Have you noticed that most everything these days is done at a fast pace. We need to do things fast, get somewhere fast, work fast, eat fast, talk fast, listen fast and even to think fast. What are we doing? and why are we doing this to ourselves and setting this example for our children? I am one who was quite wrapped up in this for many years and still sometimes find myself in this state. A friend just yesterday told me that she was an expert at multi-tasking, which is another method of doing things fast. Doing several tasks quickly in an effort to get them all done. But why the need? Are we that short of time that we need to race through everything. We are rewarded for being able to multi-task though. We have been led to believe that it is a good thing when in fact I believe it is damaging. Our lives are running at full speed and I often wonder where it is we are all racing to. We are addicted to 'the fast lane' in many areas of our lives. We race through our morning routine with ourselves and the kids possibly so that we can get to work and move quickly through our work day. And then we need to race home to quickly put dinner on the table (or maybe not table and simply eat on the 'run') and then do who knows what during the evening (laundry, homework, errands, etc) to catch up on things that need to be done before the next day is upon us. This is all too much. Day in and day out of these habits will undoubtedly catch up with us either physically, psychologically or spiritually. It just will. But instead we have been brainwashed into thinking and believing that this is all a good thing. The more things you can check off your list the better a person you are. Whew!....makes me tired just thinking about it. We have been living with something called 'fast food' for years and years and to counteract that we have something called the 'slow food' movement. We need a movement to return ourselves back to 'real' food and how it benefits us and the planet. Once again we got caught up in the marketing of food that was based soley on brainwashing us into believing that fast was good. And we bought into it.
I know for me it was a way to 'accomplish' myself. I thought that with all that I could 'do' I would be seen as more valuable and worthy. So, for me it was personal and filling a need inside of myself. I look at others and wonder what their needs are and why they are racing through life. What are we missing out on though when we are racing through life. I'm sure we will say that we aren't missing anything, but we barely know that because we are simply moving too fast and wouldn't recognize it anyway. We have bought into the whole package of speed equaling personal power and reward. I'm just not so sure about this. Studies show that we are a frantic society. Studies show that we have more stress related illness than ever before. We are becoming bankrupt in our efforts to accomplish so much in such a small amount of time. The expression 'time is running out' is now so true. We are 'running' out of time to be able to change these habits in ourselves and turn a new page in our lives and how many pages are left to turn before the book is done. Can we affort to keep putting this off? When are we going to recognize all of this and make some changes. I know for myself it only happened when I saw that all this was making me sick......physically, psychologically and spiritually.
Inside of every moment there are only the same 60 seconds each time. It doesn't matter how fast we go, it is still only those same 60 seconds and if we try to fill that time with more and more we are going to lose alot. We must slow down.......we need to be more mindful, we need to see inside of the present moment and live in it. Once each and every moment is spent it is then history. It has been written and we can't go back to change it. We can though look at how we might spend our next moment and live it differently. We need to take the time to breathe........to slow down our lives and truly experience them in a way that won't look like a blur. For myself it has taken a long time to make the changes I needed to make. Some were big decisions that carried with them big consequences, but they were the biggest lessons too. I still have to be careful of my behaviors because life long habits and engrained patterns live long lives. Shaking them is sometimes hard. So I 'slowy' am slowing down my life and it is allowing me to breathe better, feel better and be a better person to myself first and then others. Half of my life is probably over and it took me this long to 'get it'. So the last half of my life will look different and thankfully so.
Start your own 'slow' movement and make the changes that you need to make and move forward in life. Start living life inside of each moment and feel each second of those 60. You will only have them one time. Yes, there is always another minute after the last one, but use it wisely. The old adage that states 'life is too short' is something we need to stop saying and start living today. I just don't want you to miss out on your life and hear you say that you wished you had had more time.....because you did have the time. We all did.
I wish for you joy in each moment.
Namaste.......
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