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Living Life to the Full a blog post by Mommyshravmusings

Are you leading a life of mere existence or living its fullest?

Last week, when I was preparing my notes for a session on Mindfulness for middle schoolers, I got this epiphany about life and how we are living it. It made me introspect about my daily chores and how I lead my life daily. I had this question: “Am I living my life to the fullest form” or not? If I have to recollect what I did last Monday and then compare it to what I will do today, it’s no different. Yes, I agree that as working parents or as a stay at home parents, we have our chores and jobs listed, and they have to be completed to eat and take care of kids and family. But amidst all this humdrum, we can carve out some time for ourselves and make some good memories with ourselves or with friends and family. Only then would there be some meaning to our lives, and we can turn back later and reminisce about these days, right?

Few of us tend to lead our lives on autopilot mode and keep running in parallel with the clocks. Our day starts with the alarm and ends with the notice (setting one up for the next day). All this will be fine until we have children at home or when we are working. But the empty nest syndrome hits us once kids leave home or we decide to take a break from our careers. We will have lots of time on hand and don’t know how to manage our time. That’s when we realize how much we missed in our lives and how empty it feels.

But when we lead our lives in the fullest form, there will not be any emptiness in our life at any point in time. We would be just happy to be ourselves and be ourselves. When you talk to other life coaches, they advise you to practice mindfulness and take some ME time and a lot of stuff. All those things would improve your physical and emotional health and might prolong your lifespan. But, once again, those things would make you busier than ever, and you would hardly get time to sit still. Jack Langdon once said:

The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time

Jack Langdon

If you ask the oldest people living on the earth, they would only recollect their fond memories with their friends and family members. Those sweet memories are the ones that make them keep going. Are you in the habit of making those precious memories daily? I hope now my question of whether you are living your life to the full makes more sense.

Now, I know some of you might be scowling while reading as you tend to see “making memories” as yet another task. After the advent of social media, the job of making memories has moved from the personal to the public view. Now all our memories must be shared on social media, and people must appreciate us for the same. That’s the reason why making memories has become an additional task. But honestly, it need not be viewed as a task if we adopt the “Tiny Habits” philosophy from BJ Frogg and if we decide to keep social media away from those memories.

Our memories need not be picture-perfect, Instagram-worthy pictures. Our memories are for us to cherish and reminiscence at a later date. Our memories are not for us to showcase where we went, where we ate, and what we did! Most memorable moments stay with us in our hearts and not in the pictures we click. Those pictures can’t even capture how we feel at that moment. But those feelings would be there to enjoy and reenjoy later in life.

Related Read: Why It’s OK to be NOT OK

I might sound odd talking about this in today’s social media world. But honestly, how many of you would agree that social media adds stress to us in one way or another? Though we all know it, we still scroll mindlessly on various social media channels and compare ourselves to the posts there.

Tips for living life to the fullest:

My mantra for living life to the full is simple, and its called “AAVAO” Read further as to what AAVAO stands for:

  1. Appreciate Yourself:

Most of the time, we take ourselves as granted. We neither care for our physical health nor our emotional health. We need to be truly honest with ourselves and understand that there are a lot of capabilities and talents in ourselves to be happy and make others happy. After this self-analysis, we will find many ways to be happy and start cherishing every moment.

2. Appreciate the nature around us

Nature and human beings are always interconnected. Spending time in nature always rejuvenates one’s mind. Spending time regularly improves the production of our happiness hormones. We also start becoming more mindful of the moment and positively appreciating life.

Living Life to the Full - A blog post by Mommyshravmusings

3. Value your family members and friends

Sometimes, we take our very close friends or family members for granted. Though we know that our best friend is in the same city, we bring years to meet or talk over the phone. The same is the case with our family members. Instead, if we take a little time to talk to the people who are close to us and mean a lot to us, then that tiny conversation would refill our energy levels.

4. Act now and stop procrastinating:

Most of us get stuck in the planning stage only. We want to wait for the right moment to go for that ideal vacation, buy that furniture or even have that special dinner with family. During this waiting process, we forget that time keeps flying away, snatching many more precious moments from us. Only when we start acting will those moments begin to belong to us. We need not wait for the next big thing to happen; we can begin celebrating even small stuff. Just being together can be a celebration if we think about it.

5. One small step at a time:

I told myself I would start acting on this resolution tomorrow, the following Monday, or next month. That day will come and go, but my answer used to stay the same there itself, without me taking action. Only after reading the “Tiny Habits” from BJ Fogg did I realize that the problem doesn’t lie in my procrastination but in the lofty goals I set for myself. Once I started breaking them into tiny actionable steps, I started implementing them immediately without much further ado. So taking those small steps matter if we want to convert our lives from mere existence into living life to the full.

Parting Thoughts:

All these steps might overwhelm you if you start thinking of them as a whole. But implementing them as tiny habits will help you have a healthy routine. Remember that “Rome was not built in a single day,” and we can’t go from living a life of mere existence to living the energy to the full in a single day. It takes time and effort to make these changes happen.

QOTD: What is that one tiny habit/step that you would start implementing in order to make more memories and start living life to its fullest?

Suhasini, IP, is the Author of the book “Practical Tips for Kids Mental Health.” As a certified kids and parents life coach, she helps/guides you toward a happy family life for your kids. She firmly believes that “Emotionally Happy Kids of today are the Mentally Strong and Happy Citizens of tomorrow.” Let’s make the world a happy and beautiful place for our kids to thrive.

3 Comments

  1. Enjoyed reading your article suhasini. We must take small steps to achieve big success in life, Anyway, currently I am living my life to the fullest. Thanks for this post.

    1. Thank you Susan for dropping by to read my blog post. Yes, am glad to hear that you are enjoying every moment in your life

  2. […] might want to decide for yourself as to whether you are leading your life to the fullest or […]

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