In my country, we often say that you only live once, and you should enjoy it to the fullest. Why would you force yourself to do something that is not comfortable? Why not eat that cake that makes you feel so good?

I am unsure who expressed this for the first time, but I thought about what this sentence means. Do we, in fact, interpret this correctly? In the end, everyone interprets things their way.

It may be just my surroundings, but I often see and do it, too. Living in the moment means forgetting the future. Do we use this to fall in our indulgences and forget to keep our future in mind? Does living in the moment mean eating unhealthy daily and saying we will start exercising next week? Does it mean to enjoy the 5th cup of coffee with our friend? Does it mean forgetting our goals?

Wait a second, do we actually have a goal in life? Why would we need a goal when we live in the present moment? It feels like we are falling back to a hedonistic way of living. Why did we stop caring about our future? Why do we only solve our problems as they come? Why not use prevention?

Paradoxically, our pursuit of always-pleasure-seeking right at the moment prevents us from having it in the future. Having it in a form we can’t see because of the way we live. So what is it that is so important that we should always carry a thought of in our minds?

You know the song when we sing Happy Birthday to our close ones. In Slovak, we sing: “Veľa šťastia, zdravia, …” which means a lot of luck and health, many times with an emphasis on health.  It’s an autopilot we turned on, it’s like the poem we memorized back in the days. We memorize and we repeat but the meaning has long been forgotten. We take our health for granted. We don’t take care of it, we only realize its true importance once it’s broken or cannot be reversed. The lifestyle we live makes us feel crappy before we even reach the age of 30. We’re getting old, it’s normal. But is it?

When I was preparing my coffee the other day, I remembered a quote from the Bible: “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

I wasn’t a big fan of random people interpreting the Bible, but we can talk about that next time. I couldn’t help but try to interpret my own version of these words. My body is a temple and I need to take care of it because I was given powers. I was allowed to live in this world, and through my powers and my potential, I can do something great while feeling fulfilled. But to do that, I need to take care of my body because it’s here to serve my mind. I wasn’t given the “superpowers” to make myself happy but to serve something bigger than myself. And through this, I hope to find fulfillment. I don’t know yet what it is for me, but I am on my way to find it.