Written by: Hoda Elsobky, Senior Level Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
On my way to Happiness, I came across the concept of “Dancing with life!’, and to tell you the truth, I thought this would be the best way to deal with stress, uncertainty and to handle the unpredictable. Faced with the unknown and the immense amount of anxiety, confusion, and ambivalence, which are all unprecedented; This portrays altogether the era in which we are living. And so the best way out is to navigate through life, or in other words to dance with life!
How to dance with life in times of uncertainties?
Think about it this way — There is no time, the only time is the here and now. Think of life as Dots, as a series of moments and not a straight line or a means to an end. Dots allow you to fill in the blanks, draw the line and come up simultaneously with a beautiful Masterpiece. Whereas, a straight line allows you only to move in a predictable pattern in a totally unpredictable world. Dots allow you to dance, to turn, to bend, and to move freely in the moment. If your life pattern is based on dots, you will live a life that is intact and in flaw, and above all: Your life will be Complete! It doesn’t matter if you die at the age of twenty, sixty, or ninety, your life will be complete and a life of happiness.
Now think about the opposite — If you take life too seriously, as a means to reach a goal – a straight line. Assume your goal is to climb the tallest mountain in the world, and assume due to sudden illness, physical inability, lack of skill, or any out-of-the-road circumstances, you couldn’t reach over the top. Then, what kind of life will you consider this to be? Consequently, you will perceive it as an incomplete life, or a life of hopelessness. Probably you will consider it a half-life, or a life “en-route” or in the waiting.
In the meantime, assume your goal is to go on a journey to Egypt, to visit the Great Pyramids of Giza. Will you directly take a shortcut and use a helicopter straight ahead to the Pyramids and then back home. Here, you reached and achieved your goal, but haven’t enjoyed any moment of your journey or trip to Egypt. This is a straight-line viewpoint of life or a linear approach to life -as explained by Ichiro Kishimi.
All the experiences lie in the journey. All the fun, joy, adventures, and memories that shape life, survive in the process and not the destination. Make sure to live sincerely, soberly, thoughtfully, and properly each moment of your life; Life is a series of moments!
And now.. Let’s Dance! Let’s dance the dance of life. I danced the dance of writing and became an Author; What is your dance? What is your dance of life?
Finally, there would be no better explanation then that of Ichiro Kishimi, in his book The Courage To Be Disliked, talking about how to live life like one is dancing — "One might think of life as movement in which the process itself is treated as the outcome. Dance is like that, and so is a journey!"
Hoda Elsobky, Senior Level Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Hoda was born in Cairo, Egypt. Graduated from the American University in Cairo in 1994 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, majored in Economics and minor in Business Administration. Later, She received her MBA in Marketing. Her greatest interest lies in the fields of philosophy and positive psychology, with a focus on self help and wellness. Above all, she is passionated about happiness as a way of living! She have worked in multinational IT companies in Egypt, like IBM and Oracle, in sales, marketing and business development capacity, from 1994 till 2005. At that point she flew with her husband to live in Vienna for three years and then to Dubai. There she discovered her passion for writing.
