The other day, I was crossing the street at a pedestrian lane when the stoplight turned red. I was one literal step away from the sidewalk then. The driver of the car in front of me grew impatient very quickly, and they honked in an angry way. I thought to myself, It was just one step. How impatient can one be? Geez, this person needs to practice yoga. And then I realize in my judgment that I too was impatient. I crossed the street when the stoplight was blinking, with only a few seconds left. I also was unwilling to wait. I too was in a hurry.
This culture of rush permeates us, so much so that in our everyday lives, we do not even notice that we rush from one thing to the other, one place to the next. This is why those of us who are new to meditation cannot stand sitting still. We want to get out of that moment right away. This is why our mind reacts violently when we are in a challenging yoga pose. We have our concept of time all distorted. That is our starting point. Begin to include practices of slowing down. We can start small. We can start, say, by eating slowly. Before eating, we think of where our food came from, whether its origins were kind or violent, whether it helps sustain the environment or destroys it, whether it nourishes us or further starves us of nutrients. We can also practice yoga slowly. Instead of thinking of a particular pose as the goal, we befriend our body, we feel at home in it, we seek refuge in it. At a time when rushing is the norm, taking things slow becomes rebellious. Conscious living becomes an act of defiance. Moving intentionally becomes radical. Break down this culture of rushing by patiently moving, and let us be kinder to ourselves and others in the process of cultivating this awareness.
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