Life is a theatre. We are here to sit back, relax and enjoy the play. But if life is really that simple, then why do so many people find their lives boring, difficult & unexciting? The reason is that in order to enjoy the play of life, there is a task we have to complete. The task is to remove all the curtains, walls and hurdles that are preventing you from watching and listening the play of life holistically.
But where did these limitations come from?
During our childhood, we were enjoying every moment, being playful and happy. Life was so much fun, so simple, it did not matter to us what time it was.
What has happened to us since then? As we grow older, we acquire conditioning, habits, and behaviours shaped by others and the culture around us. Slowly, we lose touch with our true self, and forget the joy of being in the present moment. We start living by regret of the past and the worry of the future. We start putting ourselves into boxes wanting to become this or that; Architect, Engineer, Doctor or start seeing ourselves by merely our achievements. then the rat race starts in our minds and we start to live a life of competition and misery. Our ego becomes bigger and bigger, and we start to see ourselves through the eyes of our achievements and our limitations; ‘I have done this, and this, and this too’ Then we start fitting ourselves into fixed patterns and behaviours as per the expectations of others, pleasing others and living in the worry of what others will think, and we become so afraid to live a simple joyful life thinking that it is not normal. To deal with our anxiety and fear, we start running behind the so-called fake security of food, shelter, material wealth, etc. Then, we start associating ourselves with our body, relationships and materials that we have acquired over several years, experiencing cycles of happiness and sadness based on certain external situations in our life. We keep on adding various curtains and hard walls on top of our beautiful play – slowly taking us further away from the in depth of holistic experience of our life theatre.
It is quite a common question to ask a child – ‘What do you want to become, when you grow up? Adults do not understand how much damage and bombardment of social conditioning they are doing on joyful children by asking this question again and again. Adults being slaves of their own conditioning of insecurity, impose the same mindset on joyous children. Adults need to be awakened that human beings are not things like a table or a chair, or any physical material – we do not become something and remain fixed and unchanged forever. We are living beings, ever moulding, ever evolving – we are supposed to flow – live and take action according to the changing situations around us. We are here to live in every moment and flow like a river, not to become stagnant like a pond, and stay fixed like inanimate things.
But now the question arises that who will give you the purpose and motivation to drive you further to enjoy the grand life theatre? How will you get all the energy to remove the layers of curtains and thick walls? Any lasting change requires energy, and that energy can be obtained from external or internal motivation. External energy is experienced by everyone – it drives you to achieve something, impress others, run behind money, fame, power. Once you obtain your goal, the energy vanishes and gets converted into something else externally…. Making it a never ending process and trapping us in a vicious cycle. We are well aware of the anxiety, competition, sadness and all other negative consequences of driving ourselves from external energy.
On the other hand, internal energy is driven from within you, out of love of just being in the moment. It is a renewable energy that you can harness as much you want, whenever you want and as long you need it for. You forget yourself, the culture or any external situation around you. This game of life becomes so exciting when you are able to find that intrinsic energy.
How does one explore to find that internal energy? It is possible by turning your own hurdles into possibilities, by seeing problems as learning opportunities, and by being curious and open to challenges. You can Design your life into Problem Based Learning.
Take any given real problem of your life, find several ways to deal with it, experiment and learn from selected pilot trails. It is going to be an exciting game to resolve a problem. Remember not to identify yourself with the problem – that is not you. See yourself as a character in the play dealing with the problem, finding ways to resolve it, and finally learning by doing it in the moment.
Let everyone’s own problems drive their internal energy to experience the wonderful theatre play of life. I salute your curiosity to explore the best of your potential.