The first step in the path to Self-Fulfillment

Technological advancements allows us the luxury of living more expeditiously by cutting down on the time required to do things. A antiquated mechanical car allows us to travel quickly to our work place, the microwave cuts down our cooking time by ninety-nine percent and emails allows us to send our message over unlimited distances within seconds. This should allow us to have more time to take advantage of the things which really matters, so why doesn't it?

Every technological step forward is two steps back away from family, friends, nature and from ourselves. We connect to the internet and disconnect from reality. We have things that benefit our lives and allows us to have more of this free time which is then spent clicking the hours away. The internet, television shows and game consoles all offer us the distractions that takes up the most of our this free time. It seems that so many people seek fulfillement in with an unsatiable appetite in these things. Many now prefer to communicate digitally over long distances rather than face to face, deals are made though emails and contracts are done through faxes rather than handshakes. We somehow isolate ourselves in our homes never really taking advantage of the time that is available to us, we just turn on the tv and shut off our minds then wonder why we feel unfulfilled.

We spend a third of our lives sleeping, which means that if you die at the age of eighty you will have only been conscious for fifty-three years, out of which you will have worked half of that leaving you with twenty-six point six years for leisure activities. This is but a rough estimate and is not considering the first years of life, time spent at school or doing homework and etc... but it gives us a rough estimate how much of this “free time” we have in our lives. Of course nothing is ever really free and since time is ever moving forward means that we are always inching towards the inevitable end of this human experience which makes time is the most valuable thing we have. So how do we choose to take advantage of this time which is so precious to us, the time we have which allows us to take full advantage of our lives?

The better question should be, why is it that when we have time to focus on what's important we rather choose to distract our minds and turn away from it. It starts early at an early age; the baby cries, so we tune the television what-ever shows disctracts the agitated child. It is much easier to do so than to take the time to understand the child's actual needs. Ironically this seems to be the exact same thing we do later on in life, tune to a channel which distracts us, which is easier than taking the time to understand our actual needs or to deal with actual situations. People often go out in bars with friends to 'socialize' yet they drink to inebriety or smoke drugs to alter perspective then wake up remembering half of the evening at best and they call that a good time.

So why is living such a burden to so many people? Taking the time to make a short film about the plant life that surrounds my home might sound rather boring and tedious to most, perhaps even seen as a waste of time but I would strongly disagree. I was more than overwhelmed just by listening to the many sounds of nature, breathing in the fresh air, feeling the wind against my skin and by simply observing the actual beauty of life. It seems that most people cannot feel this way without some kind of overstimulation which in fact ends up dulling the senses and is what drives them even further away from living.

Taking the time to enjoy life, takes time. There is no quick fix but the path to self-fulfillment is simple. One must first rid the mind and body of all pollution then do something that actually matters. What matters is up to you to decide but I like to visit friends and to share stories and wisdom over a cup of tea, packing some home made food and going for a picnic in nature with the family or simply going for a walk on the beach by myself, taking the time to capture the beauty of life and breathing in the fresh air and clearing the noise from my thoughts until I can hear myself think again. There's nothing more simple than taking the time to awknowledge and enjoy life; what might seem boring to most is exciting to me and what might seem exciting to most actually seems like a waste of time to me.

So the first step to the path to self-fulfillement is rather simple.
Stop, Breathe and Listen.

A walk around my house

Feel free to make any corrections, I'm just learning about these.