 The other day I was walking down the street thinking about how many times I've walked there before. I remembered every time I was there thinking of different incidents, different people, even when I was listening two different types of music. I started thinking about “time” and how it changes people. The one and only thing that we don't have control of. The one and only thing we can't change, can't buy.
Really give some thought to how our lives are all based on the plans we make for our future and the lessons we learned from our past mistakes. We plan our future in our minds in the light of our dreams. We study to build our future, and we decide everything considering the mistakes in the past. We constantly think about our future and our past, but what happens in the present?
I did some research about the “living in the moment” cliché that everyone was talking about, and the results were interesting. I actually found a list of “how to”s for living in the moment step by step. The first step is to take notice of the world around you, which requires finding beautiful things around you no matter what you are doing or where you are. The second step is to focus on what you're doing. This step involves paying attention to the senses. Whatever you're doing just focus on how it makes you feel. The third step seems absurd but that's what it was written on the Web site that I found (so I'm going to stick with the programme): smile when you wake up because “you can set the tone of appreciation and awareness for the next 24 hours by simply waking up and smiling.” The forth step includes committing random, spontaneous acts of kindness which will eventually affect you in a good way so that you feel better about yourself. The other step is minimizing the activities that decrease your awareness of the moment like daydreaming or watching TV for hours. The sixth and the last step is the easiest one: be thankful, which is also very related to the positive thinking attitude that I was talking about in my last column.
After going through the steps and some brain storming we can go back to reality and certainly questions arise in our heads. How can we “live like there's no tomorrow” and not find ourselves wasting time thinking about our mistakes or regrets even if we can not change any of them? How can we “live like there is no tomorrow” when all we want to do is waste time doing nothing? How can we “live” when we always postpone things in our minds? What is the reverse psychology behind it?
Is it efficient for us to live in the moment rather than living in the future? Is it beneficial not to think about either past or future and just think about the present? The suggestion I will be giving is “go with the flow.” It's better than getting lost in the past and getting drunk from the dreams of future.
I'm completing the last column of the semester with some inspired quotation by Harvey MacKay. Have a nice break.
“Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it you can never get it back.”
By Nazlý Çelebi (ECON/IV)
n_celebi@ug.bilkent.edu.tr
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