#4: The Present of the Present

The beauty of life is best cherished in the present.

How grateful I am to experience such beauty.

To experience love. 

To experience anxiety. 

To experience joy. 

To experience frustration.

To experience heartbreak. 

To experience fear. 

To experience friends.

The culmination of these minuscule moments is what builds the human experience. I have no expectations or worries about the future; consequently, the present becomes my ENTIRE EXISTENCE. To prescribe myself to the mirage of a "better tomorrow" is to reject all of life's greatest facets. Death is not the discontinuation of a beating heart but the loss of appreciation for the present (your existence). Thus, to form a casual relationship with the present is practically suicide. 

Lucid LIVING

I don't know how or why, but since I was a kid, I have only been able to lucid dream. These dreams are very evocative; while I'm dreaming, I feel all physical sensations like touch and pain. So even if I woke up from a death by a million spiders, I'd do it all over again. Why?

Because the appeal to lucid dreaming is the same as alcohol, drugs, and your favorite pastimes: IT ALLOWS YOU TO FULLY IMMERSE YOURSELF IN THE MOMENT.

In theory, becoming endlessly present would allow one to live a dream-like reality. This utopian reality can only come to fruition when you alter your relationship with the present. Consider how different life would be if you began appreciating the most mundane and negligible moments. 

my magnum opus(ish)👍🔥💯

Feeling Alive = Being Present 

Being present soothes the burning itch of feeling alive. Many live their lives on autopilot, never to appreciate the exhilarating idea of an existence predestined to them. There is no do-over or alternate timelines. This is your life. It is not your duty to pass judgment prematurely on how your life is planned. Embrace life and all its chaos, as there is much to learn in times of chaos. Be present in chaos.

Yes, bad things happen. But if it does not kill you, then it gives you life. If you think your life sucks, rebuttal by pointing out that descriptive adjectives are comparative. Your life "sucks" because you have prescribed a negative connotation to the events in comparison to others. COMPARISON IS THE THIEF OF JOY. Why say categorize it as bad? It is life. Stop thinking about what your life could be and appreciate what it is. And if it is another life you desire, leverage the present to fulfill yourself. Understand that the present is heavily contingent on your perspective of it. So ROMANTICIZE THE FUCK OUT OF IT. 

art?

Make the culmination of your experiences into a metaphysical representation of an art room. Unclassify experiences as "good" or "bad"; anything can be sold as art if you put it under a studio light in an art gallery. Reframe the way you view situations. Instead of relentlessly pondering over your past mistakes, realize the present is the embodiment of opportunity. Another opportunity to learn. Another opportunity to become stronger. Another opportunity to laugh. Another opportunity to chase a bag. 

It is extremely enticing to live an original experience. Why would you ever want to be someone else? Fall in love with the way your life is panning out; you’ll slowly build an appreciation for your story.

Let the present seduce you, and never leave her.

You will never feel more alive.

As always, I urge you to challenge my beliefs.

-Z.Y.