I have been told an infinite amount of times to “live in the moment” or to “be present NOW”. While I do agree that I need to live in the present, I want to take the time to establish a line between the present and reality. In a non-delusional way, I tend to move away from the full reality of my life. I like to live my days with a little “something more”. Think of it like this, if the accepted present is equivalent to regular milk, MY chosen present is chocolate milk; it is still milk but it is genuinely more desirable and has more flavor. We all have the ability to experience our lives in whatever way we want. I am going to explain in this post how I toy with my own reality through focusing on certain things that I enjoy. Two stipulations that I want to address:
1. My life is generally great, I am not depressed, and I do not live in imagination to avoid the pain of my true reality. This post is not that deep.
2. There are levels to this. I am not about to vouch for living in a delusion. I just want to encourage imagination to spice up one’s life.
Now, in the words of the late Heath Ledger as The Joker, “and Here. We. Go.”
I absolutely love comics. Yes, I am infatuated with the artwork and storytelling elements of a good comic, but what I really enjoy is the fact that all comic series take place in another world. In the “comic world” literally anything can be made to happen. Yes, one can apply that notion to all storytelling forms, but the difference in my opinion is the idea of formalism. When I think of a full-length novel, regardless of the content, I think of strict guidelines and the idea of one being mature. For example, if you see an individual reading a hard cover novel as opposed to an individual reading the latest Daredevil comic, who seems more mature? Exactly. We all judge books by their covers. It is human nature to make that kind of judgement. But that is EXACTLY why I love comics. The immaturity or child-like ideas tied to comics enhances my idea that ANYTHING can happen in comics. Creating a comic is like taking an individuals raw imagination and just spraying it onto the pages. Comics are one of the few written art forms that one can FULLY present their imagination through character dialogue, thought, personality, and physical appearance. Never really thought about comics that way, right? Now, try letting your imagination have a much more tangible role in your life, almost like making a comic.
Disclaimer, we have no powers. So how can our lives be like comics? Well, I will start with explaining how I do it. If you put a gun to my head and told me to pick my favorite comic storyline, my mind would shoot right to Dr. Strange. There are endless reasons why I love Dr. Strange comics; his backstory, his powers, his confidence, his morals, etc. All I do is try to be like and think about Dr. Strange. It is actually that simple. I try to be and think about what I like during the day because… I think Dr. Strange is awesome. Now, how I do it is the fun part of this post (and the slightly embarrassing part). While I have only recently started to let my imagination penetrate my reality, it has seemed to be rather successful and fun! At the clinic where I work I have to constantly check the time and often use my calculator on my Apple Watch. So, I got the brilliant idea to change my watch face to a picture of Dr. Strange. Now every time I look at my watch, I think about The good ole’ Sorcerer Supreme. On the dashboard of my car is a bobble head of Dr. Strange so whenever I drive my car I have a cool representation of something that brings me true personal happiness in my peripheral view. I even recently purchased a necklace of the Eye of Agamotto, which is what Dr. Strange wears around his neck in all comic and movie portrayals. I have almost fully internalized the idea that I am me…but with a little bit of magic that I draw from the Dr. Strange comics.
The fun part about this mentality is that it is of course not limited to comics, it can be applied to anything that you like. I want to fully encourage the idea of taking what you like and letting it penetrate your reality. Internalize the easy things that TRULY make you happy with zero strings attached. For me, it is Dr. Strange, for you, it may be a band, a flower, a pet, an instrument, a food; whatever it is, I recommend making it a much more upfront part of your life than it already is. Why not? Yes, life is too short to live in the future or past, but days are way too long to live in a formalized reality. Yeah, it is awkward when my coworkers say it is weird that I wear a fictional character’s necklace to the clinic, but hey, we are all a little Strange.
Martial Health 