How quickly time passes! How many times have we said these words? How many times have we heard them around us? But does time pass or only we pass through time…? We run, are in a hurry, and realize that life is slipping away.

For years I was in a constant rush. I was trying to do many things in as little time as possible. The speed I used to have made one of my friends call me “Speedy Gonzales” :).

However, with all that rush, my day had no more or fewer hours than anyone else’s. I neither received nor had the hours of my days taken away from me. I was the one stealing them. We are the ones who take them.

We are in a continuous running, from the fear existing in us and educated that we miss something if we don’t hurry. Thus, we march through life and complain that it passes too quickly.

The most valuable thing we have is the moment, it is a now, and we do not know. When we hurry, we miss the moment and life. As the Buddha said, life is only lived in the present. The present is all we have. When missing it, we miss living our lives.

Slowing down

Life becomes better if we slow down enough to realize and appreciate it. Focusing doesn’t “take” time, but it gives it.

Dr. Stephen Rechtschaffen

It took me years to understand that I was actually doing a lot more things when I was taking time for myself. After slowing down, I could return to the previous problems and get back into my rhythm, but with the pleasure of continuing.

In our society, we can relax only when we have finished our work. Everything is only within limits. Everything is conditional. Following the march imposed by society, we don’t even give time to ourselves anymore. On our list of priorities, time for ourselves is there at the bottom of the list, maybe even the last on it.

The rhythms that we see around us and follow belong to society. They are not our rhythms, of our selves. They are not the authentic, individual ones.

Doing something else, simply looking out the window or staring into space, we experience guilt. And when we realize that we have broken our rhythm, we feel culpability and fear, and there are often consequences – warnings from others.

We learn that small things have no value, and details are for others not for us. This way, we throw treasures of our souls into the dustbin. Yet, they wish to be brought to light. For that, they need a different rhythm, and they need you. The authentic you in the now.

Slowing down, we become aware of our surroundings. A short break to look at the clear sky or enjoy a flower that came your way gives you a different rhythm. Reading or washing dishes, singing or listening to music, bring you back to the present. The small things bring you relaxation and a change in the rhythm of your life. They bring you to the present moment.

Without changing the rhythm, without time for ourselves,

we are machines in the service of family, bosses and linear time, and life passes us by.

Dr. Stephen Rechtschaffen

Opening the gate

However, life teaches us if we want to listen to it, to change our speed, change our rhythm. Slowing down, we open the gate to now, to the present.

Let’s say everyone has the key to slowing down. It is the permission to feel that we are here without running between the past and an unknown future, with no skipping the present.

The gate to the present is opened by us when we allow ourselves to do so. Listening to your inner voice telling you to read, sing, listen to music, paint, and write in a journal. You open the gate for yourself, and it is not a miracle.

The real miracle is not walking on water. The real miracle is to step on the green earth of the present moment and appreciate the peace and beauty offered to you now. We only have to find the ways to bring our mind and body back to the present, so that we can achieve what we can heal, invigorate and enjoy.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Is time or us rushing?

Love,

Manuela

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