Think about what it might be like to be a brick.

Or an engine block.

Or a tube of lipstick.

A game controller.

A glass jar.

A chess piece.

A grain of salt.

If you are playing fairly and not imbuing these things with human characteristics, you will see that being one of these things isn’t like anything at all. There’s nothing there.

The experience of consciousness is profound by itself, yet we somehow think that we need to add things to it for it to be worthwhile or enjoyable.

We think we get to pick and choose and make demands on consciousness, that we get to complain if it doesn’t measure up.

This is such an odd concept. There is this thing that is everything that we are, this thing that allows the very experiencing of anything in the first place, and we are arrogant enough to complain about what it offers us sometimes. The character has the nerve to criticize the story that gives him his existence in the first place. The thing being illuminated, drawn out of darkness, has the nerve to complain about the quality of the of the light.

Existence is a gift. Consciousness is a privilege.

What would life look like if we truly believed this?

Try it right now.

Drop your ideas of how things need to be or are supposed to be or should be.

Drop comparisons, criticisms, complaints and what ifs.

Make a conscious decision to embrace your experience for the next few minutes, whatever it may look like.

Make a conscious decision to believe things are exactly as they should be.

Now.

Notice what you are seeing.

What does everything around you look like without all the stories your mind has to offer? Notice the colors, the textures, how you can differentiate one object from the next.

Pretend you don’t know what the objects around you are or what they do. What do they look like without your preconceived ideas?

Listen to the sounds around you in the same way. What do they sound like without the stories your mind tells? Study how you can sort out one sound from another. Be aware of them as neutral, not good or bad. Just there.

What does to feel like to have a body?

Notice how you can shift your attention consciously, how you can choose to experience one part of your body more than another. Let yourself experience places of pain or sickness without judgement or wishing they were different.

Resting in experience rather than the stories our minds tell us allows us peace in discomfort and calm in the midst of chaos. It kills boredom.

Stepping away from all the criticisms and judgments and comparisons allows us to simply be present with what is happening instead of in opposition to it.

No matter what happens to us today, at least we are here to experience it.