I often hear expressions like “the world spins faster and faster” or “there is not enough time” or “the situation is urgent, we need to act now!”. How do you relate to those words? Does that ring true to you? If we all choose that narrative, it’s no wonder we’re stressed.
I listened to the Nigerian writer and philosopher Bayo Akomolafe at a lecture a few years ago when he said: “The times are urgent. We must slow down!” The words have stayed with me and I spend time with them sometimes. What does that actually mean?
Time has slowed down significantly in my own life experience this year. I also used to be one of those people who thought time flew by, that I couldn’t keep up with the weeks and months flowing into each other. But not anymore. Why is that?
I can’t really see any external factors influencing this. There is no big difference when I have a lot to do or a little, when the minutes are filled with many different types of activities or when I do similar things for a longer time. The only answer I find when I search is presence. It’s the quality of my presence that has changed. Because when I’m present with what is happening, when it’s happening, then the concept of time disappears while it also expands. Because a minute, consisting of 60 unique seconds, is a long time. And think how many minutes we have in an hour, a day, a week.
My intention is not to create more stress in anyone who feels the opposite, that life is running away from them. My intention is to point out the possibility. Imagine if the slowness is already here. It’s not about doing something in slow motion or necessarily doing fewer things, it’s about allowing your whole self to be there when it happens. And thus fully perceiving what is actually happening.
The solution to our common challenges is not a faster pace, more inventions, new technologies or bigger contexts. I believe that this is precisely one of the root causes of the problems we see around us. The problem is separation. From ourselves, from each other, from the present, from the earth. We need to slow down and come home. To ourselves, to each other, to the present, to the earth.
For me, presence is very much about permission. I need to allow myself to be where I am, completely. Letting go of everything else and trusting that I will know what I need to know when I need to know it. I will do what I need to do when I need to do it. But for now, I sit here and write. In a moment I will meet another person in full presence and eye contact. When I move in nature, I am there with her.
It goes without saying that there is no quick fix when it comes to presence. But there’s a slow fix and it’s already here. Breathe. Notice. Lower your shoulders. Admit to yourself that you can never, ever be anywhere else but here, so stop trying. Stop running away from yourself. You are only here, even if your thoughts drift off into stories about now and then.
It’s urgent, we need to slow down. What awakens in you when you hear the words? How could you slow down without necessarily turning your life upside down (unless you want to, of course)? Being where you are expands time, and life, and the opportunity to see what is really needed. Sometimes it’s doing, sometimes it’s being. But we need to be here to notice it, to hear our own intuition and inner guidance. To really hear each other. To learn from nature that always knows.
It’s urgent, we need to slow down. Allow yourself to be here and note what is needed.