THE QUALITY OF LIFE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN LIFE ITSELF - ALEXIS CARREL
Self portrait by Alex Stoddard
Although the interest in the quality of our time has been challenged this year through our various forms of visual and print media, you should remember that your own psychological well-being depends more on your personal perspective than on the major societal events reported to you on the world’s stage.
Of course, we are all affected in one way or another by the problems caused by the pandemic and the upheavals associated with controversy over race, gender, and human rights issues. And yet it is our own personal vision that needs to stay focused and that will keep us balanced.
A vision does not have to be particularly grand. Above all, it should express something to do with your innate self and the quality of your own life. Be carefully aware that your vision or goals are about you and not a comparison with others. For example, you can decide to focus on your professional development, and/or on more relaxed relationships, and/or creative or spiritual developments, and/or on strategies for coping with everyday life, etc.
Many people will set goals that are achievable but are not satisfying. What you are looking for is balance in your life, which means finding a tools that will help you maintain a balance between your material life and that which gives you deeper meaning, those feelings of being part of a greater whole, or even something cosmic or divine in nature [some call that spirituality].
That is where good use of private time with yourself comes in, that space that you create to accept and allow yourself time to be present in contemplation. Use of the tools, Retrospection and Introspection, is where you come to know or understand what you feel about, or sense about something. This is where you gain material evidence in your thoughts, and acknowledge the clarity of understanding which you gain about a situation, person, or thing, this then becomes “knowing”, and that acts like intuitive and aligned guidance.
Your use of personal time in the practice of Retrospection and Introspection will allow for a gauge in the quality of your life. This allows for gauging your general well-being, by outlining negative and positive features of how you are living life. Your expectations of a good life can be gauged and determined by your authentic self. Then your expectations can be put in a context guided by the values, goals, and socio-cultural context in which you exist. Spending a portion of your personal time this way can reap big dividends in the quality and satisfaction of your life and how it is lived.