How to enjoy the ordinary.

Being able to enjoy the ordinary is a remarkable ability. I would say more important than learning any advanced science or a growth trick. It is true that we can find fulfillment in being extraordinary. Here is an article if you are keen on following that path in life. However, enjoying the ordinary is one ability anyone can master no matter what situation their life is currently in.

Ordinary building

What does it mean to being able to enjoy the ordinary?

When I was at primary school, I used to walk 3.5 km daily from school to home. Through small towns and villages. There was a brook that we followed most of this journey. I can remember the feeling of going through the fields, crossing small log bridges, trying not to fall into the water. I can remember, I loved the grass, and the fish that swam in the water. Whenever there was a pool of water, I would bend down and investigate insects, and fish, maybe notice a crab or two. I saw how the environment changes from city to village, and to city again. This was not by superpower that I enjoyed such walks. If you look at every kid, exploring the world, they have the same ability to enjoy the ordinary world. It is not at all like a bubbling happiness when I receive superior marks for a term test. But it was worth happiness which I can remember even after 30 years of it happening.

It is liberating to be away from news, politics, and advertisements, growth and progress at least for a few minutes a day. To calm down the mind and enjoy some ordinary stuff. Maybe the sound of a cricket, or water falling from the roof into the gutter. Maybe there is a bird out of the window just making some noises. Maybe there is a spider weaving a web in the bush at the side of your garden. Where you have never bothered to step into the last whole year. Do you even know your garden? Do you know what happens on your roof? Outside your window? Do you know how many flowers are there waiting to be blossom in your backyard this year? It is a shame we do not pay attention to the ordinary as we are so busy with extraordinary.

Is Ordinary enough?

Truth is ordinary is enough. In this consumer culture, we cannot lose ourselves in a constant race against our neighbor for consume more. So, much so that we gulp our breakfast and dinner so fast, there is not enough time to chew and feel the taste. This chronic cycle of stress, and more consumption to relieve the stress would only lead us obese and cancerous. There is another dimension to life. And it starts with changing our attitude. Mind is not always diseased, as it has no label attached to it. It possesses the power to enjoy even the ordinary stuff like sunlight. There is no need to travel far, in expensive cruise to reach far corners of Caribbean Islands to look at a tree.

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How to enjoy the ordinary.

Do not judge them comparing with your liking. Just observe ordinary without distortion of judgment. The world is as it is, your judgment is excessive.

So, next time when you pick up the paper to read, try to feel the pages. What does it feel like to hold the paper. What does it feel like to hold a warm cup of coffee? What does it smell like? What does it taste like? Is it taste different from yesterday? Instead of trump news, how sweet is that if you can fill your tired mind with observations of your ordinary life?

Do the people you meet on your way home look happy? Or do they look stressed? If they are in a hurry? What is the color of the train which brings you to work every day? Does it look dirty? How many dogs you met when you walked to your work? Are there clouds, when you go home from work? Do not judge them comparing with your liking.