We humans are a speedy species. How many times have you heard or said, “hurry up”, “let’s get going”, “gotta run”. It’s innocent, many of us were reared on go-go-go with the only slow-mode reserved for colds, sniffles, illness or recovery from accidents.

How quick is a thought? Science says that some well-insulated nerve pathways receive information at up to 120 meters per second. There’s a clue in there…speed… and when the mind is driving, we accelerate “Vrooom - We’re off! In go-mode, we can be way “off” the natural pace of Life with its ebb and flow, the to and fro movement of outward action and inward rest.

What happens when an engine “red-lines” for an extensive period of time? It overheats as it exceeds its maximum capacity, it loses its structural strength as components are torn apart. Yes, these are machines yet human minds use bodies that also experience wear and tear when the stress caused by the squirrely-thinking mind red-lines on a daily basis. We’ve heard the reports from Mind and Body Science that chronic stress decreases immune function when stress hormones are over-produced for extended time. So, why do we do it?

Innocence. Deeply-ingrained conditioning patterns drive the thinking mind. Thoughts fire, they’re believed to be true and off we go. What do we do? We attempt to outrun the “past” or chase a “future” moment of fulfillment.
We try to catch up, we strive to get ahead. We’re driven by these thoughts and miss the moment of Right Now, which doesn’t seem too very important.

This one moment, Now, doesn’t seem to be enough. And yet, Now is What Is,
All That Is and we completely miss it.

Remember those moments when we’ve been sick. When life had to slow down,
and our daily routine came to a halt. What thoughts coursed through the mind?
“I wish this was over, I gotta get back on track, I don’t have time for this, I’m getting so far behind…”. Sometimes Life responds in mysterious ways to restore balance.

Could we consider that these “delays” might be little gifts of Grace? Small stretches of time to catch our breath, to ease into the inherent timing and rhythm of Life? Can we recognize this opportunity? Could we allow ourselves to gear-down, to look, listen, watch and observe? Life’s timing as the Now is not motionless. Moments approach, crest and fall, just like the tide with waves rolling in followed by the tide going out. Just like the breath, the beautiful rhythm of inward inhalation and outward exhalation, movement wrapped in oxygenated stillness.

Gone are the days when we were children attempting to match our parents’ stride with 3 running jumps of our own. “C’mon, don’t dawdle!” Perhaps we heard innocently ignorant feedback that we were “too slow”, “being lazy”, “daydreaming like a ninny”. Our adult sensibility has the right to investigate its rhythms, to question whether these thoughts-now-on-a-mental-feedback-loop are true.

Negative judgments need comparison for validity. What if Life – As Us – is perfectly content with how it’s showing up in this Now moment, with nothing extra needed? How might our pace change if there’s no comparison with another? If there is no need to disprove the negative feedback from the past? Who might we be were we to let go of our mental picture of “a future” we’re striving to “get to”?

It’s OK to slow down, to breathe, to take it all in, to simply Be, Present, Now. We are the permission we’ve always sought. If the Now wants to hug you, will you open your arms?

If the Now wants to speak to you, wouldn’t you be curious to hear what It wishes to say? No need to believe a word you’ve read, test it for yourself.

Slow down, take the nap, rock in the hammock, lie back and find the shapes in the clouds. You won't be kicked off the Earth, you're not being "lazy". The deepest and closest part of You is waiting for your invitation to reveal Itself and it does so in the Now. It can’t help it because the Truth of Who You Are is irresistible.

With You as Awakening Unfolds