Life is a tumultuous journey for all creatures walking the face of the earth. It is a race for survival and existence, but with time the needs and wants of man have evolved drastically effecting a boost in non-essential items and luxuries that can only be accessed by the wealthy or the more affluent people of our society. The world has become a very unjust, and biased place to survive in terms of financially and ethically as well. Among all the chaos of the world, people have become engrossed in a futile rat race. Chasing after what we believe to be happiness, pursuing tales and fabrications made by the world around us, and ultimately realizing all is in vain and happiness is not just a matter of materialistic pleasure but it involves a lot of spiritual and mental satisfaction and gratitude as well.
We too are part of this vicious circle of life, where we will only come to realize our trifling struggles throughout our lifetime have gotten us nothing but the bitterness at the end of the day for not living life to its best while we could have. A quote that touched me in ways that none others have is “Carpe Diem” also known as ‘seize the day’ by the infamous movie ‘The Dead Poet’s Society’. Many quotes and sayings emphasize the need to live in the moment and enjoying the moment your experiencing. But the absolute ignorance we give to the simple joys and pleasures in life is detrimental to our well-being and how we will devise our future.
The words “mysa” and “hygge” are two words that reveal the pure delights in life elegantly. “mysa” is a Swedish word to express the pleasure and comfort of being at home, then the term “hygge” defines the act of enjoying simple things in life that we overlook on a day-to-day basis because of our bustling lifestyles. What have we taken for granted as a human being? In simple terms, Everything. We as humans take everything that comes our way for granted. Be it the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we ingest, and the people we encounter. If you’re a busy individual going back and forth from work and home to different places you would barely have time to appreciate the company of your family, loved ones, and to have some tranquil moment for yourself. You would be longing for a chance to be home. But when you are granted the chance to linger at home as a result of the current pandemic you would have an abundance of unoccupied time in your hands to do whatever your heart pleases. But yet you would be yearning to go out and get back to your hectic lifestyle as you are wary of being home. The proverb “absence makes the heart grow fonder” fits the context perfectly as we tend to crave for things when we lose them, that is a consequence of taking things for granted while we have them. During the pandemic majority of us are desiring a particular form of living before the pandemic. It could be going out to meet friends, going to work, school, university, going to purchase groceries, not fretting about wearing masks, sanitizing and social distancing continually, the simple privilege of going out of your house are things we have taken granted though we did not realize. Being inside locked doors for a long period may have ignited a spark of curiosity in you to follow your heart and engage in leisurely activities that you did not have the time to do before the pandemic. Taking time to prepare your meals, read a book, listen to music without any interruption, compose a painting, watch a movie, exerting time to attend to your loved ones and spend quality time with them, enjoying a cup of tea or coffee in the chilly morning are things that you can start appreciating every day instead of looking forward to spending extravagantly to gain a momentary sense of happiness. Understanding happiness, content, and comfort can be reached at any place, even at the comfort of your own home by yourself is vital for the personal and spiritual growth of a person.
An act of appreciating and being grateful for the meal that is put in front can be seen in the Japanese culture. The Japanese will use the term “Itadakimasu” before each meal which simply means “to eat and receive”. This is an imperative part of Japanese culture to thank everything and everyone involved in the preparation of a meal. Another part of the society that says thankyou before a meal is Christians. They would proceed to say Grace before or after a meal to acknowledge and appreciate the meal. These are acts of gratitude that we as humans should incorporate in our lifestyles. This does not mean we need to serve these exact procedures but we can start appreciating the effort that takes to put a meal on the table three times a day every day to keep us alive and healthy. To appreciate the cup of coffee you drink every morning to feel awake. What we don’t see is the process that takes to manufacture the ingredients for your meal or your coffee and the long hours it takes to be harvested, prepared, distributed, stored in hygiene conditions fit for consumption takes up to months and the process requires a lot of laborers along the way to create your daily life much more pleasant. Once you start noticing the efforts put by everyone involved in making you that cup of tea to the point you drink it, you will not look at life the same way you viewed it earlier.
Minimalism became a life-altering movement in recent years because of characters like Marie Kondo who came up with the Konmari method of decluttering that took the world by surprise. This method had been practiced from the early days in East Asia as a lifestyle though it was given recognition much later in the years. Though at present there are many adaptations of minimalism and incentives for taking part in this lifestyle, being a minimalist allows a person to be grateful at the utmost level to the items they possess. A minimalistic lifestyle empowers you to have the bare essentials and to de-clutter constantly. This means you can only own the things that you would use daily and donate or discard things you have not utilized. This would result in owning a minimum number of items in a household and therefore raising the value of each item. Being grateful even for the smallest thing in life can be a beneficial step to perceive life. It would open your eyes to an unconventional approach of perceiving. ‘The Monk who sold his Ferrari’ by Robert Sharma and the ‘Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho are two books that remind me of being content with simple joys in life that would make excellent readings to transform the way you view life.
