Works of Heart, Inc.

I was thinking the other day how fast time seems to pass.  As a child it seemed that it took forever for your birthday to arrive or for the Holiday Season to begin.  This past March I turned 50 – and as I look back, especially at this past year I realize that the 365 days have flown by.

How many of us get embroiled in the pace of our society?  We are inundated with information in a split-second.  We are attached to our cell phones, our email (through our cell phones), we seem to be rushed all the time, too much to do and not enough time to do it all.  Many times we’re mentally scattered, we feel out of control, we are so focused on work that we lose our priorities like loved ones and kindness.  Some of us may feel a pit in our stomach responding to pressures of our lives, we’re impatient, have lost our compassion and lost a zest for life.  I know sometimes I forget to breathe.

When I overload, I try to breathe.  I take a few minutes and just connect with my breath, I imagine myself in slow motion – physically and emotionally.  I count my breaths in one minute because research has proven that if you breathe more than 15 times in one minute, that your brain is sending a mild fight-or-flight message to your body.  If you slow down your breathing , your body will respond.  It’s just a few minutes each day, it’s just time – time invested in you.

As I examine this past year I realize that I could have created more time.  A few moments here, an hour or so there – but it would mean that I had to change my perspective.

I realized that over the past year I’ve lost many moments, even hours in a state of worry, negativity or entwined in a drama with someone or something.  I had to ask myself, “What if I had stopped grasping, stopped pushing, and just stepped back and looked at the person or situation and accepted it?” – versus dwelling on it for minutes, hours, or days.  How much time would I have saved?  How much better would I have felt with peace of mind?”

Not too long ago I read an interview with the Dalai Lama and he was asked what he thought about the many years of strife in Tibet.  His response has changed me.  He kindly and softly said something like this – they have destroyed our monasteries, killed or maimed our monks, burned our sacred texts – why do you think I would allow them to take my peace of mind?  I realized that my peace of mind had been taken – by me.  I realized that had I learned to develop more peace of mind I could have saved myself pain and time.

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