Go slow, for I am in a hurry, my dad used to say.
But, why is it that we seem to live in a constant rush? To go places, to buy stuff, to get things done?
Things will take as long as they need to take. Oh, but that freaks us out! We're slaves to the clock.
I used to be so stressed over time until I realized it was a stupid thing to do. We have no control over time. It's true that our perception of time is limited and linear, even though science has proven this to be wrong. We still have to organize our day around 24 hours, counted in minutes and seconds, and it's ok to have some structure, even necessary.
But it's also true that we can only experience time in the present moment. Eckhart Tolle explains this in his wonderful book The Power of Now: neither the past or the future is real, but nevertheless, our minds wander from one to the other.
When we hustle and run, our minds are living in the future. There's always some other place we should be, some other task we should be doing, and thus worry and anxiety kick in. This habit is so common in our modern society that we usually don't even notice it. We simply run here and there like crazy and wonder why we feel exhausted at the end of the day.
Heres how I've learned to say no to rush.
1. Your body speaks. You stumble, you fall, you drop things. My personal favorite is leaving the car keys inside the car. What can I say, I like challenges. This happens because your mind and your body are in different places.
2. Your breathing speaks. Short, shallow breathing means you're anxious. Why? Is there something wrong? Is there a real threat of danger?
3. Your mind speaks. You forget things; you skip meetings, you screw tasks. You make stupid mistakes, and you have to do it all over again just because you weren't paying attention.
To these signs, say NO, no rush, no hurry, no worry. Stop, slow down.
That's what I've been focusing on the past week. The result: a more paced, happy, relaxed me. And also a more productive one, BTW.
The solution: assign more realistic time spans to your daily tasks. Plan for the unplanned, and accept the fact that sometimes things don't turn out as you thought they would.
And it's ok; you'll make it anyway.