It is perhaps because of the Christian idea that there is only one life that we in the West are always in such a hurry. About 10 years ago I mentored one of my old friends from Sydney; I had known him very well when many of us were travelling down the fast lane years before.
Now it doesn’t matter whether there is one life, two lives or more; the question is —
whether you can relax sometimes and take the scenery in.
When I started mentoring my friend, he had not seen the sunrise in many, many years and he was puzzled why I asked him to go do that.
After he had taken my suggestion, he got into the ritual and said it literally saved his life and imparted meaning into his daily routine as he could then take time to reflect, slow down and intuit what needed to happen next.
He had been in business for many, many years and made a LOT of money.
The thing was that although his business made him plenty of money, he still didn’t make the time to smell the roses, watch the sun rise or look at the sunset.
Because of this idea that there is only one life, meditation and yoga have taken a long time to dig roots into the western psyche and it is important to note that it doesn’t matter what your spiritual or religious approach or atheistic or agnostic approach is, the whole point is to slow down when you can.
The human mind only deals with concepts and if a concept works to slow you down then as a device it has done its work. Buddha used to always say that —
the truth is that which works.
Because of the idea in the East that there is more than one life, it was easier to devote time to meditation,
…otherwise who has the time and who cares?…
Meditation needs a very relaxed mind, with no hurry, no worry and nowhere to go.
My friend since died because it was too late for his health to get much better, but he did get to smell the roses and look at the sunset a lot more and ultimately gained some long-lost peace he had never had in business life.
If you have a business make sure you’re not consumed by it because as a Business Advisor, Mentor and Coach I know only too well as many others do that if you don’t make the time to do the things that matter, then your business has been a failure, however much money you have made.
Can you relax without any fear…
Can you slow down…
…and smell the roses?
It’s never too late.
~ Chris Borrett