On a trip to Japan, I was struck by the culture’s meditative way of being in the world. I loved watching the people there move through all the aspects of being human; they seemed less burdened. Even simple daily tasks were approached with more reverence and peace of mind.
They are obviously famous for their tea ceremonies, but even preparing a meal, getting ready for work, walking the dog, and tidying their space were done with a sense of calm. I was especially drawn to their appreciation for their space. They would bow to their office at the end of the work day, saying goodbye and thanking it for another day, then turning off the light and heading home—a simple ritual I loved.
A lesson in how the spirit in which we move through our lives gets infused into our love for ourselves and others.
Can you imagine bowing to the gym and your office before you leave? Most of us are like, “shew, thank God that’s over! I’m ready to go home and watch Bravo!” (I mean this is what I hear other people say, I’ve never said that …).
Meanwhile, I feel like a big American goal is to make life as frictionless and fast as possible – fast-diet, fast-fashion, fast-food, fast goal-reaching, fast commutes and so on.
However, as the saying goes, “what we resist persists.”
The more we work to avoid stress, the more it haunts us. When we try to cut corners, find the fastest way forward, and save time, it can cost us in other ways (e.g., our sanity).
But when we can just slow down and find our way back to the present moment, we can often see things a little more clearly.
Once, on a snorkeling trip, I swam about flapping my fins, searching for ocean life. I thought – this is boring; I would rather watch fish on TV; I don’t see anything – soon, I got tired and let myself float, and… viola, sea life emerged. As I looked closer, it slowly came forward from every crevice of the ocean floor – tons of colorful fish, sea snails, coral, brightly colored anemones, sea sponges. I began to see a world appear waiting for me to slow down enough to notice.
It reminds me of the John Steinbeck quote: “Lord, how the day passes! It’s like a life – so quickly when we don’t watch it and so slowly when we do.”
Overwhelm keeps us stuck in a perpetual state of hustle and bustle and can cause us to lose ourselves in the grind.
But, today, I invite you to zoom out. What keeps you in a state of overwhelm, and what would happen if you were suddenly free of it?
Most of us are surprised when we go on vacation to get “away” only to find our anxiety and neuroses are waiting for us (albeit in a much more exotic location).
Maybe we are hooked on overwhelm and gaining more and doing more, and we’ve lost the ability to slow down and just be. To live a life of meaning, we must make efforts to get off the addiction of stress and back into the experience of life with all its ups and downs.
Life is no peach, and it’s not easy, but if we can connect with ourselves we can live with greater meaning and joy.
Please join us back here on Thursday for more practical tips on how to manage overwhelm.
In the meantime, float on ….
