Maybe the Point of Life Is to Actually Live It

Julie’s Journal | By Julie Bolejack

I came across a post from Vishen Lakhiani recently that stopped me.

Not because I disagreed with him.

Because I thought, yes. Exactly.

Vishen was talking about spirituality—and, more specifically, the way we sometimes turn being spiritual into an identity. Something to display. Something to perform.

He meditates every morning. So do I. He has built much of his life’s work around consciousness and personal growth.

But his point was that spirituality shouldn’t become another costume we put on.

One line especially stayed with me. He questioned what happens when being spiritual becomes something we perform instead of simply the way we move through “an ordinary Tuesday.”

An ordinary Tuesday.

I love that.

Because maybe the real test of everything we’ve learned isn’t what happens while we’re sitting quietly with our eyes closed.

Maybe it’s what happens after we open them.

Spirituality Isn’t a Competition

Somewhere along the way, personal growth became an industry.

Meditate. Journal. Manifest. Practice gratitude. Raise your vibration. Find your purpose. Heal your inner child. Drink something green. Buy a crystal. Perhaps arrange the crystal beside an expensive candle.

I’m teasing.

Sort of.

I believe deeply in personal growth. I’ve spent years exploring mindfulness, meditation, reinvention and what it means to live consciously. Much of what I write about through Bloom Again is rooted in the belief that we can examine our lives and choose differently.

But there’s a trap hidden in all of this.

We can become so busy working on ourselves that we forget to be ourselves.

We can turn growth into another achievement.

Another thing to get right.

Another standard by which we decide we’re not quite good enough yet.

Not calm enough.

Not enlightened enough.

Not healed enough.

Not grateful enough.

And I’m beginning to wonder whether that’s missing the entire point.

You Are Allowed to Be Human

One of the most provocative things Vishen wrote was this:

“You came here for the food and the music and the arguments and the grief.”

That struck me as both beautiful and liberating.

Because life isn’t just the peaceful parts.

Life is the whole messy package.

It’s laughing until your stomach hurts.

It’s eating something absolutely delicious and not asking whether it is optimizing your longevity.

It’s dancing even when you aren’t particularly good at it.

It’s traveling somewhere you’ve never been.

It’s sitting around a table with people you love.

It’s falling in love. Getting your heart broken. Getting angry. Being disappointed. Forgiving somebody—or deciding you can’t.

It’s holding someone’s hand when there are no words that can make things better.

It’s grieving people and animals we’ve loved.

It’s changing our minds.

It’s making mistakes.

It’s occasionally saying something we wish we could stuff right back into our mouths.

That’s living.

And perhaps spirituality isn’t supposed to protect us from any of it.

Maybe it’s supposed to help us be fully present for it.

Meditation Should Bring Us Back to Life

That’s one of the reasons I meditate.

I don’t meditate because I’m trying to transcend being human.

I meditate because being human can be hard.

Meditation gives me a place to become quiet enough to hear myself again. It helps me notice my thoughts without necessarily believing every single one of them. It gives me a little space between what happens and how I respond.

But then I get up.

And that’s the important part.

Because eventually we have to leave the meditation cushion and enter the kitchen.

We have to answer the phone.

Deal with the difficult person.

Walk the dog.

Make dinner.

Call our daughter.

Comfort a friend.

Speak up when something is wrong.

Laugh at something ridiculous.

And participate in the world.

What good is finding inner peace if we become so protective of it that we stop engaging with life?

Perhaps We’ve Made It Too Complicated

At this stage of my life, I find myself increasingly suspicious of anything that suggests there is one correct formula for being a fully evolved human being.

I’ve lived long enough to know that life doesn’t cooperate with formulas.

And perhaps wisdom isn’t about finally figuring everything out.

Perhaps wisdom is learning to hold life a little more loosely.

To appreciate the ordinary Tuesday.

To recognize that the cup of coffee, the conversation, the music playing while you’re cooking dinner, the dog wanting your attention, the person sitting beside you and even the disagreement you wish you weren’t having—

this is it.

Not the life we’re preparing to live someday.

Not the person we’re trying to become.

This life.

Today.

And that brings me to the question Vishen asked at the end of his post:

When did you last do something purely because it felt good to be alive?

That’s a wonderful question.

Not because it gives us another assignment.

But because maybe it releases us from one.

So meditate if meditation helps you.

Pray if you pray.

Journal.

Walk in the woods.

Sit quietly.

Practice gratitude.

Work on yourself.

Bloom again.

But then, for heaven’s sake—

go live.

Turn up the music.

Order dessert.

Call someone you love.

Take the trip.

Wear the ridiculous shoes.

Say what needs saying.

Laugh.

Cry.

Create something.

Get involved.

Love people while they’re here.

You don’t have to become perfectly healed, perfectly spiritual or perfectly anything before you’re allowed to enjoy your own life.

Maybe enlightenment isn’t somewhere above all this messy humanity.

Maybe it’s right here in the middle of it.

And maybe that’s where we’re supposed to be.

Thank you, as always, for spending a few minutes of your life here with me. There are a lot of things competing for our attention these days, and I never take yours for granted.

If something in Julie’s Journal made you think, smile, question something—or perhaps simply reminded you to go live your life—I hope you’ll share it with someone who might need the reminder too.

And if you’re new here, I invite you to subscribe and join me as we explore what it means to keep growing, questioning, creating, speaking up and, yes, blooming again—at every stage of life.

Until next time,

Julie Bolejack

The Mindful Activist

Julies-journal.ghost.io