Could this be your best moment?

Could this be your best moment?

I have been running a non-scientific informal survey for a while. It consists of a single question: If you could trade places with an earlier version of yourself, would you?

Perhaps the most frequent answer I have received is: Yes, I would trade my body for the way it was at a specific moment in the past. The answer comes rather quickly, and the age chosen varies with each person, but the general idea is returning to an earlier version of our body that was more fit, had faster metabolism and with speedier recovery from injury and illness. Also, for some people there is also the desire to maintain a youthful look. Almost every single time I have to clarify that trading places means to trade your whole self, not only one aspect of yourself. With that explanation, every person takes a few more moments to consider the trade and every single person ends up saying that they would not trade. The reason is that nobody so far, wants to let go of all the lessons they have learned and that have led them to have a greater perspective now than they had earlier in their lives.

I know that this question seems like a silly game, however, I find that it can be a useful tool to help us reconsider our perspective on ourselves and our lives. Many of us have a strong inclination to focus too much energy on the future at the expense of our present. Many years ago, when we were recently married, my wife and I decided to go on a long trip to visit the countries where our families came from. It was an opportunity to create the foundation of our life together, to know each other more deeply, to expand our perspective on the world and to gain a deeper perspective about ourselves by spending some time visiting and meeting our respective relatives. We were working at a restaurant at the time and decided to start saving money to travel for as long as we could afford it. We were very excited for our future travel plans and were committed to making them a reality. However, as we started saving, we soon recognized that if we only focused on the trip, we might not dedicate time and energy to enjoying our live while we were saving for our trip. This realization was and excellent way to help us find a balance between awareness of our present and commitment to our future, that resulted in not feeling that we were sacrificing our present because of our future plans. After working and saving for a year and a half we embarked on an adventure that lasted for over a year traveling to several countries and giving us many opportunities to create lasting connections and memories.

If we are too focused on the future, it almost seems like the present is an inconvenience in the way to getting were we think we are going. Especially because we often believe that in the future everything will be better and brighter. This future orientation, although useful for directing our actions in a specific direction, may influence our perception of our current selves as not yet accomplished, complete or sufficiently evolved.

Let’s return to the question, would you trade places with an earlier version of yourself? Please take a few moments to contemplate it. Some of us may feel that we would like to return to a specific moment in time when we had a powerful or transformational experience that was so beautiful or energizing that we would like to feel that way again. There is no right or wrong choice here. As I mentioned before, upon reflecting on this simple question everybody I have asked this question to, has said that they would not choose to let go of their current level of awareness, because it is a greater awareness than they had before. This wider perspective is useful to give each action and event its appropriate importance and attention without overreacting, and often, without taking ourselves too seriously.

Previously we explored that now is the most important moment of our lives. We even mentioned that nobody has ever been in yesterday or in tomorrow, because we can always only be in today, in right now and right here. It may also be useful to recognize that right now you are the oldest you have ever been, with more experience and wisdom than you ever had before. At the same time, right now you are the youngest you will ever be. Could this be your best moment? And, if it is your best moment, how are you participating in it? How is your current level of wisdom informing your intentions, actions and interactions?

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This is an excerpt from the book Unravel the thread: Applying the ancient wisdom of yoga to live a happy life

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