Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Speed Kills


Have you ever noticed on a day that you are NOT in a hurry how many other people around you are in a hurry?

I try never to rush....after I leave my house and my car! What I mean by that is I'm always trying to get "one more thing done" before heading out the door...which makes me late most often...something that I've had insight about recently (and feel that I can now change). Then I get into my car...late, of course....and rush to where it is I need to be. But once I get where I'm going....

Once I get where I'm going I'm fine, in fact I'm more than fine. I regularly let other people in front of me at check stands. I regularly wait patiently to be waited on, and when a service person apologizes for making me wait I always reply, "no problem, I'm not in a hurry!" Really! I'm not in a hurry! Lucky me!

I don't have kids to chauffeur around to school, appointments or events. I don't have a job I need to make a living from so I have no boss. What reason could I ever have to rush? Rushing is stressful!

In the past week I've focused a little more attention on "living in the moment" and how even this applies to how fast I eat. I'm kind of a "speedy eater", I admit. Often I find myself eating another spoonful, forkful, of food before I'm done with the one already in my mouth. It's also rare that I sit at the table with the only intention of eating. I often eat in the kitchen, standing, or at my computer. Personally after reflecting on these eating habits these past two weeks I don't find anything wrong with the latter but I do find room for improvement on the former....eating quickly.

I eat quickly because I'm hungry! Or I think I'm hungry....but really....I have to ask myself, am I going to "pass out" from hunger? No, of course not. I think we are so used to eating on schedule or of being in a hurry that it can feel hard to slow things down. Part of this whole "minimalism" movement I'm going in the direction of is making me more aware of how I spend my time. All we have is time, right?

I've made a deal with myself. No matter what I'm eating, where I'm eating it, or how much I'm eating, I will make a more conscious effort to acknowledge and enjoy my foods. How nice is that?



4 comments:

Marie said...

That's VERY nice! And as I just heard said the other day- "time is the one thing that we all have an equal amount of- it does not discriminate, and it is exact." It's how we use it that matters!

Maribel said...

OMG, rushing around is the story of my life! A lot of it are things that are out of my control and that's ok, I can adapt. The things I can control I do and I cherish that time.

Confession. Saturday mornings, even though training is at 9am, I leave the house at 7:30am, I grab coffee and I'm usually outside of Girya by 8:30. I sit in the car and I read, or knit, or just just relax and contemplate before I come in. This is the time This time to slow down and not feel any sort of pressure is MY moment. It's bliss.

Tracy Reifkind said...

Marie,

I've had some workaholic tendencies in the past....overbooking myself with appt when I worked in a Salon. I would have never thought to cancel a clients appt, but I used to think that if I died what would happen? The world keeps turning....just as if you had never been here.

I think we should be respectful of other people's time for sure, but overbooking and creating stress just isn't worth it...the world will keep turning....

Tracy Reifkind said...

Maribel,

Recently I've heard some interesting theories about people that are always late....besides not being attractive I got some new insight.

One of the things I read about often is how when we are motivated by something we care about we make sure we are on time!