Is it possible to miss out on life?

[Bobby_2021]

What exactly is meant by missing out on life? Is it something objective? What are the degrees to which you can miss out on life?

Do you miss out on life by being born in the wrong place or in the wrong body? What exactly is life and what is it meant to be? 

Please share your thoughts. I may update the thread as I find more musings on this topic?

 

[Bobby_2021]

> Living in maximum engagement with reality is somewhat stressful and joyful. It is half joy and half stress that comes from engagement with reality and some amount of suffering.

> Not engaging with reality would relieve you of some suffering but reality will eventually demand more engagement from you.

Does stress and suffering mean that you are missing out on life? What does engagement with reality even gets you? And is it worth suffering for?

[Ulax]

I'd say mental illness can make you miss out on life

[An young being]

11 minutes ago, Bobby_2021 said:

> Living in maximum engagement with reality is somewhat stressful and joyful. It is half joy and half stress that comes from engagement with reality and some amount of suffering.

> Not engaging with reality would relieve you of some suffering but reality will eventually demand more engagement from you.

Does stress and suffering mean that you are missing out on life? What does engagement with reality even gets you? And is it worth suffering for?

When you are in an understanding of the connected and united state of the universe, either through direct experience or through insights, you realise that you can never miss out on anything because you are experiencing the entirety of humanity and beyond. That means what every human experiences, you have already experienced or experiencing or will experience. Imagine that you are a guy who forgets things after a year, and takes on new adventures every year. No matter whether you forget or not, you are still the same guy. Awakening helps to strengthen this insight. So, there is no worry of missing out.

Coming to engagement with universe as an individual human, it depends on the individual's desires. Do you want excitement out of life? Then you have to engage constantly with the universe, but you will have to face suffering too. Do you want a peaceful life? Then you have to spend lots of time alone, and work towards reducing your desires. You will find enormous peace, but you will have very few new experiences. If you are already suffering, you have to come into acceptance with what you have and adjust your mind to it. If you want a balanced life, then you have to make your mind equanimous and open minded and seek out new experiences. You won't be as  excited / happy /pleasurable as you were, but still you will be able to enjoy new experiences.Mindfulness and meditation will help the last two causes tremendously.

No matter what kind of person you are, there are universal habits which can increase your baseline state of happiness. Such characters are based on expanding your ego, like compassion, gratitude, forgiveness and Unconditional love. Practicing these qualities in daily life along with meditation becomes a great tool in increasing your baseline state of happiness and peace.

[MarkKol]

Of course you can, there are basic categories. Purpose, Finance, especially on girls and social life these days. If you miss out on those they can ruin you. 

There’s a decade for everything.

[An young being]

14 minutes ago, MarkKol said:

 Purpose, Finance, especially on girls and social life these days. If you miss out on those they can ruin you. 

They sure can ruin us, especially if we believe that what others do to be happy will also make us happy.

[Sabth]

Am I missing out on my life then? My social life is almost non existent. (Since I'm not working or going to a university) and my finance too .  I'm not making any money. And I'm in my late twenty. 

I had little travel if any. Because I don't have money . 

Edited November 3, 2023 by Sabth

[MarkKol]

1 hour ago, An young being said:

They sure can ruin us, especially if we believe that what others do to be happy will also make us happy.

Those are basic categories that most modern men/women need to fulfill.

Hermits and introverts don’t really know what they’re missing out on, they’re just living in ignorance of these basic pleasures. Which is why most introverts struggle with happiness and authenticity.

Edited November 3, 2023 by MarkKol

[An young being]

6 minutes ago, MarkKol said:

Those are basic categories that most modern men/women need to fulfill.

Hermits and introverts don’t really know what they’re missing out on, they’re just living in ignorance of these basic pleasures. Which is why most introverts struggle with happiness and authenticity.

1. Purpose can be anything that gives value to the individual and something very personal, and shouldn't be based on or compared to what other's purpose are our what others think our purpose should be.

2. Finance is necessary especially if the individual is struggling to meet basic survival needs. Although there is nothing wrong in earning more than necessary, making it as a life goal and utilising all time towards it only adds the stress.

3. Social life forms an important part in happiness. But limiting the definition of social life to a fixed set of family and friends means a limited world view and experiences. Even if there is no family, you can find the same pleasure by socialising with others ( including pets or animals) with an open mind.

 

[ZzzleepingBear]

The "missing out on life" is also known as,  lazy philosophy. It's quite a generic view to hold. Alot of people will probably agree with it, since everyone can understand it in a general sense without giving it much of a thought themselves.

A better word is regret, that's atleast a honest reflection on certain choices or lack there of.

[Salvijus]

A life dedicated to truth is a well spent life. A life lived in pursuit of egoic projections is life wasted. 

Edited November 3, 2023 by Salvijus

[LastThursday]

The idea of FOMO is just that: an idea. You only miss out because your reality doesn't match up with your thoughts about how reality should be. 

It's all about potentiality. Potentially I could have been a famous academic, a business person, a concert pianist, the next Elon Musk, a spiritual guru sitting alone in the mountains, a train driver (choo choo!) and on and on. It's not bad to have all that potentiality. It's even not bad, not to act on those potentialities.

Some of the problem is that you could never have been or had had some of the the things you want. In other words unrealistic expectations. A big dose of realism is helpful against FOMO. Also, some of the things you want would not have fitted your temperament or lifestyle: being Elon Musk is probably very stressful.

Life isn't meant to really be anything in particular. It's a totally open game in that respect. But you will always be constrained in some way by it, and so the ability to actualise the things you want will always be limited in some way, by time, by money, by circumstance, by state of mind.

So knowing that the feeling of missing out just comes from your own mind, will help in combating those feelings.

 

Edited November 3, 2023 by LastThursday

[Razard86]

How can you miss out...on what you are? If you are life....how can you miss out? If you aren't alive....then there is no life.

Edited November 3, 2023 by Razard86

[Francis777]

The only way your missing out on life is if you deliberately and consciously spend it not doing what you really want to do.

Only you can decide if your living up to that.

Edited November 3, 2023 by Francis777

[Hojo]

im not sure what it means, life is about experience it literally dosent matter what the experience is. you are witnessing infinity on every level and we are here to witness infinity. when people say you arent living properly what does that even mean. even mental illness is a path to experience the infinite mind of a human. if its bad you learn for later lives. Nothing matters look at everything

Edited November 3, 2023 by Hojo

[UnbornTao]

Missing out is a function of desiring what you don't have.

In life you have to get clear on what you want and make decisions. You can't do nor have everything. If you go this way, you won't go that way. Pursuing a course of action means you won't be pursuing something else. For you to create anything at all requires commitment and discipline. This already means part of your attention and effort are invested in that. 

You could also not commit to anything and thus remain bound to your temporary impulses, but the direction of commitment is the enlivening one.

Edited November 6, 2023 by UnbornTao

[Basman]

It is a matter of perspective. It depends on your standards, really. If you have no standards, then it is not really possible to miss out because you don't care. But most people have certain standards, things that they want for themselves. Therefor they miss out when those standards aren't met.

I think social media causes a lot of people to feel like they are missing out nowadays.

[SeaMonster]

9 hours ago, Francis777 said:

The only way your missing out on life is if you deliberately and consciously spend it not doing what you really want to do.

Pretty much.  I would say "not doing what you want to AND COULD BE doing" (in other words nothing is stopping you but you.)

[Applegarden8]

On 11/3/2023 at 7:26 AM, Bobby_2021 said:

What exactly is meant by missing out on life? Is it something objective? What are the degrees to which you can miss out on life?

Do you miss out on life by being born in the wrong place or in the wrong body? What exactly is life and what is it meant to be? 

Please share your thoughts. I may update the thread as I find more musings on this topic?

 

Are you referring missing out related to a section in your life (some duration of this birth) or all lifetimes encompassing entire reality?

[Bobby_2021]

Existentially speaking, you cannot miss out on life since life is infinity, and you are exploring all possibilities in life. It is impossible to miss out on life.

But as far as an individual ego is concerned, it can miss out on life on factors that are outside of its control. Maybe being born with shitty genetics or being born in a war-torn part of the world with poor opportunities or severely traumatic childhoods.

On 4/11/2023 at 11:15 PM, Applegarden8 said:

Are you referring missing out related to a section in your life (some duration of this birth) or all lifetimes encompassing entire reality?

I am just asking in general. Is it possible to miss out on life, either way?

On 3/11/2023 at 6:55 PM, Francis777 said:

The only way your missing out on life is if you deliberately and consciously spend it not doing what you really want to do.

Only you can decide if your living up to that.

But it is not that simple, isn't it? How do you figure out what you really want to do? There are many things that you think you want to do has pretty bad consequences in your life.

Those kids who play video games and being reddit mods online could be well wasting their precious teenage and 20s. But they have a difficulty in figuring out what exactly what they really want. They are deluded.

On 4/11/2023 at 3:51 AM, Basman said:

It is a matter of perspective. It depends on your standards, really. If you have no standards, then it is not really possible to miss out because you don't care. But most people have certain standards, things that they want for themselves. Therefor they miss out when those standards aren't met.

I think social media causes a lot of people to feel like they are missing out nowadays.

So essentially, it is just about not caring. If you think you are missing out on life, you are and if you do not, you are not.