The Duality of Life

Life can pull you in so many different directions.

You strive to be present but you also have to think ahead about all the potential scenarios.

You train yourself to find the silver lining but you also need to be aware of realistic threats.

You’re filling up your life with new goals and accomplishments, but you’re also taking on more roles than you can handle.

You’re happy and grateful, but you’re also exhausted and overwhelmed.

You look at the world and are amazed at the countless miracles happening, but your heart breaks multiple times from all the pain and catastrophes.

Watching the world around you move on in slow-motion like you’re having an out-of-body experience.

Juggling more emotions than the amount of breaths you remind yourself to take.

With the weight of the world on your shoulders, you google which vitamins will prevent the world from crumbling in front of your eyes. Or at least the ones that will keep you in denial. But you’re also more mindful than ever before about what you’re ingesting.

Seems like putting on a mask is the way to go. Makes you feel empowered. Like you have super-powers. Like you can handle anything and everything.

Because then you can switch your face according to the current needs. That would mean it’s an either-or type of world we live in. That you can only pick one. But that wouldn’t be realistic.

But that makes you dependent on the outside world. Waiting for other people to tell you how to feel, what to think, and what to share.

Does it mean I’m living a double life? What should I do when my emotions contradict themselves? Why does it feel like nothing makes sense anymore?

Maybe we’re just simply forgetting we are meant to be human. We are not above what makes us so unique.

What if every morning when we looked in the mirror to decide what to wear, we also looked inside to choose our perspective and disposition dress code for the day? Figure out which parts of ourselves need some attention and which need to be expressed? What if we looked at our emotional spreadsheet the same way we looked at our financial budget? What if this was a conscious decision instead of a passive reaction? If we could take the time to think ahead and gauge our inner power and energy level for the day, would we do anything differently? Would we adjust our expectations? Shove more caffeine and alcohol into our system? Would we design a better mask to show the world we can handle anything that comes our way? Or just add another layer to hide our inability to embrace our humanity?

Experiencing such contrasting emotions on a daily basis can be very confusing. And de-stabilizing. Leaving us wondering if we’re crazy or being un-realistic.

Rest be assured it is quite normal. Lately, we’ve all been through quite the roller-coaster. And it’s particularly traumatizing on many different levels. But if there’s one thing it’s not, it’s fake. It’s the most real it’s ever been. If you are going to live life to its fullest, you will need to accept and embrace the fact it will rarely be black and white. Just like one box cannot fully describe who you are as a person, there is no one box that can contain a single experience. Get used to having the whole range of emotions out in the open just in one day.

It’s okay.

It’s normal.

It’s real.

So grab a few tissues, have a good laugh or a good cry. Or both. Mostly both. At the same time.