About a month-and-a-half ago, I saw the movie Everything Everywhere All at Once starring Michelle Yeoh (of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon fame). Great movie and I highly-recommend it – the storyline poses some excellent questions about our lives.
One of the underlying messages that stuck with me was about the importance and impact of every single choice/decision we make during each moment, day, and year throughout our lifetime. Without giving away the story, the two main characters, Evelyn and Waymond Wang learn how the state or their present lives, their family and their careers are what they are due to the millions of choices that each of them has made up until the present moment. I found it thought-provoking to get a glimpse into the impact that our choices/actions might have on ourselves and all other people that our lives intersect with. When I use the term “choice”, or “decision” what I mean is the action we take in any given situation that life presents us with.
For a couple of simple examples, first, let’s say you are walking down a street, and someone asks you, “can you spare any change?”. The choices/decisions available to you in that moment are many and few specific ones are:
- Ignore them (or pretend you didn’t hear them) and keep walking
- Respond with some version of “sorry I don’t have any change on me”
- Pull some change from your pocket and give it to them (with or without any verbal response to their question).
Regardless of the actual choice you make in that moment, there is an impact (both immediately and possibly longer term) on you and the person asking for the spare change.
Second, let’s say you learn about how a specific something you eat, or choose not to consume (e.g. green leafy vegetables) impacts your health – do you internalize that knowledge and incorporate it into the choices you make about how you nourish yourself, or do you ignore it? Either way, your decision will have consequences, perhaps not right away but eventually.
Going out on a low-risk limb here, I’m going to assert that most of us (and for much of our lives) tend to eat and drink in an almost unconscious manner. We consume what we enjoy (i.e., what tastes good) and we avoid things that we don’t find the taste, texture etc. to be appealing. In our youth we are resilient in terms of how and what we eat; younger digestive systems can process foods easier. Our physical activity levels are typically higher when we are younger as well; in other words, more calories get burned up instead of stored and some pent-up emotional energy gets released as well (those of my generation will remember our parents telling us to “go outside and play for a while”).
As we age, however, a few changes occur: first, our activity levels typically decrease; second, our metabolic rate tends to slow (partly linked to the preceding point); third, we acquire more knowledge about which foods and beverages and what activities are and aren’t good for our well-being (think fast-food take-out versus cooked at home and watching a show versus taking a walk). Not everyone is interested in learning about what constitutes good nutrition and healthy movement/exercise, but I would argue that over time it’s difficult to not become aware (at least remotely) of what makes us feel well versus unwell and what is (and is not) good for nourishing our bodies and minds.
The choices we make every moment of every day about what we eat and drink (or not eat and drink), the activities we select in terms of moving and stretching our bodies and activating our heart and lungs, the people we prioritize to spend time with, and the sources of information (e.g., news/cable news, social media, books, TV, movies), all have a profound impact on the life each of us is experiencing at this moment in time.
So, take a few moments to stop and reflect on your life. How do you feel in terms of the following three areas: emotionally, physically, and spiritually? What you’re able to observe is a direct result of millions of decisions/choices you’ve made right up to this present moment. If you want to begin feeling differently in any (or all) of these three areas, you do have the power to begin making different choices. It probably will take some learning/knowledge acquisition from sources you’ve not looked into but the information to learn how to change your life’s trajectory is there.
And if you aren’t motivated by this post to do some self-reflection then add Everything Everywhere All at Once to your watchlist.
Coffee and Karma 