When you think of focus, what image comes to your mind?
Is it a horse with blinders on and running its own race?
Is it a bird’s eye view that can see more wider than humans can?
What has been your inherited idea of time?
Time is money and so it must not be wasted
Time is life and so it must be utilized fully
Or is it something beyond the two?
In times when productivity trackers, books and apps are trending, putting forth a proposition that one must waste time might seem contradictory. The question that demands attention is why are the very ideas of success, time utilisation, creativity coming up from a masculine point of view. Not male, but masculine.
Is there any other way out or perspective of looking at things?
Having gone through the school system, we all must be familiar with teachers scolding us for not paying enough attention on the blackboard or on what the teacher is teaching. Young children by their very nature are curious, inquisitive and full of wonder in this new world they have stepped into. You must have always come across parents getting fed up and trying to shut down the endless questions of their children, asking them to stick to their books.
I remember an anecdote from my school life. A chief guest was to evaluate essays written by young students and the topic was “My cow”. During the prize distribution ceremony, he put forward an interesting point- “I wonder why does everybody’s cow looks the same colour and does the same things”. He was actually making a point against rote learning.
The point can be taken further to just wonder that if the students had ever been to a cow farm, their essays would be enriched by the vivid experience of such a visit. So did their focused attention serve them? No right. The process of individuation involves walking the paths that are unknown, that are in wild, where there are no milestones marked. It is only then one can truly find oneself.
Only by getting lost can we find ourselves
Only from a dispersed idea of attention can true creativity flow
How else and what else are we supposed to create other than regurgitating the same thoughts we have been raised with?
Same is the idea that goes for meditation practices. Why have we assumed that the same idea of meditation will work for everyone? The picture of cross-legged sitting person with hands on knees don’t need further elaboration. We are so different in constitution. If the goal of meditation is to experience transcendence and connect to Divine, why can this connection not be formed while one is doing a whirling dance, swimming in far shores, or playing music?
We are born spiritual beings and not machines. The constant need to stay relevant, keep producing can take a heavy toll on our life force. It can snub our creativity. We are not one-dimensional beings. We are as much creative beings as we are economic beings. While Maslow might have placed creative fulfilment on the top-most rung of hierarchy of needs, you must have come across individuals who have found belonging on the route of their creative lives. I have known of people who have retrieved their self-esteem from art.
I am reminded of a quote I saw on Tumblr “When you’re a kid, you color with reckless abandon. You color outside the lines. You color however you feel. Blue elephants, purple trees, red bears, green oceans — it’s all good. As you get older, though, everyone tells you to stay inside the lines, to color everything just like you see it. You end up painting by numbers — whether you actually paint or whether you write or sing or act or direct. I think you should create what you feel. Create outside the lines. I want to watch green oceans and red bears. I’d love to listen to purple trees. And I long to read blue elephants.”
-WRDSMTH
So let this be a reminder to live rich lives – Lives where rest and leisure are not luxuries and creativity is not a gift reserved for the few.
Let us live lives filled with wonder, rich with colors and above all a life where we do have time to stop, stand and stare.
Love and light
Yasmin