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What is everyday life?

Everyday life consists of recurring, very similar activities, events, and processes that repeat themselves in a uniform rhythm.

Everyday life is what I know, what I no longer need to think about, what I have made myself comfortable with, what I have become accustomed to, what I am familiar with, and what I take for granted.

The term “everyday life” sounds negative. It brings to mind descriptions such as dreary, exhausting, joyless, duty-bound, routine. Everyday life is considered banal and boring.

Everyday life means not coming to one’s senses. I don’t really see, what is.

I always expect something from my actions. I do something “in order to.” I work to earn money. I meditate to attain enlightenment. Thus, my action is divided into a present activity and a future result. I am not in the moment, instead I think about what the action will bring to me.

I fill myself with so much activity that I can’t do anything else, I forget myself and that I am here, and the moment slips away. I stick in in old habits with its thoughts, ideas, and speculations about the past or the future.

So life passes by, as if in fast motion.

Being conscious in everyday life

What prevents me from leaving this kind of everyday life behind?

I consider myself the most important person in the whole world. Even though I know deep down that I am average and ordinary. Only when I let go of this specialness and lose my sense of self-importance can I experience who I am and what reality is like. Neither I nor reality itself is special; it is everyday and ordinary.

I cannot accept that I am mortal. If I understood that I am going to die, my everyday behavior would change.

I think I already know everything.

I do not take responsibility for myself and my actions.

It is my habits and my comfort that prevent me from gaining new experiences and facing challenges.

How I perceive my everyday life depends on my ideas. Everyday life is what I make of it. Perhaps I should not see everyday life as something bad.

In normal everyday life, everything is there to be happy.

My consciousness makes the difference. The knowledge that I am here now and not in a romanticized past or a dreamed-of future.

What happens then?

I discover another world. Of course, it has always been there. But I never noticed it. I see that every moment is unique. Even if something is very similar, it is never exactly the same. In reality, there is no routine and no repetition.

I develop an attitude of “without fear and without hope.” I don’t make a big deal out of it when I’m feeling well, nor when something negative happens to me.

That’s what is meant by “the journey is the destination.” Time takes on a different quality. Like a wide, slow-flowing river.

I don’t think about when something will finally be finished and what I will do then. Mindfulness and presence in the present moment means simply focusing calmly on what is happening right now, in every moment.

I confront myself with what I really am, now, and recognize something about the true nature of reality itself, directly and unfiltered.