Are you living by accident?
Transformation, change, evolution, are the universe’s greatest gifts and you are the sole instrument of change in your life. Are you ready to stop living by accident, to seize your day and begin living on purpose, living your ideal life?
Carpe diem!
Directly translated these Latin words, read as seize the day, and the most simplistic rendering of its meaning might be “to make the most of the present”, another may be “to do today what you could leave until tomorrow”.
Yet in this simple ideal lies a key to converting ‘the day’ to ‘my day’. Starting with accepting that this powerful evocation cares not for past or future; for the should haves, could haves, would haves of yesterday, or the what-ifs of tomorrow. It cares only for today, and more significantly, it cares for the only moment in which you truly exist – NOW.
STOP!!
Take a deep breath, as deep as you can. Feel it flow all the way in, down into your gut and then filling up your chest. Now seize it, hold it in for as long as you require.
What is going on for you right now? What is your reaction to this state?
Your body, muscles, bones, is there pain, or relief? Can you feel what each of your toes are doing? Where, and when, is your mind at? Yesterday, tomorrow, a moment ago, later today? What is it pondering, or telling you, begging you, thanking you?
What emotions are building in your lungs and solar plexus and rising out of the pressure?
Can you go deeper? Can you glimpse, past all the things fighting to fill up your body, your mind, your life, anything you know with every fibre of your being is what you were put on the Earth to do?
When you let this breath go, take note of how you exhale, how your being lets go of this moment. Did you choose to release it, calmly preparing for your next breath? Did it burst out of you leaving you panting and glad that’s over? Maybe a little of both…
Go back to where I asked you to breath in and note I specified you only had to hold it for as long as you required. How many of you found yourselves straining, eyes bugging out as you fought to hold it for as long as you possibly could?
Now take this experience and try to recall the last significant decision you have made.
Do you remember how you felt making it? What your body and mind were doing in that moment? Was that decision an active choice on your part, adding value to your life and those around you, even if that choice was to hold still and wait?
Was it a reaction to a situation, escaping a predicament?
Were you left feeling calm, resolved and ready for your next breath or panting and breathless?
Or did you bury your head in the sand and just hold your breath to the exclusion of all else?
Maybe a little bit of everything…?
So, Carpe Diem – Seize the day!!
Perhaps this can be tweaked slightly for a greater ownership to – Seize my day!
Which brings its power into every single moment freeing us to make a choice and act even when life may be spinning out of control. You can choose to seize your day! Seize it back from circumstance, from environment, from unrealistic expectation.
And though the word seize can seem aggressive, in its purest form, this word is about actively holding, pausing and resetting before choosing next action. I would see the calling in of Seize my day as evoking a bullet-time, super slow motion, effect to your situation. Take the pause, however brief, focus on your breath, and centre yourself then consider what about the situation is of you and decide if it aligns with your deeper calling and if it is adding or taking value and then proceed accordingly.
So, let’s try again. Breath in deeply and hold it for as long as you require. Feel in this instant the opportunity to explore who you are, how you succeed, fail and try again, and ultimately who you are, what you live for and how you want to be.
“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love …”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
– Real Brother, Mark Robertson
