Optimize. Hack. Be productive. Be efficient.
Concepts and words that were created for systems, corporations, and the cold gray steel that is capitalism. These messages are pervasive in our culture and have made their way into how we live almost every aspect of our lives.
We’re constantly seeking efficiency and productivity while not knowing how to be in the moment once we free up our time or to tired from optimizing to enjoy it. We don’t know how to be embodied, present and responsive to the somatic messages we’re receiving that might not line up with the latest biohack.
We work so hard at perfecting our experience that we forget to live. And we forget that often, those tiny, non-optimal moments of our lives are the ones that stretch us the most. That bring us joy. That make it all worth living in the first place.
It happens with the ways we structure our time. It happens with our self-improvement projects. The way we are sold health and happiness is a constant refinement of process that lives in the near future, but never within grasp. It is fueled by perfection and lack.
And yet we miss it, right there in front of our faces. The kind stranger we interact with because we weren’t staring at our phones. The sun on your skin after lunch, as you stay just five minutes longer than you should. The first bite of your friend’s grandmother’s chocolate cake recipe.
These are the color and texture that weave meaningful lives together. These somatic experiences that we feel in our bodies as we slow down, look around us, and connect. The piece of cake might have 500 calories and not quite fit into your meal plan, but it nourishes you with the care it was made with and ancestral memory carried forward.
We lose so much with optimization. We lose our curiosity, our creativity, and parts of our humanity. We can optimize all day long, but we cannot escape mortality. We cannot escape that, as far as we know, this is our one life. And I don’t know about you, but I want to experience it with as much color, texture, and aliveness as I can.
I don’t think this means we don’t take care of ourselves or use modern technology to support our wellbeing. I believe that it is an integrative model, that doesn’t discount how important joy, embodiment, and whimsy are in making us whole.
Take the scenic route. Eat the cake. Let a few wrinkles line your mouth from so many smiles. Because, in the end, I want to know you lived.