Living Fully Is The Most Important Thing We Can Do

When did you first become aware that living fully is the most important thing you could do?

Sometimes we only realize that we have not been living fully when we encounter a tragedy, such as the death of a loved one, a car accident or fatal diagnosis. Then we wake up and realize, “What have I been doing with my life?” Well. What have you been doing with it?

While living fully is clearly more than words, it does start with the mind, being aware of life, using the mind to disce
what has the most meaning, and to evaluate what barriers are in the way. Not that the mind knows all that much about living fully. The mind is a tool for living fully, not where living fully happens.

Let’s start with awareness. Awareness, or mindfulness, is one of the first requirements of living fully. Awareness is an observer function that shows us, by our thoughts, choices, decisions, longings, repetitions and feelings what is important. And this observer function also gives us the information we need to make the choice to change those thoughts, longings, repetitions, etc.

Awareness, of course, is more than observing thoughts. It is also awareness of one’s body, one’s connections and one’s weaknesses. It takes quite a bit of commitment to awareness to get to the point of non-judgmental awareness that is consistently operating.

Awareness will also bring to mind those values that enhance our lives. Particularly I like to return to the values of Love, Understanding and Gratitude. I try to do all I can to incorporate those and be motivated solely by those enlightened qualities. But there is more: Enlightened Action. Awareness sees that we can’t live fully without taking action that leads us in the life-enhancing direction.

These four qualities of Gratitude, Love, Understanding and Enlightened action make for a nice couple of anagrams that can help us stay on track of living fully. The first is GLUE, because these attributes hold us together as a human community. GLUE supports the best in all of us. And although GLUE is perceived as sticky, we can’t stop there.

These four attributes are not just gluey. They also move us forward as fast as a LUGE ride; the LUGE moves us forward to our home (the Future where Gratitude, Love and Understanding are in such abundance that they aren’t attributes as much as they are who we are). These four qualities of a full life move us quickly around and over our past, and unbind us from our present attachments. They set us free from the negatives; they are a metaphorical LUGE ride. It’s almost as if they were super slick grease or ice on a slope toward our home.

What we often choose instead of the LUGE is the SAFARI. We may say that our life/ SAFARI was lived fully and that it was a great character builder. And we may want to prove its value by layering it with trappings of accumulation, prestige and accomplishment. But it is still a SAFARI. SAFARI is a life based on Self Absorption, Fear, Anger and Repeated Injuries. A LUGE rider has no thoughts of or delights in going on SAFARI. A LUGE rider would rather focus on the dynamics of the science of high-speed travel. He or she is committed to dumping all excess baggage and moving forward.

Living fully isn’t fast. It’s full. It isn’t glamorous. It’s glorious. It isn’t saving the world. The world is already saved. It isn’t even right or good. Living fully who we are, living into what we came to do. I do that by spreading G.L.U.E. on our community for the trip down the L.U.G.E. of life.