(Last updated Jun. 27, 2017)

Are You Always in a Hurry? Here are Some Tips How to Stop Rushing Through Life

“I’m in no hurry: the sun and the moon aren’t, either.” - Alberto Kaeiro

Being in a constant state of hurry is not good for your health. If you are too strict with regard to time planning and management, you may increase your risk of various health conditions, not to mention you are never in a state of peace.

I used to have problems with getting on time where I was supposed to be: a business meeting, family lunch, lectures, you name it. I was always late, despite the constant hurry and checking the time. These situations were very embarrassing for me, but to no avail, I would rarely get in time, and my jobs took forever to be finished.

I'm no longer in a state of hurry, I do my work with love, on time, and without pressure. I no longer wear a watch, but I know exactly what's the time. I'm never late, and I keep my promises. My immunity has improved, as well as my resilience to stress. And the moment I started to be punctual, I went deeper into peace and calm.

In time, the fruits of this blessing took me into a deeper level of spiritual consciousness and created a fruitful soil for deeper enlightenments. My path is not an instant method of spiritual development, but it is a sure and steady way of progress, without too many uncertainties and without the need to make many steps back.

Let's see how you can decide not to be in a hurry, and still manage to do your job in time. This can be a contradiction just at first sight.

It seems that everything around us is in a state of constant rush. So, how can we be calm and not engaged, and at the same time productive, active, and successful?

We often try to show other people how busy we are. We want them to know that we are hard workers. The reason is simple: we have the wrong preconception that being a successful and important person means having a tight schedule and a lot of obligations.

We are trained to think that being preoccupied is a good thing. We strive to achieve more, we do our best to reach a new, higher level.

In order to achieve more we:

• analyze everything around us,
• judge,
• want to be in control,
• are worried about what comes next.

This "hurry sickness" doesn't allow us to live our lives the way we are supposed to. Why wouldn't we be grateful for the beauty of the sunrise instead of worrying that we will miss our morning cup of coffee? Why wouldn't we be grateful for the light rain, instead of immediately looking for our umbrella? Why wouldn't we be grateful for this incredible body we have been given as a gift, instead of trying to find its flaws?

Where is the problem? The problem is in our future-oriented mindset, with the accompanied constant looking back. We trade the present moment for a future fantasy. This has deep consequences. This means we are never going to be happy, because there will always be something missing, something to complement our "perfect" picture about ourselves.

There is no happiness in the future, nor there is one in the past. Happiness can only be here and now. We play the wrong game all the time.

The other side of the problem is the little voice inside our head that tries to convince us that:

• we have to hurry or otherwise we won't be able to finish what we have started, and
• we should never forget how little time there is to do it.

This is a painful urge many people feel. It makes them think about the next task, instead of concentrating on the current one. As a result, some of them resort to a more or less successful multitasking, performing several tasks at the same time, from morning till the end of the day.

You can change everything if you accept the mindset of slow action. Start in time, get rid of any speed, and enjoy your life. Rest assured that you will manage to do everything in time. Here's how:

Change Your Lifestyle

First thing you need to do is to affirm to yourself that the slow, relaxed rhythm makes your life better in many ways. If you could change only this one principle, you life would be transformed as if by magic.

Think about it. For example, do you enjoy reading a book slowly or with speed reading? Or, do you enjoy your food when you eat slowly, or when you swallow it down your throat. To eat slowly means to be conscious during a meal, to enjoy.

Eating can be a great starting point to practice this lifestyle change. Serve yourself smaller portions. Take smaller bites of food. Chew your food thoroughly. Make small breaks by putting down your fork or spoon from time to time. This will help you relax and chew your food instead of gulping it down.

Life is a gift. Enjoy it, appreciate it... and in order to be able to do that, you have to slow down. Change your mindset. Make a firm decision that from now on you will adopt the mindset of living slowly. It means your life will be ruled by the following principles:

• Life is great when you enjoy in it.
• Work is great when you are committed to it.

When you change your mindset, slowly but surely you will find yourself on the path of creating a great, satisfying life, unshakable in its essence.

If you are ready to take control of your life and slow down, here are some tips how to do that:

Tips for a Slow Living

Use the following tips to make some changes in your life, changes that will strengthen your resolution to stop being in a hurry:

1. Plan a smaller number of tasks by eliminating the non-important ones. Focus on quality, rather than quantity.
2. Work on the most important things first. Every morning start with the most important jobs. Let the end of your working day be reserved for less important projects or tasks you can do routinely.
3. Reduce the number of meetings. They waste your time, and your time is not unlimited. Not to mention that you often have to run from one meeting to another.
4. Turn off your devices. Reserve some time during the day when your devices (cell phone, TV, social networks, email notifications, etc.) are switched off.
5. Sit down for 10 minutes and do nothing. This is a fantastic exercise. It can help you so much. In fact, it can be so efficient that everyone should be doing it. It is so simple that you don't need any directions. Just sit there and do nothing. Don't check your phone. Don't think about the past. Don't plan the future. Let your thoughts run without clinging to them. Resist being involved in thoughts that present themselves as important. You will have plenty of time to think about them after the 10 minutes are over.
6. Find time to walk, mediate, be with the people you love, or simply read a book. Whatever activity you have chosen to do, do it slowly and with joy.
7. Get rid of some non-essential duties. Maybe you think that having a lot of responsibilities can improve the quality of your life, but the opposite is true. Eliminate everything that is not essential. Do you have too many hobbies and classes? Is your social life too demanding? One by one eliminate the responsibilities that are not important. Leave only the most important ones.
8. Practice meditation. Nothing can help you as much as meditation. It can show you how to appreciate your life, here and now. It can teach you how to be entirely present no matter what you do. Meditation can decrease stress and anxiety, replenish your depleted energy stores, and improve health in general.

If you find the idea of practicing meditation a waste of time, know that meditation is exactly what you need.

Here is how you can meditate:

Stop whatever you are doing and focus on your breathing. As you follow each breath, pay attention to the sensations of your body. Don't do anything with those sensations. Don't interfere, judge, or try to change them.

If a thought comes, and it will, that's for sure, let it go by, and return to following the breath.

New thoughts will come and go, and you will have to repeat the above step every time.

All of a sudden, you will see, feel, or experience the door of the present moment of your inner being starts to open. You can't miss this moment because it will make you unusually alive, awake, and invigorated.

Once you have experienced the beauty of the present moment, you will never forget it. Once that happens, the peace of and the life in the present moment will become your priority. Eventually, your life will become a string of mutually connected present moments, something that will bring new, fantastic states of consciousness.

Quotes About Rushing

Are you aware that rushing toward a goal is a sublimated death wish? It's no coincidence we call them 'deadlines. ― Tom Robbins,

Whose idea was it that we should all get jobs, work faster, work better, race from place to place with our brains stewing on tweets, blogs, and sound bites, on must-see movies, must-do experiences, must-have gadgets, when in the end, all any of us will have is our simple beating heart, reaching up for the connection to whoever might be in the room or leaning into our mattress as we draw our last breath? ― Dee Williams

Nature does not rush things, humans do; when we rush things, we often miss the lessons nature embedded in it ― Aniekee Tochukwu Ezekiel

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Comments:

joe
06-27-2017

Research has shown that certain types of personalities are more prone to the so called time urgency syndrome. Time urgency promotes anxiety and emotional impatience and even anger. When you try to accomplished too much too quick, you also develop bad habits, like virtually no exercise, fast food consumption, and having no stress buffers like hobbies.

sunnyray
06-27-2017

Thanks for the input, joe. Good points.