I made my self a mean coffee yesterday. Will be two “days ago” once you are reading this post. Was getting ready to read my book. Then the first cup of coffee was half finished before I even started reading. Did some unnecessary stuff like checking instagram, texting and so on; as a result, my remaining mean coffee was cold…
I don’t do this all the time, I mean usually I have a good timing consuming my tea and coffee but, this time I wanted to confess some of my thoughts, built up for a while, about this “ideal” picture. The picture of “hygge”, “mood, vibes, moment, joy” etc.
Why do we always need to consume something or do any other second thing when there is a quality time with self or with others?
Why am I thinking of having a cup of tea or coffee or glass of wine etc. while reading? Why pop corn is a must while watching movies? Why wine is not complete enough without a cheese platter (fancy or humble it doesn’t matter) and why beer comes to a different level with fries? Last weekend we took our dog to dog park then we decided to have a drink somewhere. We had white wine and fries and I found my self talking about how fries should be consumed with beer and not with wine… Like fries can only taste good with beer and nothing else.
Fine, flavors may fit better with certain combinations, same in clothing or anything else that we apparently need to purchase.
I swear I am not blaming the media and marketing being part of capitalist monsters and I won’t be writing about transparency either.
I want to write about our fixated minds. How images stay in our mind and how they become real tough walls or limitations that bring rules to our lives. Do we really care what we are drinking or eating once we get caught up with what we read or watch or simply whatever we experience at that time? In those moments, how tasty the food or drink is really doesn’t matter. (I mean if it is really tasty it may be a plus as an additional experience BUT only when you take a break from your actual action.) What matters is how we receive that experience.
Imagine you are having a very interesting or cheerful conversation with your friends or family and you are out of the snack or drink. What stays in your memory from this moment; The happiness, the good content of the chat or, how disturbing it was to not have anything to consume anymore? Let’s admit, we either eat/drink or do something else. The food stays on your plate once you have an interesting conversation and you don’t keep talking while you are taking a bite, you take a short break… Then what happens in your mind? Do you think of your next bite because the food is so tasty? OK. Can we then agree that you are not truly a participant of that chat anymore because you started thinking of your next bite. But multitasking is an amazing skill to seek out right? We want it all; chatting, eating, planning the rest of the day/week, texting, finishing tasks… all at the same time.
I truly love and enjoy good food and good beverage and I am even picky with combinations and can even be stressed sometimes to cook things the way I imagine them to be. Tasting, seeing or smelling the stuff are special feelings that touches to our senses and hands down for their importance; perhaps this is exactly what I’m writing about.
The point is, may be we can watch and pay attention to how the mind works and tells us, “you don’t drink that beverage without X and Y or you need to consume this while doing that, because that’s how the perfect picture is.” No my friend, it is liberating to identify your true happiness while drinking that wine without snacks, leaning on the fridge without a music. You don’t need to add up to your “moment” because your senses are already receiving the message of joy. There is nothing wrong in only listening to music and staring at your bedroom’s ceiling or just simply doing nothing. Same for the times you eat & drink and just enjoy that.
My teacher in yoga school once stressed out how we usually behave while we are in airports, waiting for our flight. If we have some time, options in the airports are; Eating, drinking, reading, listening to your music, checking out duty free, using the restroom, finishing a work task, emailing, watching people, watching a video… You can be original if these examples are too cliche for you but this apparently doesn’t change the urge we have for doing something while waiting. We discussed in class that we are pushed (by society, actually by our own judgements) to be productive all the time and it is weird to do nothing. You are weird if you just sit while waiting for your plane, you may even be considered suicidal because you don’t look busy š
Before starting to write this post, already finished my masala chai (my perfect milk tea)… Even if I realize I wrote 575 words without consuming anything, my mind now brings the idea of a cup of green tea while staring at my grand mother’s fancy porcelain tea cup, royally hanging out on the dining table. After all, it’s a cool image to have a cup of warm drink while writing your blog post, right? š
When I look back to my earlier times and observe my self till today I see this consumption habit in my daily life. I was a bad student in high school (even before that) and in most part of the college. I remember serving my self a cup of coffee believing that it would make me focus and study and I also remember no focus was knocking my door and that feeling sleepy was unavoidable even after wiping so many strong and plain Turkish coffees out.
Isn’t focus or doing something effectively (yet we still need to focus for that) is what we desperately need? Focusing on now and the beauty of it and nothing else; It sounds so simple but it is so hard to apply. Only when we focus, then we are productive. Even if it is being able to focus on focusing š or on not doing anything.
Speaking of focus, will be working on my focus in a one day silence retreat this Sunday (we can say a warm up for Vipassana Meditation.) Let’s see If I will be able to not think anything while being on silence…
The idea of this post is not to avoid music while having a meal or to avoid doing more than one action at a time. It is to make us realize, what makes a moment so enjoyable is how we are able to spot it and feel it, and that it’s not enjoyable because of what we consume. Because we can see the goodness, tastiness in it. If we are able to catch that moment and live it fully, then the picture is already perfect.
As a result, this is word no 1240 and I am about to finish this post without suiting the perfect blogger image. You may hate my words, you may find them none sense but I just wrote a blog post and you read it; you hated it because you focused on it and thought about it, not about your meal.
Happy Sun-daze!
Elif
Trash The Art 
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