When we remember a long gone cherished vacation we gloss over the tension, the quibbles and the fights that took place. All we remember is the gorgeous sunset and the moments of love and peace we felt.
It is as if we have zoomed out and in this view the ego went out of focus. When the ego ceases to matter love blooms. Joy, peace, and serenity prevail.
If on the other hand when we zoom in we get to the level of the ego. We are now at the resolution of living moment by moment. We can now clearly feel the tension, the fights, the conflicts, and the drama created by the ego. At this level the days are long and difficult. Life is challenging and tiresome. It is as if we have to put up a fight to get anything. Nothing comes easily.
The view from afar always appears rosy as the ego has a diminished role from this view. When we look back on the years we feel that they were happier than when we were actually experiencing them. We feel that the happy times just whizzed past and we barely noticed. So the days appeared long and unhappy while we lived them, the years that have gone by seem short and happier: The days are long but the years are short.
This is instructive. It provides a clear indication of the role of ego on how we perceive life and how happy we feel. A small ego is a prescription for happiness and living a full life. A small ego is a sign of spiritual and moral strength; it is not a sign of weakness. It does not mean anybody can trample all over you. It just means that you are not easily swayed by other people’s anger, or emotional drama.
It is possible to rush through life and never rise above the level of the ego. It is possible that we may remain always wistful of the time that has gone by while unable to grasp the happiness of the current moment. But is there a way out or are we all doomed to live a futile life where our actual experience of life and happiness is minimal and visible only in hindsight?
Happiness research suggests that our happiness levels are more or less fixed and even catastrophic events do not change our happiness levels by much. After an initial bout of happiness or sorrow due to an event we revert to our base level of happiness. However this research does not take into account the times when our happiness levels do change permanently. This usually happen due to a dramatic reduction in the size of our ego. Usually it happens due to a deep inner spiritual movement. In most cases this is triggered by an ego diminishing event. This could be a crushing illness, a spiritual revelation, or a spectacular view of a sunset. In most cases the ego eventually reverts back to its normal size and our happiness reverts to normal. Sometimes, though, the change is permanent. It is unpredictable when this may occur.
However there is a systematic way to cause a permanent movement to a smaller ego and increased happiness. This is called yoga. There are many different forms of yoga but one of the most systematic path is the one that was formulated by Patanjali thousands of years ago and documented in the Yoga Sutras. This path of yoga has eight limbs and hatha-yoga or the yoga of postures is only one limb. (Yoga is not just practicing the postures. Though the practice of yoga-postures is a good starting point.)
The journey out of the ego is the journey into yoga. This is a journey into happiness and living and experiencing life fully. This is a journey out of conflict and drama and into peace and creativity. As our journey into yoga progresses the days come alive and every breath is like a fresh breath of nectar. Every moment is a moment of love and joy. The days are neither long nor short as when we live in the moment time itself ceases to matter.
This is MyLifeYoga’s interpretation of Gretchen Rubin’s” wonderful video: Days are long, years are short“.