Constantly bombarded by the fast pace of life we do not take the space or time for contemplation. Information is at your fingertips, we are always “dialed in” and superficially connected to the digital world; there is always chaos and violence in the news, the pain and suffering seems right at our doorsteps and cannot be ignored. We are in a pressure cooker. Time, information, travel, and technology run at warp speed around us. And as our options multiply and become endless, so too do our fears, prejudices, defenses, addictions, and bad habits. Within this vortex of confusion and quickness we lose sight and sensation of our vitality. We seek self-worth outside of ourselves. So much of our modern world is designed to discover, understand, and improve the outer world, we have lost touch with the exploration of the inner world, mind/heart.

Should we be happy all of the time? 

Of course it feels good to be happy, but is that state achievable all of the time? With our modern lives of sometimes working two jobs to pay the bills, over consuming, waste, attachment to social media and our electronics, trying to get a work-out in, figuring out what to eat tonight so that we can go to sleep and do it all again tomorrow… Or even in our contemplative states, recognizing that our problems are so small compared to the hungry, poor, abandoned, and traumatized. How does one fit in happiness and strive for happiness?

I’ve been thinking about the experience of “flow.” We have all had these moments, when everything sync’s up just so, clicks right into place, locks and loads, and then you are vibrating with a frequency that feels so right and in tune with everything around you. This can be felt in what is frequently called a “runners high,” or riding a bike, reading a book, listening to a favorite song while driving on back roads with all the windows down, composing a piece of music, dancing, public speaking… there are endless experiences of flow. It’s like a peak performance when all the elements align and you are in ‘it.’ Everything feels so natural and energized.