I have come to a point where the answer to this question is: exactly the same as every other day. That is not to say that I do the same things every day. But I love the way I live my life every day. It is not about what I do, it is about my mindset, it is about how much I open my heart and it is about what I allow myself to experience. Every day I find happiness in the small things, not because I look for it but just because I find it.
I find stillness in meditation that allows me to appreciate the subtlest feelings that arise. I find connection in encounters with strangers and I find lessons in deep conversations. I find curiosity in seeing new places and seeing new things in places I have been countless times before. I find beauty in breathtaking views as much as in garden flowers in a field of grass. I find joy in birds flying into my apartment to eat from the crumbs in our carpet. I find liberation in riding a bicycle without destination. I find inspiration in reading texts that capture my worldview in sentences, making sense of things I sensed without realizing I ever did, thereby teaching me about myself as if I myself am a book of which the wind just turned a page. And a new chapter begins.
I find happiness in the small things because I stopped looking for the big things.
And yes, sometimes I do big, incredible things. I do hikes with fantastic views and unplanned parts of rock climbing that make adrenaline rush through my body, to go surfing afterwards on a day when everything is just perfect. The waves are smooth like butter, I feel comfortable in the water, I catch the drops and manage to make turns, I meet local surfers that share with me their secret spots, I see a turtle and a seal and the sunset is breathtaking. But on other days it is raining, clouds block the view of our hike, I get stung by a bee and I am cold all the way. And later when surfing I tumble, I swallow salt water, the waves are too big or I just feel uncomfortable, my foot hits the reef and I bleed or my board hits my nose and it turns out to be broken, the car won’t start, the parking lot is full and I forgot my key so I have to walk 4 floors down with surfboard to get to the lobby.
Yes, I feel more thrilled and ecstatic on the first day and on the second day I feel a bunch of other things. But on both days I feel alive. Because I feel. I feel emotions. And I want to say both the good and the bad but I have learned that there are no good or bad emotions. Putting a value on an emotion means being able to judge them and that is something that happens in your brain, in your mind, with your ratio, whatever. And that is exactly not the point of emotions. Emotions are there to be felt, to be experienced. An emotion is energy in motion. And all energy has to move. When my energy moves I feel alive. When I feel emotions, I experience what it is like to be human.
I am human. I am a human that not only is alive, but also feels alive. So if I would have only one more day to live, I would approach it exactly the same as any other day. I would make sure I feel alive.
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