Be Mindful!
By SANG NGUYEN
When I was a kid, I usually took notes what I learnt from a book which I was reading. The more notes I took, the lazier I felt to keep on reading more books. This was due to the fact that there was so much knowledge I had to memorize from those books. Then I was afraid that I would forget everything before moving to a new book so I could not apply what I learnt from books to a real life to solve any problems in the future.
Especially, time would be allocated in varied things when I grew up. How could I arrange my time to read a certain number of books a week, a year?! I felt stressed, I did not enjoy the moment I was reading those books.
Consequently, I changed my way to read books. Despite focus on the number of books at the end of a year or a week, I would concentrate on the “Aha moment” while reading through details of each book which I found it useful to apply in my life.
Later on, I would observe myself and surroundings to see if what I learnt from theories are the truth or adequate with our life. Gradually I realized what my desire is, what the noble truth is, how people cope with common life problems and so on. By doing this, I sensed happier and more satisfied.
It doesn’t halt on that self-consciousness. Also I set up a free space and create opportunities for me to encounter anything happening to my life. At the same time, observing how things are going around is a must to see if what I think, what I apply in the reality properly or not.
Therefore, all knowledge is naturally and automatically absorbed in the fun way. Moreover I can apply this theory into the reality, and it helps solve problems creatively.
From the way I deal with book reading’s habits, I found out that at the end of the day, be happy or not is my choice. If I “choose happy”, I should be aware of how I can enjoy the happiness in every moment and should be grateful with any problems, any people who have been through with me in this only one life.