Racing against time…
When I first learned about the phrase racing against time, I thought it impossible. To race against time, we need time to begin with. How can we ever win over it? But our lives made us wage a battle against time on a daily basis. We rush so much to make it to the nearest bus-stop or office that we often end up harming our own bodies and minds. The stress we experience often translates into bouts of intense anger on trivial situations and actions of others.
Since the time Einstein discovered relativity, the phrase “time is relative” has become a cliche. But it is quite true, nevertheless, and we can all personally verify this. Suppose we have 30 minutes to finish our morning chores. We might think rushing all of our actions can save time. But it need not be so. During our holiday we can try this experiment. We can wake up and still brush and bathe, but this time mindfully. We don’t rush but we learn to enjoy brushing slowly, stopping by at each tooth and saying hello to it. We can bathe in a similar way. When we come out of the bathroom we will be often surprised that we spent less time compared to the time we rushed. We can try this out again and again.
When we brush mindfully, we brush our teeth alone — and not our worries and thoughts about the future. With this practice we slowly gain insight into the — surprising yet real — fact that our worries and anxieties consume toothpaste, water and all other resources as well. By keeping them aside and focusing on our teeth alone, we use less toothpaste and water and get the satiated/completeness feeling right away. Same with bathing.
We can’t race against time. By giving things the due attention, we give the time, its due attention. When we perceive time at time’s rate, time becomes our friend. Because time is our friend, we can slow down the rate of destruction on our planet and preserve the compassion in our heart — for a long ‘time’.
