Living Life Consciously
Forty years from now, you will nostalgize about today. You will think back to the present moment, recalling how youth was full of choices and hopefulness. You will marvel at how blissfully uninformed you were about what the future held in store for you. The life you live right now will be a distant, golden memory.
Knowing how much you will value these days when you are older, how can you allow yourself to hurry through life? How can you not realize that every shred of your short existence is valuable? Each time you notice your days disappearing into an anonymous past, it should become more evident that you need to be living life as consciously as possible.
We all wonder sometimes about the purpose of life; often, we do so because we are searching for a way to justify death. And yet, the only way to understand death is to fully experience our everyday lives. Living life consciously involves thoughtful observation – not just of the outside world, but of our inner life. We should be taking note of our sense of identity at a particular time – our level of confidence, our anxieties, our far-flung wishes. If we have some record of our state of being at a given point in time, we can observe our personal evolution and ultimately gain some insight into our patterns and purpose.
And yet, as arduous as it may seem to keep track of all of our internal and external events, the feat can be achieved easily if we simply relax our definition of time. If we can view time as an invention of humans – and therefore not as linear and infinitely-accumulating as it seems in the abstract – we realize that life, and memory, are our collage to paste together however we wish. All the clues we need to figure out life’s meaning come from examining the collage as a whole and finding patterns of passion, compulsion, and purpose.
Therefore, experience the present vividly as it unfolds. In an ecstatic moment, allow the chemicals in your brain to percolate. Taste the pleasure as it pours out. In a bitter moment, allow the pins of pain to push through you. Fight the urge to close your eyes. Imbibe and absorb your emotions as if you were a child experiencing them for the first time. It is only through active involvement in your life, however exciting or mundane, that you can start to draw conclusions about why you are here.
In the end, this kind of conscious existence will give you far more solace than even the most successful unexamined life. For only those who have a clear vision of living can accept their passage into the next expanse.
8 Comments
My perspective is really weird, I dont know why it is this way. But the main reason for me to contemplate the meaning of life and to hold on to nostalgic memories is because of the people I love. I don’t fear my passing, but I fear the passing of those I deeply care about, and those who have made a significant difference in my life… Because every present moment passes by so fast, that the moment you feel the present it has already become the past. From that, it really feels like a dream, the present moment. And whenever I look back, I see clearly at the beautiful things the ones I love do for me, instead of this constant blur of the present. And then I wonder how long this is going to last, how long I can keep doing this… Until the day I look back and I no longer see them there. But is it even humanly possible to live the present, in our daily repetitive, mundane lives? You say to allow your senses to make you feel as if you’ve felt it the first time. What will a normal person feel, though, to the same office, the same lecture room, the same faces of coworkers, of friends, of loved ones? How can you live in the moment that just seems to repeat, and through repetition we have become desensitized from our surroundings? Maybe this is the reason why people seem to take things for granted. Maybe ones who keep seeing the present as a blur have not the opportunity or given themselves a chance to experience what life really should be.
Dear Evan,
This essay is quite lavishly. I don’t know if you are going to see this comment or not, but I want to talk to you about your compositions. I really hope you could give me some minutes from your time. You probably think who I am and what exactly I want from you. Well, I’m a 16 year old girl who wants to pass the SAT exam and needs some advice from such an expert as you. My id is evstar_eve14, hope we can chat someday.
Best regards,
Evelyne
Dear Evan,
You have a wonderful ability to get points accross through your use of vocabulary. After reading this, I became curious about what your views are about life after death. In all of your knowledge, what have you come to conclude about heaven?? Do you ever talk to God, or to yourself instead? You have touched many lives. Keep inspiring!! 
Wow. You are so inspiring Evan. About me. I am 15 years old right now. I do not really know what the Peter Pan Syndrome, although I am planning to research about it and make a speech about it for my Academic Decathlon club. I am 15 years old but sometimes, I think I have this “Peter Pan Syndrome”. I feel like I have wasted away these 15 years of my so-called “life”. I’ve been living in my head truly all these years. I would make up a fantasy world in which I really live and where I would be a hero. It’s like playing with my imagination. I know it sounds so childish, but at my age, I still have imaginary friends and I talk to them a lot and lose myself. I haven’t told anyone because I feel so ashamed and embarrassed. I feel like the world I have created in my head is like an escape for me - an escape from reality and life that I am too scared, too sad, too tired, and too lazy to change for the better. It’s so difficult for me to live consciously and distinguish fantasy and reality, but I know that if I do, I will achieve so much more than whatever I am doing right now. I feel so lost, Evan. Do you have any tips? Thank you so much for making this site Evan. I don’t know you and we might never meet, but you have helped me and inspired me a lot. Thank you.
Well, I actually think for my past (my childhood, ages 0-12) as something that wasn’t so long ago, and it helps.
I really like this piece of writing. It explained a lot to me. Thanks for writing it!
Hi Evan! I just want to thank you for sharing your thoughts through this site. It is really helpful and inspiring.
Hey, Evan:
Do you have a site link for something on Peter Pan Syndrome? I’d really appreciate it if you could put it on a blog soon. No one’s really blogging right now, so I feel a bit lonely. No one around where I live (that I know of) has PPS, so I don’t have anyone to talk to. Thanks for the brilliant site, Evan. You’re a fabulous writer!!
-Tinker Bell
Yo, guys! I’m in luck!!!! I found a girl my age who believes in faires, Santa, and Peter Pan!! You wouldn’t believe how ecstatic I am!!!
Hey! Great site! My situation is a bit different to yours: I am 38 (could be your older brother or even your dad…LOL) but my fantasies evolve around retrieting to my twenties, not to infancy. I don’t dwell with fantasy worlds like you describe, and the photos that you Evan posted though very beautiful, are not inspiring to me in the same way.
Nonetheless, I do feel captivated/shocked by movied like The Beach (starred by Leonardo Di Caprio) or American Beauty (Kevin Spacey). My mental wandering is more of a nostalgia of bygone era of backpacking around my country and the world, meet wonderfull people, visit breathtaking places, learn a lot….
Maybe I should coin another movie character (Joey Tribiani from Friends??)to reflect my fantasies, but for the time being at least I hope be accepted here and share with you.
Dear Evan,
I love your site. I completely can relate to what you are saying. I was wondering though if there was some serious studies, books, research I can look at - psychological, philosophical, social, anthropological… about this version of the Peter Pan Syndome.
I would really like to look into it and see how its interpreted professionally.
plz reply asap,
thanks again for the site,
regards
rain