My client, Sam, recently shared how uninspired she currently is. So much of her work and life have felt monotonous, mundane, and administrative. She has been jonesing for some inspiration in her life. As I listened to her critique the boredom, I became suspicious. Sam was looking for something more, something better. And she was missing the magic in the mundane.
Can you relate? I certainly know I can.
We are so often led to believe that our happiness, our peace, our joy, is found in more or better. If I have more of this, I’ll feel better. If I have better this, I’ll have more of this. That is the great trap.
We have all turned to our favorite feel good activity to give us a hit of satisfaction. But don’t we all know how fleeting that quick hit is.
The real magic, the real mountaintop, is when you can find peace, stillness, wonder, appreciation, and gratitude in the mundane activities of life.
It’s addicting to want more and better. It’s addicting to always be pursuing something greater, something better. I’m not saying that there is not incredible opportunity in expanding and growing, taking up more space, and forging new paths. I want you to get all the goodies you desire. And I want you to be sober as you pursue those goodies.
The paradox is: Your ability to influence, to create, to expand into who you are here to be has a direct correlation with your ability to feel good here and now, with or without the goodies.
Much of life is mundane. It’s really tempting to look at the sexy this or the alluring that, but the older we get, the more we realize just how ordinary life can be.
For reflection:
- Where in your life may you be on a kind of hamster wheel, always pursuing something better, something greater, something more?
- Where may you be missing the magic, the mystery, the extraordinary nature of the mundane moment here and now?
My husband Nathan had the great honor and privilege of studying with ThÃch Nhất Hạnh—a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and Nobel Peace Prize winner who has since transitioned—at his extraordinary monastery in the south of France. Much of Nathan’s meditation studies while at Plum Village were done in the mundane activities of being human, like cleaning a toilet, taking a shower, or preparing a meal.
The whole purpose of the experience was finding wonder, peace, stillness, and presence in the mundane.
I am on this journey with you. I am practicing reverence for the mundane day in and day out, and when I realize the magic in every moment, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the extraordinary and exquisite nature of reality, not because of some shiny object, not because of the number of zeros in my bank account, but rather because of the divinity, the mystery, the nature of Life itself.
Don’t wait to be wowed by the mystery of Life. Take a moment today to begin to notice how extraordinary Life is, even in the most mundane.
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