The Art of Slowing Down
Posted on | May 11, 2009 |
Today started in typical Monday style - all sorts of things needing to be done, some of which were rather time-consuming. I found myself wrestling with getting the video interviews onto my website, unsuccessfully. They are on Youtube, on Facebook, but not - as yet - on my website. Clearly this called for more expertise than I have, but that didn’t stop me persevering needlessly.
I think you can see the pattern.
Then I found I had no stamps for my niece’s birthday card - the postal rates have gone up again - and so I prepared to sprint to the post office. As I reached for my keys a quarter fell out of my pocket and began to roll away from me. My first reaction was to scurry after it before it went under some piece of furniture and forced me to dive under a table for it. But then I held myself back. I watched the coin roll away. As it slowed it began to tip, which made it go into a curve. And then it described a graceful ellipse and rolled right back to my foot.
Had I chased it, it would have wound up here anyway, and I’d have probably found myself pushing things around shamelessly, probably muttering things under my breath. Instead it came back, without any extra effort from me. Sometimes more rushing and scrambling is just not necessary.
Lesson taken.
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Hi—I’m Allan Hunter, author of The Six Archetypes of Love and Stories We Need to Know as well as two books on writing for self-exploration, Life Passages and The Sanity Manual. If you’re looking to live your best life I hope you’ll find lots of inspiration here.
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May 12th, 2009 @ 11:31 pm
I can relate to this so much, Allan.
Since September I have been charging through the work/financial aspect of my life, scaling obstacle after obstacle, only to find the roadblocks becoming larger and larger as they loom in the horizon. Then just last week I stopped obsessing about every little detail, and made a conscious decision to live my whole life with ease -including the disrupted/dysfunctional worklife.
I’m not sure if it was the timing of the decision or the decision itself, but I am aware of a shift in perspective, and a feeling that my life is now flowing along as it was meant to do.
I will remember your quarter spiraling away from you and spiraling back again. It is the perfect visual cue for practicing patience.
Thank you,
Jean
May 13th, 2009 @ 12:34 am
Dear Jean,
It’s those little things that get us off kilter, isn’t it? One thing after another and we find ourselves worn down by them to the point at which they feel like BIG things. But they so seldom are as big as we think.
With a smile, as I learn to practice patience, or at least attempt to learn that skill.
Allan