“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” ~ Lao Tzu
Simplifying your day and your life is not just about being efficient, organizing and reducing stuff, it’s also about simplifying your mind and your way of thinking. The latter is the key to swimming in time.
What does swimming in time feel like? For me, it means feeling unleashed from obligations and restrictions, to perceive a sense of timelessness, where I enjoy the abundance of time freely and unworried.
It is possible and on the one hand it’s simple and easy, because it’s just a state of mind, a shift in your thinking and way of feeling. It’s letting go of old rusty thinking patterns.
On the other hand, it’s difficult and rocky. You have to train your brain everyday and pick yourself up while you fall regularly, because your mind is like a wild stubborn monkey on the loose that doesn’t hold on to new ideas very easily.
So how do you train the monkey to calm down, stop running around and make it realize that the ticket is already in it’s own hand?
You need a solution that doesn’t take a big sacrifice, that will stop the feeling of pressure, achievement, urgency and doing what you’re supposed to be doing all the time.
Here are the keys:
Stop clinging to daily or weekly rituals
Don’t hang yourself up too much on performing tasks at a certain time or place. Just do your task when you feel up to it. I don’t say procrastinate, but performing a task when you feel inspired, uplifted and energized is much more enjoyable and productive.
Stop moving around without deeper feeling and thinking. Stop right now for a minute! feel and think. Where are you? What are you doing? Do you have to do this? Are you sure it is absolutely necessary? What will you sacrifice doing this or not doing this? Is there another time or way to do this? Do you feel good and energized? Is this how you want to fill your days? Are you okay with it?
Stop saying ‘I HAVE to do this’, ‘I NEED to do this’. Instead ask yourself the question ‘What if?’. And then imagine the worst case scenario. You probably won’t fall off the earth. Feel, think and dare to change, challenge or let go.
Unhurry
Recognize when you are hurrying or being impatient. Then stop, calm your mind and slow down. Enjoy the moment and your surroundings, no matter how small, busy or crazy as they may be. Be in the now and relax. Observe the moment from a distance. Don’t let it absorb you. Be free from it.
Enjoy having all the time in the world, while everybody around you is hurrying. Time is an illusion. You won’t buy more minutes when you get all upset, you will only buy stress, aggravation and other negative emotions.
Stop the language
This is a huge deal. Stop saying ‘quick!’ or ‘hurry up!’ to your partner, your children, your friends and yourself. Just by saying the words you provoke a feeling of rush and stress inside of you and others. Calm yourself down.
Instead, say things like: ‘Do you need any help?’, ‘Do you need something?’, ‘Are you alright?’, ‘Can I help you with that?’, ‘You’ll be okay, I will help you’. Be sincere.
Enjoy Chaos
Stop cleaning, organizing or putting things in place when instead you feel inspired to do things? Leave things as they are and do what you need to do. There’s always time to clean up later. Don’t ruin your valuable time when you feel like doing great things. Life is too short. Enjoy the chaos, the unruliness, accept the disorganization and immerse yourself in your free time.
Stop checking
Stop checking your watch or iPhone every minute. Let go of time. Time won’t slow down and you won’t go faster when you check your watch every minute. It’s just there all the time. Let it go.
Get out
Stop checking Facebook or Twitter as if your life depends on it. Free yourself from the urge of seeking news, commotion and personal updates. Get out of the herd and off the zombie train. Create your own news and reality instead.
Free yourself
Society has created a reality for you which is nice and comfortable on one hand and suffocating on the other. Reality is still the perception of your own mind. You can choose how you view the world. Don’t let people tell you how to live your life. Don’t let your surroundings fool you. There is more than meets the eye. Try to live more outside of the box. It starts with the way you think!
Say it
Just say to yourself everyday ‘I swim in time’, ‘I have lots of time’, ‘My time is free and limitless’. Say it and soon you will live it. You will swim in time when you start realizing it, believing it and acting like it. Doing is being.
“Life’s treasure is unfold by those who let go and passes by those who hold on” – Lao Tzu
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