundings. This can often help reduce stress by taking your mind off of the things that are troubling you. However, for this blog I want to speak about something else that may help during those difficult, tiresome work days. Simply put this is gratefulness and more complexly put, this is about wanting what you already have. The most difficult part about all of that is execution. How do you be grateful and want something that you already have?
I recently spoke to a wise old friend. He mentioned that often times he would find himself wanting something grand, new, exciting, illustrious, novel etc. He would work his ass off to get it and once he had, he felt a huge wave of accomplishment. However, pretty soon he wanted more, and wanted things that were quite frankly out of his immediate reach. He took and step back and wondered where it would end. At what point would he attain a possession, give it up and move onto the next thing. That’s a great question. When will you be satisfied? If you buy a car, will that make you want a Porsche? If you buy a Porsche, will that make you want a Tesla? If you buy a Tesla, will that make you want a Ferrari … and on it goes. The point of this blog is not to say that it’s bad to want things or that you shouldn’t appreciate working towards living a more luxurious lifestyle, but more to say, take a moment to look around at what you have. Take a moment to sit and imagine how all the things in your life make your day to day that much easier. Don’t just think about it, explore it and individualize them. Think about your life without a computer, a phone, a mattress, a lamp, running water, electricity. Think about a scenario in which you wouldn’t have some of these things. After a while, I am sure you will come to understand just how lucky you are. But it’s more than that – it’s more than thinking about yourself as lucky. It’s about recognizing what you have and feeling joy for those things.
After this thought process, I can guarantee you will walk back into the workplace feeling somewhat replenished and energized. Sometimes it can be hard to think like this during times of stress, so start to train yourself to look at every one of your objects, tools, and possessions as something that you want, and not something that you have.
