Synopsis: Do you ever feel like you're rushing from one thing to another, always chasing the next milestone? In this reflection, Dr. Ko shares Alan Watts' profound wisdom: life isn't meant to be a race to the finish line - it's a dance to be enjoyed. Explore how shifting from a "race" mentality to a "dance" perspective can help you slow down, appreciate the process, and fully experience the precious, fleeting moments of being alive.
Do You Feel Like You're Always Rushing?
Do you ever feel like you are rushing from one thing to another? That you don't have enough time. Do you find yourself telling yourself yet again, "Once I finish this, then I can relax?"
As you're running around, racing around, you are actually missing the mark. You're missing the point of life - to enjoy it.
You wouldn't listen to music just to get to the end. What if we approached life like listening to music or dancing? Let's go ahead and explore this perspective.
The pressure to constantly achieve the next milestone can turn life into an exhausting race. From high school to medical school and beyond, we often focus on reaching destinations rather than enjoying the journey.
The Never-Ending Treadmill
I want to go back to this concept from Alan Watts. One of the things is when we think about life as a race or a marathon, I feel like when we have that metaphor, we're always rushing. It's always like, "Oh, right, let me go do this next thing." Let me give you a personal example.
When I was in high school, it was like, "Oh, let me do well on my SATs so that I can get into college." And then once I got into college, it's like, "All right, let me do well in my organic chemistry class so that I can apply for medical school." Then once that was done, "Oh, let me do really well on this MCAT exam so that I can get into med school," and then, "Let me do really well in the interviews and the application so that I can actually get in."
And then once I'm in med school, "Let me do really well on Step One of the boards so that I can get into a good residency," and then, "Let me match into my proper residency program." And it just kept going and going like this never-ending treadmill of getting to the next destination.
Alan Watts challenges us to reimagine life - not as a race to the finish, but as music to be enjoyed. Just as we don't listen to a song solely to reach the end, life is meant to be experienced fully in each moment.
What If Life Is a Dance?
But the reason I bring up Alan Watts is that he says, "What if life is not a race? What if it's a dance? What if it's a piece of music?"
Imagine if music was a race and the whole point of it was just to get to the end. We would just immediately have one note and be like, "That's the song." But we know that music and dancing is not to get to a certain point, but to actually enjoy it.
Enjoying the Flash of Being Alive
If we take on that metaphor for life - to actually enjoy the process rather than racing to the next destination - I think it can make life a little bit more enjoyable. In the grand scheme of things, we are here on this planet for a very finite amount of time. Earth has been around for 4.5 billion years. We're here for 75, 85, 95, a hundred years roughly. If you think about that scale of being alive for roughly, let's say 80 years in the United States, we are literally here just for a flash. Like imagine one of those lightning bugs - just a flash, just boom, in and out.
Because of that, when we focus on life being a piece of music or life being a dance, we can slow things down and actually enjoy the process of being alive because it's precious, it's hard, it's a gift, and maybe we're meant to fully experience all of it rather than racing to the next destination.
We're here on Earth for just a flash - roughly 80 years out of 4.5 billion. When we shift our perspective to view life as a dance rather than a destination, we can slow down and truly appreciate the precious gift of being alive.
Finding Beauty in the Dance
Right now you may be going through a lot of pain, whether that is emotional, physical, or even both. And the idea of fully experiencing life like a piece of music is understandably unfathomable. I get it, and I have seen that same challenge in my patients.
And yet it is from my patients that I have seen them find the beauty in the dance and music amid the pain. They have shown me we can enjoy the process through time in nature, laughing with friends, and letting go of things which don't serve us.
My patients are a true inspiration, and I know if they can live and enjoy life fully, so can you. I leave you today to ask yourself: what can you fully experience today in this short, beautiful life of ours?
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Stop racing to the next destination. Discover Alan Watts' wisdom on viewing life as a dance, not a marathon - and why this perspective shift can help you enjoy the process of being alive.
