Even After Enlightenment You Still Have to Do Laundry
On expectations, success, and the afterlife.
Every so often I go through bouts of mild depression. Not the type that keeps me bedridden or riddled with anxiety unable to leave my house, but enough to stop the creative flow for a bit and question what the hell I’m doing here. Just enough to make me want to hide from the world for a day and just process all the crap that accumulates in my head. I sometimes catch myself dreaming of “success” and what that would look like: no more day job, relaxing with coffee every morning, more time to simply enjoy the “flow of life”…. And then, reality sets in. Regardless of what “success” looks like, there will still be laundry (and dishes, and vet visits, and yardwork).
Here’s to coffee and laundry ☕️🧺
~Suzanne
The Afterlife = the time living after reaching success, living in a state of enlightenment
Enlightenment = spiritual enlightenment or reaching your designated success level
We wish, dream, and set goals for success. We meditate and pray for enlightenment. We somehow think (hope?) that once we achieve “it”, life will be magical.
No matter what comes up in life, laundry is still there for us. Laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning the cat box, sweeping the floor… all the everyday tasks that make up everyday living… will still be there.
Reaching enlightenment isn’t about life becoming magical. It’s about realizing the magical simplicity of life.
-Suzanne Arjona
Doing laundry (or grocery shopping or walking the dog) aren’t chores keeping us from living the good life or being successful. They are living life. Everything we do from meditation to cleaning the cat box is living, neither activity more or less important than the other.
We have high expectations for achieving success. If we expect success to mean leaving the day job or earning a certain amount of income and living the “good life”, we forget there will still be dirty clothes that need washing and floors that need sweeping regardless. Embracing these daily tasks as part of mundane life as well as enlightened life, instead of playing victim to them, opens you up to reaching enlightenment that much sooner.
Our lives are largely made up of a series of mundane moments, but those little moments are often the finesse that shapes our entire existence; it's not necessarily the big, dramatic events, although they do, too, of course.
-Andrew Haigh
Success is when we realize that the life we are currently living, when we accept it for what it is, is enlightened. When we begin living in enlightenment - after we let go of the victim mentality that keeps us from realizing our potential - we are no longer striving day to day to reach enlightenment and realize we are already there.
An excerpt from book #3 (coming in 2024):
“Be Here Now…Choose one simple task: a chore, a meal, cuddling your pet, and fully participate in it. Be present just for that task, not thinking about anything else except the task at hand. Share your feelings afterwards.”
Coming soon! Book 3 in the Life Management 101 series. Stay tuned for details and check out the first two books on Amazon while you’re waiting.