Carpe Diem or Slow Down and Smell The Roses?
I think Alan Watts might have decried Carpe Diem. Seize the day! He would have teased us for being in hurry and not savoring the moment.
Living in The Now is So Very Hard to Do
Living in the now, living mindfully, is very hard for Western-reared people. Though we are here, now, we constantly worry about what happened last year, last month, last week, yesterday. And when we are not occupying ourselves with our past, we worry about the future. I must do this. I must prevent that! We have no time left for now.
We are also pretty suspicious about living now. It seems self-indulgent to just stop and enjoy my coffee. I rather suspect that we in the West interpret being mindful to living what Seligman pleasurably, as opposed to living with engagement and meaning. We are obsessed with children eating marshmallows, or not, as the case may be. The reality is that we are obsessed with marshmallows!
We Desperately Want to Live in The Now
Alan Watts’ philosophy challenges us because it is alien to us. But we seek it. The idea of picking three tasks to do a day in an agile sprint or a personal kanban is a bid, I think, to justify our deep need to pay attention to what we are doing.
3 Videos on Alan Watts Speaking about Play & Work
I was brought up within a Western frame of thinking so I will stop here and embed the videos. Each is about 10 minutes long, so maybe budget 40 minutes. Know that you are a child of this age and that you will find it hard to block 40 minutes and to sit still that long. Make some coffee, find a comfortable chair, put a pen and pad next to you for the extraneous thoughts that will pop into your mind, and take the opportunity to relax ~ to deeply relax in the company of a man who knew how to enjoy life.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0caqNCIUSZM]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJxInUkzJPo]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-IvkRHKKA0]
Hat-tip: These videos were posted on YouTube by Broodbox
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