The delightful lightness of being

Conscious living practice #6

Welcome to our regular conscious living practices. This time, we will try a lighter exercise.

If you enjoy these practices, feel free to share them with a friend.

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Let’s explore the lightness of life.

The joy of lightness.
The beauty of lightness.
The fun of lightness.
The delight of lightness.

Why live and strive for meaning when it is all so fleeting and never to return? Or should we live because of it? - For a brief moment of lightness, I became heavy

Let’s enjoy the lightness of life because it is ephemeral and non-recurring.

Every single moment, significant or not, is just as precious. Every one of them happens only once and will never return.

There are many small joys and lightness in our daily lives.

Eating ice cream by the little canal with my son, our feet cooling in the running water.
Packing the whole family into the car to drive off to a spontaneous trip somewhere.
The warmth of the sunlight trickling through the canopy of trees while hiking with my child.

Light itself — a word coincidentally homonymous with the feeling of lightness — brings me to the Japanese word komorebi.

The film “Perfect Days”—which inspires this practice— uses komorebi to show how we can find beauty and meaning in everyday life, even in the seemingly mundane.

We can extend komorebi—the way light filters through trees — to other places, too, if we’re paying attention.

This is what we are going to do

We are going to look out for komorebi and the other ways light is present in our lives.

When indoors, marvel at how the light slips in through the curtains and openings. How light dances on tiles, mirrors, and walls.

Outdoor in nature, marvel at how light breaks through the trees on the sidewalk, in the park, or the canopy of leaves in a forest. How light reflects off running rivers or calm lakes.

In the urban space, marvel at how light weaves through human constructs—buildings, poles, shadows, corners.

Notice the light's color, its ever-changing texture, its movement, and its lightness.

Let the noise fade into the background as the light envelops you.

For those who want to do more

Try noticing other kinds of lightness in your life—not just what you see, but also through all your other senses.

The first taste of coffee in the morning.
The gentle breeze on your face.
The ringing laughter of a child.
The soft touch of a well-placed hand.

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Share with us

What lightness of life have you noticed and delighted in?

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Companion post:

For a brief moment of lightness, I became heavy