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Too busy to slow down? What if you knew that the very act of slowing down to admire nature’s splendor – even just enough to do that – can change you?

Recently I was escaping the rush of city living by driving to my favorite hideout in Mexico for a few days to recharge, when Neil Diamond’s song, Slow it Down, caught my attention. I turned up the volume and listened more closely:

“Pick it up… hurry up son… eat on the run if you wanna get done.
Greed, speed, where does it lead you?
Wanna succeed? You thinking you need to?
But are you really sure?
It's a lot to endure, but I got me a cure.
Slow it down! Slow it down, yea…
Slow it down.
Take your time and you'll find your time has a meaning.
Easy now…
Catch those sounds of your heartbeat before it's leaving…”

The song struck a cord with me. It is indeed when we feel too busy to slow down that we need that time-out the most. The anxious, hurried feelings of the rat race may bestow a temporary sense of self-importance, yet those racing emotions actually rob us of the power we need for self-determination.

Self-determination empowers you to choose your own direction in life. A chronic flood of urgent thoughts and emotions distract you from that direction. If you are being swept along by a torrent of invisible thoughts and feelings, you're going where that current flows. As long as you are under the influence of that force, you have no real choice. That's why learning to step out of the rush is essential to stepping into your true power.

Your true nature is timeless and eternal; it never feels the incessant need of the ego for an adrenaline rush to feel alive or important.

How do we get into the habit of mindlessly racing like a hamster on a treadmill?

Rushing thoughts and anxious feelings are invisible, yet each time they begin to race, your inner awareness starts to run along with them. You don’t question the thoughts; you just let them carry you along. Over time, you may come to believe that there is no separation between you and your racing thoughts or the adrenaline rush they produce.

You may conclude that you are these surging inner currents, or that their power is yours. Neither is true. You are not these waves of thought; you are the ocean in which these waves of thought arise.

Author Vernon Howard offers an emphatic instruction to help stop this mad dash to nowhere. He writes: "Slow down. Relax. Dare to deliberately defy those inner screams that demand you rush nervously around. Instead, obey another quiet voice that assures you that the casual life is the truly powerful and efficient life."

You must slow down your life before you can reconnect to the quiet voice beneath the clamor. Start by intentionally separating yourself from any rushing, anxious inner state by voluntarily separating from it. Purposefully slow yourself down by consciously reducing your usual speed.

Start to turn back the tide of senseless rushing by walking to the mail box at half your normal gait. Consciously reach for the phone, the glass of water or your pen at half your normal speed. Slow down your driving speed, even when (and especially when) you are running late for an appointment.

One practice I find particularly beneficial, is to pause a few seconds before I answer someone's question. This conscious pause for self-centering is invaluable because it allows me to bypass the ego’s eager opinions and to listen for deeper guidance beneath the mind’s surface. Whatever the circumstances, choose a way to consciously slow down so you can step out of the rat race.

Slowing down helps you become aware of yourself in a deeper way by creating contrast between your usual, automated pace through life and your new, consciously slowed-down awareness.

This enhanced self-awareness empowers you to choose appropriate responses to life rather than being mindlessly swept along the flood of your thoughts and feelings. It shows up the difference between random, habitual thoughts and the larger context of your true nature. When you recognize the random thoughts as not belonging to you, you can choose which ones to entertain.

By choosing the thoughts you focus on, you ultimately choose your own direction in life. As author Mike Dooley says: ”Thoughts become things… so choose the good ones!”

Resolve today to step out of the rush by slowing down.

Do it now.

If you want to find what is Timeless, dare to live as though you have all the time in the world.

©Copyright Ada Porat. For more information, visit www.adaporat.com  This article may be freely distributed in whole or in part, provided there is no charge for it and this notice is attached.