The title of this blog post feels like heresy in today’s world. We were forced to slow down in the early days of the pandemic. For some of us, that was a tremendous relief; for others it led to depression and claustrophobia. Now, that we are back to “normal” many of us are returning to our previous habits where life is crammed with as much as we can fit into it.
Clearly, there are things to get done; people to tend, dishes to wash, work to perform. So, that isn’t going away. But what if we could navigate through our lives with just a little more patience, just a little more grace?
Wouldn’t that make all that must be done that much more pleasant? Recently, in one of our Sanctuary Sunday classes on Key Atttitudes of Mindfulness, we explored Patience. More, specifically, we explored what it is that knocks us off our intention to be serenely patient with Whatever Comes.
If you examine your own mind and its reactions, you might find that a common cause of impatience is rushing.
When we rush, we immediately establish ourselves in conflict with the time we have. It’s that simple. We are trying to get through whatever we are doing NOW in order to get to whatever we think is NEXT. Only to find that the NEXT thing becomes the NOW that we have to rush through. Pretty soon, we are just careening through our days — impatient with whatever it is that is getting in our way.
And yet… those things that are “getting in your way?” they also happen to be your life.
What if we committed to not rushing? What if we agreed to take just one day, or even just one block of time and considered what it would be like to not hurry through? As soon as you take this attitude of non-rushing and really embrace it, you will notice very quickly that your body relaxes, your pulse may slow, your breath calm. All from a simple commitment.
This points to a bigger concept. That, quite often, when we make a determination to be/experience something differently (such as “I will be more patient”), we need to get at a root cause and work with that.
Try not rushing for a set time. See how it feels.
Then join us for Sanctuary Sunday where we work with many kinds of teachings and experiences to make your life calmer, more fulfilled.