“If you have lived an experience fully, completely, have you not found that it leaves no traces behind? It is only the incomplete experiences that leave their mark. . . Only when an experience is completed is there renewal.” — J. Krishnamurti
You renew your Netflix subscription or driver’s license after its validity is complete. Likewise, you renew yourself after an experience when it’s complete.
But we rarely manage to get this right. Think about a vacation; many of us don’t feel half as rejuvenated as we hoped. Because we were not able to disconnect from work, or we overscheduled activities, or we incessantly worried about how things would be once the vacation ended.
But if you deeply experienced the few things you did on the vacation (including relaxing without your smartphone), you’d return to regular life feeling refreshed. True, you would felt a slight pang in the beginning because you missed the fun, but you could throw yourself back into life quickly. And you would tell yourself, “The next vacation will be just as fun because I know how to enjoy it.”
Treat every experience in life—novel or mundane—like this. Live it up fully and then walk away feeling renewed.