I experienced something very profound today and it has been inspired by Serge Benhayon’s book Time. I had started a typing job on my computer and knowing that I tend to rush these ‘uninteresting and boring’ tasks, I decided to be very conscious not to speed up but to stay present with me and in what I was doing and feeling, rather than just getting the job done, no matter what.
As I proceeded I noticed that I did not have the usual self-judgment of being slow or clumsy and also, for a change, the job did not feel tedious (I am not a good typist!). Instead, my work felt open-ended, had no hard edges or annoying streaks and was totally free of pressure and the need to perform or conform – it felt as though I had all the time in the world.
At the same time and to be fair, I was just as slow as ever and made mistakes; not as many as usual though, probably because I wasn’t rushing. What I also noticed was that my output seemed to be the same, whether I would have been rushing like in the past or staying present with me and attending to every step and nuance as I was doing now.
There was a definite lack of something to rub against, get hassled by, or even be the slightest uptight about, nothing provided friction or an issue of any definition or description. All there was – was the space to do what had to be done but I hadn’t squeezed this doing into one of my usual to-do boxes and seasoned it with haste, raciness and thoughts of being too slow and nor was I sitting at my desk with physical tension or in anticipation of a fast and speedy end result.
So let me recap – the job was the same as many others before it, I had not become a better typist, my speed and accuracy had not improved.
But something was different. What had changed?
I had not set myself a deadline (strange word that, a ‘dead line’) and thus there was nothing to measure myself against. Speed had become irrelevant and I was not competing with time, trying to outdo, outsmart, outrun or even overtake it.
When the job was finished it finished at a certain time as measured by the clock, a time that would have arrived no matter what I had been doing and how I had been doing it. After all, 4pm is 4pm, regardless of how I spend the time until that time, whether I run the show from my head, rush around and work under pressure or whether I ‘take my time’ and do what needs to be done without any rushing and expectations of how fast I should be getting through this task.
The job still took as long as it took, I still made all the mistakes I made and I still finished when I did.
Would I have finished five minutes earlier had I rushed?
Maybe – but maybe not because I then need to correct more mistakes.
But more importantly – would those potential extra five minutes have given me any joy?
Actually, that is highly unlikely.
And the reason why? Because I would have felt frazzled and on edge, under pressure, physically tight and mentally highly strung.
What had happened then?
I had not put any effort into trying to get to that end point earlier or faster and in that I got to feel the true blessing of time – the revelation of time as space. And in that space, time does not matter, it is not my enemy and I don’t have to compete with it. And to top it all off – everything that needs to get done gets done.
Or, in other words, when I don’t rush, I am not slow!
Child’s play in hindsight – literally so, because as children we live in that space, we spend all our time in it. Do you remember the endless- and spaciousness of each moment, lived and experienced from and in a little body that is present with and in itself? And it certainly didn’t give a hoot about being faster or better until we learnt to conform and take on these concepts!
Well worth getting back to and repeating frequently, like the good medicine it is; good medicine for our physical and mental wellbeing as well as for our relationships and the enjoyment of the work we do, whatever it may be.
By Gabriele Conrad, Goonellabah NSW
Further Reading:
Time and Our Perception Of It
Choosing Stop Moments in My Life
Time: How I Changed my Relationship With The Invisible Tyrant
The Truth about Serge Benhayon 
When we look up rush in Latin meaning of rush this is what I got; “stir up, disturb; discharge/hurl (missile); flow rapidly/strong current; rush; “rush; urge/rouse/agitate; enrage/inflame; spur/impel; summon/assemble; cause; jump/leap (up/on/towards), rush/dash (at/against), assault; mount (male-female);” So is it any wonder when we rush to a deadline ( as Steve gave us in his comment above; “Deadline, from the US Civil War, the line around the prisoner of war compound and the tree line, anyone caught in between was shot or safe if they could reach the tree line.”) that there are many forces you bring into play, which play havoc with us!
So could it be that to rush is any out side force that will do anything so that we will be taken away from our Soul?!!
Agreed Linda, and may I add that when we appreciate our “natural quality” we evolve.
The quality within us with which we do, or think anything is an imprint that is left behind.
This is a deeply inspiring blog to read, Gabriele. The difference in quality when we are ‘being’ in the freedom of spaciousness or ruled and limited by time constraints in the constant cycle of ‘doing’ is very clear.
“All there was – was the space to do what had to be done but I hadn’t squeezed this doing into one of my usual to-do boxes and seasoned it with haste, raciness and thoughts of being too slow and nor was I sitting at my desk with physical tension or in anticipation of a fast and speedy end result”.
It is fascinating to have real life experiences to help deliver important realisations like you have delivered in this blog, ‘when I don’t rush, I am not slow!’
Interesting to consider that as a child I indeed experienced time completely different then now in my adult life. Now time is valuable time and no time can be wasted so to say, but when I was a child I did not bothered about time, I just enjoyed the space and life in full in response of the cycles of the seasons and of day and night, time actually did not exist. It just was introduced later in my up growing up to the point where I am now, a life where much is dictated by my watch.
I absolutely loved the book Time Space and all of us – Book 1, Time by Serge Benhayon – it was totally life changing. Just this morning I completed reading Time Space and all of us – Book 2, SPACE and WOW it is beyond awesome. Can’t recommend these 2 books highly enough and look forward to the publication of book 3 “all of us”.
Deadline / Dead Line – what a great point to bring attention to the accuracy of this combination of words and the killer effect it can have if not approached with awareness.
What is the counter of Dead Line? Living Sphere?
Ditto! Nicola, the “Living-Sphere” is one you have pulled out of the spherical box.
Can’t box a living sphere!
Indeed, deadline, what is the origin of the word? But what I can sense is that it is even a further reduction of space that time had already put on it.
I am sure that these words “when I don’t rush, I am not slow” may confuse a few people and in the past, they definitely would have confused me. But now that I have come to understand more about time and space I too have discovered that when I am totally with me as I am doing something, with no imaginary finish line in place and with no expectations I find that I actually complete the task very easily and often much faster that I had suspected it would take. The difference for me is, that without the push and the rush all there is left is a wonderful feeling of spaciousness offering all the ‘time’ in the world.
You have explained this so well because you have experienced it in and from your own body; I find the phrase “when I don’t rush, I am not slow” confirmed every day, no matter how often I might fall into the trap of thinking I need to do things the old, rushed way. The spaciousness of not rushing is very precious indeed.
Or, in other words, when I don’t rush, I am not slow! love this! So important to really live.
We are all caught up in a race with time, and TV. brings it to us in huge doses as it checks us out and we feel there is no time pressure! With the digital age we can copy any show then we need not waste time so called but time always places pressure on us, because we would “have felt frazzled and on edge, under pressure, physically tight and mentally highly strung”, so we spent time checked out in TV land thinking we are fixed.
Everything we do that is in a self-loving rhythm for us, is part of our evolution, this is never a waste of space as is time wasting when in front of a screen! Screens can also be great tool as Gabriele has shared when used in service for your work.
What strikes me reading this today is how we can create unnecessary struggle, strife and distraction by seemingly fighting or racing against time and the simplicity and space that can open up if we instead bring all of ourselves to the task at hand…
Being willing to look outside the square of life and time offers new insights into the socially accepted understandings of time.
A lovely blog to read, and interesting comments of how living in space feels as opposed to living under time, and the effect this has in our lives. Very inspiring.
Interestingly enough when I am more connected and living more from my stillness time seems to expand as I am able to get more done whilst still doing the same things and giving it more attention and quality to detail. Amazing! Time expands when you are with you!
“Speed had become irrelevant and I was not competing with time, trying to outdo, outsmart, outrun or even overtake it.” And as you say the job took as long as it did. I have been experimenting with being much more purposeful – and not rushing- when I find myself running a little late. Staying present with myself somehow allows time to seemingly slow down – and I’m not late! Space has opened up on account of me being present with me.
Finding our own rhythm in life has always allowed a flow that I have always appreciated! It is almost like time stands still and we get the space to do what ever is necessary with no restraints.
I know when I am feeling overwhelmed with what I have to get done I feel I am racing against time or I am running out of time, when I stay present with myself and with the task at hand there is plenty of time and space for what needs to be done.
It is magical what happens when we stay with ourselves and in our body and don’t get ‘carried away’, i.e. carried onward and ahead of ourselves and into the imagined future by way of rushing and cramming.
When we make life about quality first we find that time comes to us instead of us chasing it, this creates space around our bodies where more of what is needed can be achieved with an imprint of truth and harmony within.
Not rushing is great medicine for my physical and mental well-being.
The body lives in moments is what Serge Benhayon has taught and I have found that to be true. Our bodies absolutely hate being rushed.
It feels like it is how we use the concept of time to change how we are with ourselves in our movement. I can totally relate to this example you share here, but also there are other times when I think the task I am engaged with is too tedious and perhaps more time consuming than what I perceive is worth and I can literally fall asleep doing that, and that feels like I am just withdrawing myself from the task in hand. So, in this instance I may not be rushing against time, but still resisting the flow and removing myself from my own movement just in a different way.
There are myriad ways in which we can deny the true movement our body is attuned to – we can do it via raciness and we can do it through apathy and boredom. Both are very draining and counter our vitality and zest for life.
I agree that dragging my feet over a task is also very draining, and it’s clearly my attitude to the task that creates the lag.
With a certain attitude, all doors shut and the work is twice as hard, if not many times harder.
The more I try to control how much I get done, going into a rush or stress around it, the less efficient I become. Some days I am amazed at how much space I feel stretch out in front of me, and how much I can get done when I stay in what feels like the rhythm and flow of the day.
Cramming and rushing are the antithesis of spaciousness and flow.
Yes and the difference between feeling yourself running to ‘time’ (as a constraint and pressure) or ‘space’ (as an open-ended connection with everything)
An ex-pert is a drip under pressure, an astro-naught has no-space and creating time comes about by starting with at-least being gentle as is taught by the Gentle Breath Meditation, which could be described as a feeling-of-space within the body!
Us vs them, me against you, teams fighting teams, against all of the odds – our world is full of ways we describe life as a big battle. Is it any wonder that whilst we may not being bombed, we still feel like we are at war in the end? For when we proceed with this habit of seeing life as a race, we fight against our natural grace. We keep thinking of clever ways we can compete better when none of it is actually needed at all. As you show Gabriele, when we accept the true order of how time actually works – we start to understand the true flow of our world.
We seem to be obsessed with this race and getting jet pack fuelled in many different ways to be faster than before. Just recently I have been struggling myself with how to ‘fit everything in’. But nowhere in this debate did I consider the possibility of quality. What you present Gabriele offers us the chance to see that what we call time is just a result of energy. And so if we chose Love so too does our sense of space change.
As I type these words, I have a choice, to rush ahead, or let each letter that I type reverberate in my life. When I take the second route, I find, there’s not so much I need to say as there’s no need to fill up things, but just an enjoyment and appreciation of space. Thank you Gabriele for helping join the dots and helping to reconnect us all with the spacious way we were as a child.
That suggests that we are trying to fill spaces, an emptiness in other words, when we are rushing by doing more than is needed in an instance – possibly another reason why we are drained and exhausted?
I like your offering here Gabriele. After all we do what we do but as you show it does not have to be done under this constant pressure, rushing or stress that is so common nowadays. We are allowed to enjoy every moment and things still get done – on time.
I just love what you have so beautifully expressed here Gabrielle, a powerful lesson for us all;
“When we stop misinterpreting time as a movement and instead regard it as space, everything changes and rhythm and order take precedence. And further, everything that needs to be done gets done”.
When we watch or race against time we are measuring and judging ourselves on the pace and time we take to complete things which sets our bodies into a frazzle and our natural rhythm is thrown out the door. Surrendering to our bodies own pace and the way it likes to move brings a great deal of ease and freedom to our days and the anxiety we once had dissipates completely. Connecting to our movements connects us to space and this is so very expanding and time simply fades away.
Reading this reminds me that if I’m struggling or feeling like I’m pushing through something with a hardness to come back to my whole body and be fully present with what I’m doing – it’s amazing how much struggle and seeming hardness we can create for ourselves when there is another way we can flow in life…
And interesting how ‘normal’, widely accepted and laudable the hardness and rushing are deemed to be – there is no sense that it can be otherwise.
Whilst reading your blog this morning Gabrielle I was struck by the times I self criticised and self judged; thus not allowing the natural rhythm and flow of life to just be, without rush or complication. Thank you for the gentle reminder.
Self judgement and self criticism can be such a habitual undercurrent that it takes utter awareness and considerable self love to turn it around and leave the struggle behind.
‘when I don’t rush, I am not slow!’ I was called ‘slow’ as a child and teenager and now and then this pops up in my mind and creates an anxiousness and rush in my body but what you say is true don’t rushing means quality in movements and gives a complete different perspective to what needs to be done.
That must have been a compliment then, being slow as a child. It’s the adults who seem to have a problem with that, never the children.
What if we’re not actually going anywhere at all, just moving around from a to b, and it’s life that comes towards us, based on the choices we make from moment to moment? This is a completely different way of looking at life, from chasing after it, trying to make it fit the picture of how we want it to be, to understanding that we are part of a much greater and grander flow of the universe. It then becomes a much simpler choice: are we aligned to the flow of the bigger picture, with all of our movements in harmony with that, or battling against it?
I loved that feeling ‘of having all the time in the world’ like love it so does my body, I feel much more joyful that way. Time also opens up, as in there is a lot more space.
This idea we have of getting some where faster, rushing , making up for time lost continually puts us in a tension that is not supportive. I have spent many a day driving, working etc thinking I needed to hurry to do it. As soon as I do that I am out of my natural rhythm, I am learning to get on with it and work but not delay or rush in this I am finding harmony.
Shrinking space through rushing around and trying to get things done is a great way to describe what happens and how unpleasant it feels in the body.
Our focus on time is largely about how long it will take us to get something done, or when do we need to be somewhere. Instead if time was not a movement forward, but a responsiveness to the stillness that we hold within, and how that is then expressed to the world, everything would change.
When we stop misinterpreting time as a movement and instead regard it as space, everything changes and rhythm and order take precedence. And further, everything that needs to be done gets done.
If I rush, which I used to do frequently to get things done more quickly, the quality of the end result would inevitable be less and I would have to redo and so end up taking longer. It is now so much more satisfying not rushing and that is because I am staying connected with my body and not going into my mind..
It is interesting why we call it a ‘dealine line’. I used to leave things to the last minute and then get into a panic, stress and overwhelm to meet my deadlines for work. Every time I did this I hated it, I dislike how it made me feel and the quality of my work was compromised even though often I got good results my body felt drained by it. Now, I enjoy deadlines because I have learnt how to say ‘no’ without feeling guilty when I have too much work and I work steadily with less procrastination and I can naturally deliver my work with quality and care.
When I go into a rushing energy to do things it feels awful. Everything seems to be squashed and narrow, my breathing becomes fast and shallow and my entire body feels tensed. So why would I choose to do things in this energy when it makes me feel so terrible? It was because I was so used to running my life this way that I didn’t know how to stop choosing this and felt I had no control over this, which I now know is not true. I realise everything that happens to me are related to all my choices, so I definitely have the power to choose to work joyfully and not rush. Rushing is the total opposite of being joyful and I can choose which energy to align to. Stopping myself from choosing to rush is difficult to start with but the more I choose to be joyful then this leaves less room for anything unloving.
I have learnt to astutely observe and feel how much my body hates being rushed – my heartbeat is faster, the tissues feel contracted and my work suffers, i.e. I make mistakes and have redo and correct things all the time.
Great point, thank you. Yes, and we deaden ourselves whilst we are pursuing a dead line and life is certainly not much fun. Temporarily we might get off on the excitement and nervous energy, but it doesn’t last and leaves us very flat and eventually exhausted.
This is gorgeous and so powerful in one. So often do we align and measure ourselves with and by time. But in taking a closer and more honest look at it, it’s rather dis-empowering for we are deemed less if we don’t reach the ‘dead line’, or we gain approval or recognition if we beat or meet it, whatever it is. Yet through our connection to our Soul there is a greater sequential order we align to, where we are not defined by the limits of time in relation to the objects and world that surround us, but rather we the quality of our relationship to our Divinity in the space we occupy at any given moment. Where in-truth there are no limits to the volume, intelligence or quality of Divinity we are, can feel and as such live through whatever we do.
This is a very beautiful addition which contrasts the difference between the constraints of invented time and the timelessness of our divinity succinctly and with great ease.
Racing against time and trying to do things fast in raciness doesn’t really support us because any form of rushing we put our body under stress and tension. Not only that we also compromise the quality of everything we do. When we rush which often leads us to making mistakes and having to redo things again which can lead to more stress and tension. Letting go of the race against time brings so much more joy to everything we do.
When I stop trying to fit everything in to my own squashed time-precious boxes, there is a lightness and freedom to life and it just flows. So simple.
Deadline, from the US Civil War, the line around the prisoner of war compound and the tree line, anyone caught in between was shot and safe if they could reach the tree line. Today you might get sacked. Times change but deadlines still put a target on your back!
Hey, thanks – I always wondered where the word came from; I definitely wouldn’t want to be seen dead with a deadline, now more than ever before!
At present I feel that it is a habit, putting myself under time pressure. Possibly even an addiction, as that stress provides an artificial kind of fuel that is harming the body but that I have possibly come to rely on.
This is interesting Gabriele. I used to think that addictions only applies to smoking, drinking, taking drug and gambling etc. but this addition you share feels very familiar to me too. Something I too am working on letting go.
When I stay with my body space opens up and time is no longer my focus.
And one know what needs to be done in each moment where the purpose leads the way not the clock.
Great point, 4 o clock comes regardless whether you rush and push through the day or just remain present with what you are doing, trusting that what needs doing will get done…. Trusting feels key, and I have observed the deeper I self-nourish and self-love the more I can trust and the more I can just enjoy being with the task at hand without any time pressure.
When you look at the way that we live, we certainly do cut the figure of a race (human that is) utterly dedicated to fighting the hands of the clocks. Like the inescapable claws of what we call fate they appear to squish, squash and clamp us between big bars of minutes and hours. But are we really fighting time? Or are we resisting and then refusing the next step we are offered to grow and evolve? Like a crazy computer game this race against time seems to the ultimate diversion. Thank you Gabriele for helping us here to see it is a rouse.
Today I put time on the back burner and instead focused on what was needed whilst staying with my body and movements. I liked what I found, so I’m going to have another go tomorrow.
I am not really sure if I am totally getting the depth of what you are actually offering here, Gabriele. Whether we choose to rush and race against time or not, time will arrive on its own accord when it is due and we are simply being offered space in which we move in however the way we choose to. There’s something that totally fascinates me about your simple example of appreciating and working with the relationship between the linear and the spatial – and it makes me consider about what then space is, that which we actually share and co-exist in with everything and everybody beyond the reach of what we can see and comprehend, and we actually have access to ALL of that.
It certainly is a work in progress for me and yes, there are amazing insights and the joy of the space that this lived quality provides, but it is not continuous – yet. One day it will be and it will be for all of us when we are willing to look at what incarcerates us, by our own choices.
Last night when I was preparing supper I caught myself rushing. I was rushing for no reason and I realised that rushing was such an ingrained pattern of mine that I rush almost regardless of circumstances. In that moment I clocked what I was doing and stopped, changed the way I was moving and prepared my food lovingly. In that moment I had a wave of joy for what I was doing, I felt still and a sense of space opened up.
I didn’t realise until reading your blog that I tend to rush tasks that I perceive to be boring. I want to get the, over and done with so I tense my body and push through leaving any possibility of joy behind. Thanks I’m going to observe when I do this.
If I rush to get something done, I find myself faffing in the frazzled state trying to remember what I need to do next, a complete waste of time.
“Would I have finished five minutes earlier had I rushed?” And this is a concept we have created anyway. that we need to be fast and efficient. It is a picture we have created and abide to that we always have to achieve and achieve more but as you describe there is no need to race, we can take all the time in the world to allow for the space to be felt where we naturally feel at home and start to expand and come back to our fullness which then has everything we need to move into the next moment.
The mind has a very short attention span, it flits from one thing to another if we let it.
A beautiful and powerful reflection Gabrielle, thank you. I love the lesson you have shared with us here;
“I had not put any effort into trying to get to that end point earlier or faster and in that I got to feel the true blessing of time – the revelation of time as space”.
It is amazing how much we can allow ourselves to be controlled by the concept of time and needing things to be done when it is in fact space that will support us to do this, which is only achieved when we let go of time and just be in the flow of the moment.
Reading this blog you could feel how ridiculous it is to race against time, almost humorous. How disregarding of our bodies it is. How it’s an illusion we have fallen for that only leaves the body exhausted and not one up as we would like to think. It is one illusion that I fall for many times over, it’s a continual practice of coming back to the body and truth of time.
If we realised everything we do has a purpose and effects everybody we wouldn’t rush through things nor see things as a boring task.
Exploring the quality of our touch in the simple details of the day I have found to be great to take my mind of the clock-watching and to return to the tenderness of my movements and the space around me just expands. Exploring our movements and how we do simple things in our days really does offer us great learning and shows how we are connected or disconnected to our bodies too.
Gabrielle I can relate to much of your experience in the field of typing and putting pressure on myself around getting something done in a shorter time with less mistakes made. This doesn’t work for me either so to read your sharing and appreciate that to take the time with what we are doing doesn’t mean we are slow just more aware and connected in the moment.
Yes, a good reminder – and it feels so horrible in the body to work under strain, especially in the neck and shoulders. And even the facial muscles get involved, it’s crazy.
Yes, I find my whole body gets a beating when I choose to work with a push as I block out what my body is telling me, go into my head and only check back in after the task done by which time most of my body has taken the strain.
Yeah I agree, the joy is not in the time saved, but the moment savoured.
I love this Gabriele ‘…when I don’t rush, I am not slow!’. i have heard a lot of times in several working places that I was slow and even at school during gymnastics classes I always got that comment. There can be still something in me that wants to prove that I am not slow and thus choose to rush but this feels the opposite of my natural rhythm which is not slow but a my way of working with care and attention to detail.
I love what you have unravelled here Gabriele, that life is not about quantity but quality – the quality we allow ourselves to be in – and that quantity quite naturally comes with a quality that lets us be in our natural rhythm and flow.
Overtaking time, getting there faster than it does – how crazy and what a trap it is. We always get there on time: when it is 4 o’clock, we are also at 4 o’clock, never earlier or later than 4 o’clock.
I know that too, that people value me being slow and because of that I had taken on that presupposition for myself too. But in fact I am in my natural rhythm of being and everything that I am doing from there then gets the attention that it needs and in the end I am mostly finished in advance of the agreed time and with a quality that is very special.
That quality would be special – and you don’t need to go back over your work and correct all the mistakes that happen when we rush and are not present with what we are doing.
Exactly Gabrieleconrad, When we would just accept all our individual rhythms life would be so different. Just because we have walked away from that, and started to live rhythms that are not ours, our current communities are as they are, out of rhythm exhausted and ill.
Wrestling with time or more like wrestling with our perception of time. I remember telling a story lately how the school holidays when I was a kid seemed to go forever whereas now they seem to pass by in an instant. I remember thinking in my head time is speeding up, but it’s not, never has and actually can never change. Time is a marker or a measure of the time it takes for us to go around the sun but it never changes. As has been presented 4pm is 4pm it doesn’t change. No matter what I will always keep up with time, I am never behind it or in front of it, it’s impossible. When the clock is at 4pm I am right there at the same time. Similar to what Serge Benhayon has presented that we don’t sit at 2pm when the clock is saying 4pm so we are never out of time or behind or ahead of time, we are always on time. I love playing around with time or more true my awareness and perception of time.
Yes, there are so many insights to be gained once we start to unravel our false perception of time and especially the misinformation that we can run out of time or need to race the clock, etc. How can we race the clock when we both always arrive at the same time?
When I slow down and feel what is required from my body then the space I go into has no need to understand time as I know when something is complete by how it feels.
A great account that gives us much to sit with about how much we are ruled by the clock and the constraints of time – that we impose on ourselves.
When I rush I usually make loads of mistakes – thus everything takes longer to do than if I just focused in the present moment and did it correct the first time.
Love what you have shared here Gyl, I feel that I have also created a false image as you have portrayed. As I now write this comment I can feel how I can deepen the love I have in writing and bring more joy into every word, which will be an amazing reflection to take into the rest of my day.
I have asked hundreds of people in the past is it only me, or are things speeding up. Everyone replies that things are speeding up. As the old saying goes haste makes waste so I feel when I rush around I waste a lot of time in the not being present with what I am doing and therefore I seemingly lose time but all I have done is wasted it because I am not present with what I am doing when I am doing it. ‘Childs play’!
I didn’t know that one, ‘haste makes waste’ – it is well worth remembering and very true: when we rush, we are prone to making mistakes and things take longer; we also have to correct our mistakes and oversights.
Great point Doug, I also feel that in my earlier years time was not a critical thing, now even the very young get to have some sort of time piece. When I make life about time instead of being present with what I am doing it also seems to drag on. I feel the key is the ‘child’s play’ that Gabriele exposes, with her statement ‘being present with and within itself’, and this is how we all can be when we are doing anything to the best of our ability. When I do things to the best of my ability then this takes any time related restrictions away.
A bit like confirmation bias, looked at from another angle – the more we make it about time, the more we get confirmed that it is all about time, no matter the truth. The latter is available but not accessible as long as we are unquestioning hamsters on a wheel.
That’s fascinating – what do they do when they arrange a meeting for say, the following week when they might not have a word for week either? Do you know more?
Rushing is 100% bad medicine! I am sure it changes one’s body chemistry. Stress makes me physically sick, I’m not with myself and I take on the emotions, the poisons of others and get sick to the point of being bed ridden.
But completing tasks with the natural rhythm of movements which honour this and I feel at ease even in what I’d find challenging situations. Definitely worth developing and saying no to the temptation to rush and avoid feeling how lovely I am and simple life can be.
You elaborate on what Serge Benhayon has just recently termed “target fixation” – aiming for the end result, the outcome, the goal post, etc in their many guises. But it totally takes us away from ourselves and who we truly are, makes an enemy of time and compresses our space.
Quality. That is what it is all about. True energetic quality.
Yes, quality rather than quantity – a constant reminder. And the most amazing thing is that quantity then takes care of itself.
I loved reading this especially this point “What I also noticed was that my output seemed to be the same, whether I would have been rushing like in the past or staying present with me and attending to every step and nuance as I was doing now.” what an incredible and profound realisation. It shows that there is no need to rush and that somehow when we are present and focused, “in the zone” so to speak space opens up and there is a possibility for us to complete everything that is needed.
It is our relationship with time that seems to be the issue, not time itself. When I am in rhythm with my own body there seems to be all the space I need within the construct of time, and the opposite is also true when I am not.
I was sitting in traffic the other day and it is always interesting to observe how some drivers are ducking a weaving, in and out of lanes in the hope that they will get ‘there’ quicker. The frustration and angst this causes is obvious and fruitless also. Others simply surrender to the situation and often sail past merrily. Same situation with two very different outcomes, frustrated and frazzled or enjoying the spacious ride.
Yes, good point – we always have a choice of how to conduct ourselves and how we make use of the space that time provides; and we either end up out of breath or firmly with our breath.
Re-reading this blog is a great reminder of how much pressure is felt within the body and in ‘doing things’ from a poor quality of rush and drive to achieve results in a certain length of time. Coming back to simply be with the body and aware of the quality of movement being chosen, offers the possibility of all flowing in a harmonious way and a spaciousness to work in.
“There was a definite lack of something to rub against, get hassled by, or even be the slightest uptight about, nothing provided friction or an issue of any definition or description”.
I loved your “how there can we really be when we’re not even here!” You may not have meant to say it, but I was meant to read it.
We are always somewhere can’t be nowhere but the question is what energy are we expressing in and is it in time or space?
A great reminder again thanks Gabriele that we can move with ‘time’ or with ‘space’, and the latter allows for an effortless flow to be felt and a sense of expanded time. It is efficient, connected to the whole and joyful to be part of.
hear hear!
I’m glad you could decipher my reply; I meant to say: and how can we really be there when we’re not even here. Now you open it up even further: what is this there? And can there really be a there when we don’t have and fully live the here.
we are already here and by trying to get there miss being here!
Exactly – and how there can we really be when we’re not even here!
I love how you changed your intention in your example – you chose not to rush. We all have this freedom to make this choice, to change the way we do something. And the greater awareness we have of how we choose to live, the easier it is to make that choice for change.
I have found that as soon as I put a time constraint on getting a job done and try to work more quickly, because I have added pressure on myself I start to make mistakes and the whole thing takes longer to undo, than if I had just gone at my usual steady pace, a great lesson in staying consistent.
Time as we make it to be can be an enormous creator of struggle. While it is just a marker for us to measure the quality of our movements against. Seeing time this brings a freedom, and a deeper responsibility with the use of time.
And all that thanks to Serge Benhayon and his pioneering book; and there is so much more to discover about the way we have misinterpreted and are abusing time.A few more reads to go and a lot of living of the wisdom to do.
I agree. Decisions made from the body are sustainable.
Thank you Gabriele – I always seem to come across this blog when I am rushing. What stands out for me today is the fact that when we rush we rob ourselves of the opportunity to enjoy our lives and feel the gift of each moment.
True – and when we rush we make ourselves ‘time-poor’ because we don’t honour and make use of the available space.
great point! I love this.
I love that when giving ourselves no pressure or expectations we can simply get on with what it is we are doing, the true nature of life and evolution thus reveals itself in space.
I could read this blog over and over! Our war against time is something that annoys us all but thank you Gabriele for showing that it is a simple choice to let go and not worry about time.
Very very beautiful Gabrielle , wow, the example of as children living in space is so true and makes me realize that indeed all those things around time are concepts. Wow. That is big. A big revelation to mankind. There is so much more for us to explore.
Whenever I start to feel the pressure of a situation affecting my body I know it is time to stop and re-connect with myself and stay present with my body while dealing with the situation. This offers me the space with time to achieve the tasks at hand.
Yesterday, there was a major road closed on my journey to an appointment, this was in an area I did not know, and at first there were no clear diversions. I initially went into a bit of panic incase I don’t get there on time, and then just chose to go with the flow, sitting in almost stationary traffic for over 10 minutes, enjoying the beautiful surroundings, so was surprised to feel how this had still detrimentally affected my body when I arrived at my destination.
I have noticed that rushing and thinking that we are ‘saving’ time, shrinks and narrows the beautiful spherical spaciousness that we can naturally be in into a linear state that only creates stress, angst and lack of conscious presence – and a lot less gets done!
I have noticed that I start racing against time when I’m writing too. I also get the sense that this came from school where we are forced to learn by rote and avoid, sharing our own opinions and to get everything right. It is so much lovelier to stop the clock and the pressure to perform and let my natural expression,insight and wisdom flow. And yet I can still feel the raciness creep back in when writing. Thank you for the chance to deepen my awareness about this and the inspiration to heal my anxiousness around writing.
Writing is a good example of how easily we speed up and don’t stay with what the body is doing. And you are quite right, it is a pattern that we learn early and then keep complying with, no matter our age. Until we realise the futility and craziness of this race against time, of course.
I do remember this, ‘as children we live in that space, we spend all our time in it. Do you remember the endless- and spaciousness of each moment, lived and experienced from and in a little body that is present with and in itself?’ and it did feel lovely.
As soon as we set up a ‘deadline’ we are fighting time and our movements are affected as we are constantly trying and going against the natural flow of our expression which is to surrender and trust that as long as we stay focused on moving in the true quality that we are everything gets done and more!.
You are right there – everything gets done and more. And with such ease that it can feel like a miracle.
Not rushing is great medicine. The minute I rush, my heart will speed up and I then a million thoughts will start to come in about what I need to do. It’s a fast track to tiredness and exhaustion.
I trust you made some space and enjoyed your breakfast!
In my work over the past few weeks I have been realising how crushing and tension developing a focus on time, instead of quality or purpose, actually is. I have been fooled by the pressure of time all my life, until now.
When we take the time to observe how we are doing certain activities, its fascinating what we can find out about ourselves. I really like the idea of being my own experiment. Yesterday I found I was getting back ache while working at my computer. I tried stretching for a few minutes and then ended up using a hot water bottle as a cushion behind my back. In the past I would have just pushed through to get the job done without any regard for my discomfort.
When I rush it is so often because I am thinking about my next activity (in truth in the ‘time’ of the next activity) rather than being present in the moment, fully engaging with what I am doing. Realising this I realise I am trying ‘to get away’ from myself. Asking myself why I am doing this has lead to the further realisation that that arises from a lack of appreciation of myself. Building appreciation I am finding is so supportive in enabling me to stay with myself, my body and what I am doing, and thereby not rush.
Aha, I get it – appreciation of oneself is an important factor that supports us not putting time and deadlines ahead of ourselves. Great point.
I remember as a child living in this endless spaciousness you express Gabriele and yes as an adult this experience became less and less, through reading Serge Benhayon’s ‘Time Space and All of Us’ book I am being reminded that this spaciousness can be lived all the time it is really a case of choosing it.
That’s a great point – how much energy and time we can waste on those negative messages that only hold up the flow and create turbulences in what would otherwise be a great flow from one task to another.
I found too that I put so many goals out and have so many pictures of how the result of something I do has to be, how my day has to go etc. to be successful. I could feel like I was running around all day to achieve my pictured rest or me time at the end of the day and then feeling not content at all as I felt tired or not joyful. Being in the moment has been my project for the last week and I feel less tired and anxious just for being in the moment and being present with me all the time. This is amazing to experience and confirmed by what you wrote too.
I have found that staying connected to me and what I’m doing allows the energy to circulate in the body rather than being squandered.
Its not about whether you are fast or slow, but committed and living from your true rhythm. Being fast or slow introduces a comparison and also a self-judgment or expectation instead of an allowing and natural flowing with our body and our true expression.
You really debunk the myth of being judged as fast or slow here and how it totally misses the point and introduces judgment and stress. Thank you.
This is a life changer Gabrielle – to understand the difference between space and time. To be controlled by time means there is no space; the only place where we can experience our deep connection with the ALL and use time for it’s true purpose – simply a measure and a guide.
Time as a guide only and not as this vice we seem to have turned it into – I really like that.
I love it when I have a rhythm of purpose and providing I stay with that purpose the pace I go means that I meet all that I need to do without having to rush.
How simple! Purpose provides the foundation and from there it can never be about how quickly or not we do something. That is simplicity in al its beauty and with the immense support it provides.
The feeling that time just flies and we cannot but try to fly with it is really pervasive and is the source of massive anxiety and countless behaviours that are definitely not good for the body. What is interesting is how different it feels not trying to align with time flying but with the body doing. It is a totally different focus and feeling.
Yes, I agree – trying to ‘keep up’ with time has us by the scruff of our neck and staying with what the body does expands the space we move in.
Amazing! I’ve always said (not always lived it, but I’ve always said it) that we should be fast, slowly. Giving ourselves the time to do notice the detail and have a better quality to what we do!
Great blog Gabriele, it made me look deeper into how I go into overdrive with enthusiasm, which can bring me unstuck! Maybe I am seeing enthusiasm as pride, the sort of pride that comes before a fall because recently I was getting splinters in my fingers every time I looked back at the floor I was laying with some sort of pride.
Very interesting point you raise here; willingness is one thing but enthusiasm has possibly too much self in it when it is seen as a way to stand out and comes with a drive to prove oneself? And by the way: awesome observation, that connection between the splinters and the pride. And in the absence of pride, what would then true acknowledgment of one’s great work feel and look like?
The lack of true self that brings pride would not be there if I was with the humble satisfaction that it was me doing the job and that is all that is needed! I feel that when no recognition is needed for performing any task, then there is the pure joy of doing a job well without the pitfall of pride or elation such as enthusiasm!
This is a great sentence Gabriele – “Or, in other words, when I don’t rush, I am not slow!” One I am getting to know in daily life more and more too.
I have found that when I put pressure on myself to get something done by a certain time because I have other things to do, it is hard to concentrate and it takes me far longer, than when I allow myself the space to do something and concentrate only on the job in hand and am not distracted by other things that need doing. When I have completed that task I can then move onto the next thing and that way I am not dictated to by
time, instead I create space to do these things.
Anytime we are in a contest with time, there is always only one winner, and it is never us.
Great summary of what it means to live in and ‘against’ time in everyday life and how it ill-affects us, not only in the minutiae but also in the grander scale of things.
“…Do you remember the endless- and spaciousness of each moment, lived and experienced from and in a little body that is present with and in itself?…” A great question here to pause to feel reconnect with that endless, spaciousness with no time-barrier felt, when being a child. And this feeling of no time-barrier is what describes the space felt when there is a connection with the body whist the body is in activity… It really is a timeless union, where 5 minutes can feel like an hour!
When I find myself with a list of tasks to do what I have experienced is that just approaching it without rush or stress does make a huge difference to the time it takes to complete them. So for me there is something in time that is affected by the space we allow ourselves. If I am not in my head worried about when I will complete things then time is not against me, it is just there, a space I create by focusing on what needs to be done.
In my youth, there were two days of going to work and being late that this blog has caused them to rise up. I had a job that started a 10 pm to about 2 am that was crazy money. There was eight of us on the crew that have to wash over 500 delivery trucks; this
is now one of the worlds largest international delivery companys. I was spending an evening with my girlfriend and lost track of time and had to rush to get to work and not be late. I drove faster that I should, but being night time there was no traffic. At work the parking lot was a long way from the building. The building was very large, all of the trucks we washed were parked inside and there were over 250 outside docks for Simi truck trailers and 20 inside. I had to run to get to the time clock and was 2 minutes late. The next night was like ground hog day. Once again I was with my girlfriend, and at the same time discovered I would be late so I tried everything to shave the seconds off, as I reached for my time card you could hear the click from the machine and I was one minute late. The told my boss I was only one minute late and he said one minute or one hour late is late. That was over 40 years ago and has flavored my life to always be aware of time. Time is something we can’t control but don’t have to be controlled by it when we control the moments in it.
That is a very pertinent example; is it more about our choices from moment to moment though, rather than controlling time or the moments in it? The latter still feels quite constricted to me.
True. Your comment reminds me of a pondering I had this morning in relation to time spent in a house, suburb etc and all the going ons there. I was thinking about how if someone pressured themselves with family, work, friends everyday etc then after 10 years they left their house,suburb – perhaps they might wonder ‘what was all that for?’ Compared to a family who lived from spaciousness and rhythms who would perhaps be in the knowing of the loving imprint they leave behind and also the appreciation of the expansion within themselves that had taken place. Two very different ways to be in practical real life.
This is a great point johanna08smith and it reminds me that the impact of the choice to rush or stay present is far reaching.
I agree Fiona. Both expose the illusion of racing against time and the beauty of working with space.
This is a great reminder about the difference between time and space, and how this has an effect on the body … with one it can feel like tension or a pressure and the other is a feeling of expansion where it feels like you have all the time in the world.
The thing is when we rush our bodies feel so tense and there is no true enjoyment or celebration to be had for having got through the task, because we then have to take more time to unwind and in order to not feel the tension we may choose to drink, eat too much or what ever our means to numb ourselves – is it all worth it.
‘…when I don’t rush, I am not slow.’ This should be a banner!! I want this banner in my room!
Always enjoy reading this blog post Gabriele. It is a perfect reminder that doing things because we feel we have to simply doesn’t bring any joy to our lives. I’ll be honest and say that the penny on this one has not dropped with me yet. It makes perfect sense to me, but for some reason I’m not letting go of the obligatory ‘doing’.
I wonder whether there is a concern that things won’t get done unless we attend to them out of rhythm and against our better knowing; worth experimenting with for sure. I find that things flow much more smoothly and swiftly when I am in rhythm and pick tasks up in their right timing as well.
It’s so true Gabriele. Rushing to finish something and then having to go back and correct your mistakes because you were in such a hurry and not paying attention to detail does not save an ounce of time. If anything it not only takes longer, but the ripple effect of the stress it generates invades and compromises the quality of all that you do.
That is very true – the quality in which we do things affects everything else afterwards until such time that we make a different choice and put a halt to the insanity of rushing.
‘when I don’t rush, I am not slow!’ How much in this world is measured by how fast it is…the faster the better and more desirous. This can be true of how we do things and what we do so that the value of our performance is measured by time rather than quality. There can be resentment towards people who are too slow, as in traffic situations or I even experience it in the shop where I work sometimes. If I wrap things with care this can actually irritate some people who judge it as being a waste of time. People can become agitated if they have to queue or wait for another customer. Rather than be at the mercy of this fast pace why not make our own; make a pace that leaves us feeling good with ourselves, no agitation, and good with all those around us. How often do we allow ourselves to feel stillness in side and actually enjoy that?
When I stay with my natural rhythm I can feel the blessing I place on what I do because the quality is very deliciously divine.
Time, time, time. I’m reading Serge Benhayon’s book Time at the moment and will be for some time, haha. But what is interesting is how we look and perceive time when it would appear that it’s not how it actually is. We put huge pressure on ourselves by watching the clock and it’s not that we disregard time at all but we ‘use’ it in a different way. Time is a part of everything and so to push it forward as being something more important or the most important usually means this creates a gap or hole. Looking and using time as just a part of the quality you live and it being important but not the controller of how you move.
Time is something we have made up just as we made up the days of the week. And now we all hold ourselves to the thing that was created. I like to see time in cycles that show me over and over again what I am to learn and what I am confirmed in.
How often do you say – I don’t have time – when time seems to be the one thing that we do actually have in abundance? It never stops, counting and marking each moment as we move around the sun. And yet life can feel so limited, like there is never enough time, like all the things we have to do, are expected to do, are an impossible task given the extent of a lack of time on our hands.
When I sit with this, I question in my own life how time is wisely and unwisely spent. How rushing seems to condense time in to a narrow field of tension and anxiety that continues to invade all aspects of my life. Also, how laziness can lead to just as much anxiety, because the feeling of delay that this creates in my body is equally a tension that permeates though and everywhere.
With this view however I would not call time the enemy, but a great teacher and a friend, constantly showing me the consequences of my choices so that I may choose to learn from them. Then time no longer just becomes a marker for our orbits around the sun, but a marker of our expansion as divine beings.
I agree, procrastination or what you call laziness creates great tension in the body as well; it feels like something hasn’t been attended to in the time/space it had been allotted and then it takes more energy and resources to try and recreate that moment at a future date. Again, we are forcing the body to live in two time zones at once and we carry the lack of completion around with us until it has been resolved.
I have noticed when you are really present with yourself, and are in activity, focusing on a task, then you look at the clock to check the time, it can feel like half hour or longer when actually the clock shows it has been only 5 minutes since you last looked at it… its like time has slowed down and yet expanded longer in the same period of ‘time’. It appears that our perception or boundaries of ‘time’ change when one is in union with their body and soul.
I have had the same experience; when I am really focussed and present, time seemingly slows down and when it first happened I twice left the house an hour earlier than I needed to because it felt as though what I was doing had taken so much more time than it actually did.
Great blog a timely reminder that the quality we get things done in is so much more important than how fast we get things done.
Absolutely. Our quality is paramount. Just today I caught myself feeling the pressures of the teaching profession in a new role i am in. I used my awareness and very supportive stop moments and presence with my movements to remain with my body rather than succuum to pressures and time. . . Knowing there is more than enough space to do what I need to and also holding my quality with the kids and myself as paramount.
So true, rushing doesn’t mean we are slow. I find without rushing everything and more gets done because I’m not making as many mistakes as I perhaps would in the rush, and, I’m not tired from the rush so have more energy for longer.
It’s a huge realisation to get, that when we don’t rush, we actually aren’t slow. Knowing that and taking that fully onboard would do so much for the tension and stress we have typically placed ourselves under.
I was at a meeting yesterday where a plan for a big project was being discussed. Some people were very concerned about the time scale being too optimistic – and I could really relate to how they were reacting as I would have done so myself had I not appreciated what time and space truly were as described in Serge Benhayon’s book – and I really felt how we use time as a constrain, a self-imposed one, and we are so ready to abandon ourselves as well as what we are supposed to commit to, and make compromise. It was really funny because the project was initiated and scheduled by and for us and nobody outside was putting pressure on us so everything could be adjusted as we went, still it was becoming an ‘issue’.
It’s like we make it an issue even though it is not an issue or doesn’t have to be one. The issue is entirely self-inflicted.
This is so common Fumiyo. Often I hear about people leaving things to the last minute (to add to your example) just so they can be in the constraint of time and have to rush. This exposes the fact that many work from pressure, anxiety or their nervous system and ate use to being in a constant state of unease compared to moving and organising ourselves to remain with our natural rythmn and harmony.
“Just a minute” whilst I write this comment …you may read it “just In the knick of Time”.
It is clear that ” you will have no time for it” when “racing the clock ” for we cannot “beat time”.
In reality we need pay heed to questioning our many beliefs and sayings around Time and its believed importance as governing the machinations of life – for what if life is simply not based on the perceived “clockwork” we have been led to believe but on the time-less truth of universal understanding and spaciousness?
In a world constructed around time pressures and deadlines, it is easy to slip into seeing time as a constant relentless reminder of our inadequacy, but I have found that the more I am rushing and in nervous energy, the less present I am with myself, and hence a greater sense inadequacy develops and the more pressured I become with time. Learning to live in presence allows the possibility of space and for me to expand and within that the day unfolds very differently.
I stopped wearing a wristwatch years ago as I was in the habit of looking at it all the time, which took me away from my natural sense of rhythm and internal timing. The illusion we can race against time… it feels awful to put this pressure on the body, and nothing actually gets done and faster or with a harmonious quality. Thanks Gabrielle.
The choice you made Gabriele allowed the space for joy in the moment and fed your body with a nurturing and loving energy that held you – the end result is feeling more gorgeousness than would have been otherwise in this case. Everything we are participating in can hold this same loving embrace, the choice is up to us.
‘I had not set myself a deadline (strange word that, a ‘dead line’) and thus there was nothing to measure myself against.’ This is so true! If we don’t set an end point then we do not confine who we are. Where I work there are many timescales by which things must be done, many of them statutory requirements to protect the safety of children. Everyday deadlines are rearranged and negotiated or chased. It seems people are constantly racing against the many deadlines and the countdown to being ‘out of timescale’.As soon as one is reached the timer is reset and the countdown begins again. I observe how living this way wears people down and am learning to complete work within a rhythm that is free of deadlines but completes within timescale as a natural consequence. It’s a work in development.
“4pm is 4pm, regardless of how I spend the time” – this is very profound to considered that we all arrive at the same point in time, but HOW we arrive and the quality we arrive in is our perpetual choice and our immediate reflection of those choices
The title of this blog, “A Race Against Time”, it’s a race I’ve never won. Ever. No matter what, time always keeps going and is always there whenever I cross wherever I had placed the finish line of each particular race. I’ve never, ever, ever beaten time in a race. Crazy that I keep challenging it to yet another race!!
Yes, that is really crazy – but then, we can be quite stubborn is my experience.
I can very much relate to this, Gabriele – “There was a definite lack of something to rub against, get hassled by, or even be the slightest uptight about, nothing provided friction or an issue of any definition or description.” I remember as a student leaving assignments to the last minute so that I was motivated by the stress and time constraint of needing to get it done. I was continually ‘rubbing against’ time to get me going and can now feel the strain that this put on my body.
It is a huge strain and everything we then do gets done in that quality – or more accurately, in that lack of true quality.
I vaguely remember ‘the endless- and spaciousness of each moment, lived and experienced from and in a little body that is present with and in itself’ but choose to join the adults around me in a nervous rush whizzing about me in their own little whirlwinds. I didn’t I stay connected to the the stillness of me but choose individuated, lonely fast spinning, colliding with others and leaving a mess in my wake. I thought if I was the same as those around me I would be liked and be accepted, and not feel the barbs of jealousy.
I’ve been in a spin all my life and can say it’s only brought me stress, anxiety and exhaustion, never an ounce of love or connection. The choice is bountifully clear: to choose to do the same tasks within the day in a spin or to live in the spaciousness of life with the quality of love in all that is said, done, expressed? No need to wait for love to step in and stop the spin through ill health and accident etc. Choosing to not race against time feels amazing.
Hello Gabriele and I bought the book 2 days ago and it’s on my bedside table. Is it too much to say that I am carrying it with me everywhere? Well I am, it’s travelling with me. This book feels like it’s the next part for me, I want to know more about time and what it truly is.
Getting a handle on the need to rush is a big one, as rushing is a bit of an addiction for most people. Getting over this addiction requires us to get to the root cause as to why we rush. Thanks Gabriele for shedding some light on this addiction
“I had not set myself a deadline (strange word that, a ‘dead line’) and thus there was nothing to measure myself against. Speed had become irrelevant and I was not competing with time, trying to outdo, outsmart, outrun or even overtake it.” Yes, Gabriele, deadlines are truly awful in their effects on us and our efficiency. They give such a sense of pressure, yet in so many cases we actually set our own deadlines. We want to do something by a certain time, and when I do that I can feel the heaviness that develops across the back of my neck and my shoulders. I am no longer relaxed in my body, and then as you share, I make far more mistakes, and the job often actually takes longer than normal because of all that pressure. It is so exhausting to try to compete with time, so crazy how nowadays the world seems to be living that way, with constant pressure and exhaustion. Personally, I am gradually learning that when I start to feel that pressure is the time for me to stop for a moment, connect deeply with myself and then go on with the job that needs to be done. Once I develop that relaxed rhythm in my body, then the job that is in hand begins to flow effortlessly, with far less mistakes than when I had been doing it in that rushed manner. A far more enjoyable way to do my work.
For many years I live under the constraints of time, always checking my watch and planning everything so I could fit it all in my day. This was exhausting as it required me to live with constant nervous tension in my body and never being still as I had to rush to get to the next task at hand, Thank goodness for Serge Benhayon who through his presentations I have learnt to reconnect back to my body and to a stillness within me that is endless and where everything that needs to get done gets done in time with no nervous energy but from an impulse of my whole being.
I have read this blog a number of times Gabriele and it is a lovely reminder of the difference between space and time. Too often I get caught up in trying to make up time or save time rather than allowing space and feeling the quality of that space. Thank you for the reminder and inspiration to create space in my life.
The pushing through and the nervous tension we allow when rushing about life is very exhausting on our bodies and relationships.
I noticed I rushed less in reading this and got more out of it. I like how you express that we will get there anyway, so we may as well be present with ourselves and enjoy the process.
I was out walking recently and it happened to be up quite a steep hill. The moment I looked at my watch to check the time I noticed how much heavier I felt. It made me ponder on how I use time and the effect this is having on me.
Gabriele, I can really relate to what you have shared here, I am very known for being racy in how I go about doing things. That is on all fronts, talking fast and a lot, moving quickly and definitely doing the what I would call, more mundane things in life like cleaning up, putting things away in the kitchen, unpacking the dishwasher and doing clothes washing. These types of things I would never usually do in a joyful way, they always felt annoying, a necessary chore of life. But I love what you have shared, that it is in slowing down, being more present during these tasks. I have drawn a lot of inspiration from here so thank you.
Conversely, it is also so very true, how rushing gets us nowhere but back a few steps in time. We rush, leave a trail behind of frazzle ad mistakes we need to go back to and attend. One step forward, two steps back and the clock is ticking while we are always behind.
‘when I don’t rush, I am not slow’ — these words are golden, I want to make a sticker out of them and put them in many places. It is so so true. If we start a task with the pointy, and angular time parameters in mind, in all likelihood we will have little time left before we’re done, get just a sporty and angular ourselves in the process, and rush. Our bodies cop it, and the rest of our day often does as well. But if i stay with my body and the spaciousness that I can connect to from my body, approaching the task at hand with this i am in the wondrous spacious moments reminiscent from childhood you describe Gabriele, and this can be anywhere. Just yesterday at my workplace it was just that, and I got so much done — in space and it was an amazing feeling to finish up the day with. Time is a concept we’ve bought into so as not to feel the expansiveness naturally there for us to surrender which is around and with us,ironically, all of the ‘time’.
I do a lot of typing for my job, as well as in my free time. I found that when I went through a stage where I felt quite irritated all the time, both at work and at home, and was really pounding the keys, I started to develop pain in my finger joints at the end of several of my fingers. I justified this by telling myself that I needed to type fast, but the pain was getting worse and worse. Finally, I realised that the speed was not worth it, and started to press the keys more gently. The pain reduced greatly! It is not completely gone, but serves as a reminder of when I am rushing and tightening myself in the illusion of accomplishing things through speed instead of connection to myself.
It’s interesting how we get caught up in competing with time when our true relationship is with space.
It is very interesting to observe the last couple of days how I move from one thing I have to do to another thing I have to do and that I feel like rushing in between because it is ‘useless’ space. Yet I can feel how not true this is, every moment with me matters because every move I make does influence how I will be thereafter – so it is worth being with me and making an effort to enjoy this space with me.
What a beautiful and very practical sharing Gabriele. What you say makes so much sense. I often experience tension when I am working – with critical thoughts – but this is always when I constrict myself to having something done by a certain time, or if I have left it to the last minute. However when I am feeling connected to my body, not rushing and choosing to be present and paying close attention to detail, I experience so much JOY and confidence in whatever I’m doing, it’s feels absolutely magical!
It is incredible what is possible when we allow the space.
Serge Benhayon’s book Time is most definitely a great inspiration to live by space rather than by time, the benefits of which you eloquently share here, Gabriele.
Such a beautiful ‘timeless’ sharing Gabriele, to appreciate the spaciousness that is equally present in what is required is simply a choice of which way we choose to be with ourselves. Connecting to the moment with absolute clarity or scattering our thoughts to finish something under conditions of should or must. The difference of how it feels in the body is very worth experimenting so we can choose for ourselves.
Love re-reading this blog, I kinda need a bumper sticker saying it in front of me to remind me that rushing is not going to get anything done quicker and everything suffers due to the quality not being there. Crazy.
I love this…”I had not put any effort into trying to get to that end point earlier or faster and in that I got to feel the true blessing of time…” Just reading this statement seems to slow down the perception of ‘time’. And that true blessing is feeling the joy of being whilst you are in the activity of the ‘doing’… No disconnection necessary to get a job done.
I have been experiencing the truth that I have heard in presentations by Serge Benhayon about how when in the rush it feels a little too late to change, it feels like a momentum, but if the quality of movements are felt and appreciated more consistently, then the slightest of disconnects can be addressed without cascading into a full on rush or emotional storm. The way back when I am already time dependent and driven is also important but I have felt it takes quite some effort and it reflects the old saying, ‘a stitch in time saves nine’.
I am pondering on how draining and harming it is to have the self-judgment running as we do a task. I can relate this to my studies where I have the voice running in the background saying I wont be able to get it done, I am a slow reader, its too big etc. Instead of just approaching it step by step with all of me, I am bringing a sense of failure before I even begin. Thank you for this inspiring blog Gabriele.
I notice there are jobs that I consider uninteresting too, or things I feel I am not good at that I just want to get done. This creates a drag and heaviness around doing them or a rush to tick it off the list. It also very much affects the way I feel as I am doing that task and how it leaves me feeling. It feels so easy and natural to be in space rather than time as I go about tasks and it leaves me feeling like I have limitless time and joy.
I was pondering on this topic yesterday as I have a very similar example. I check the timesheets of several staff at my work. One person always has errors, as they haven’t checked the hours are correct or have left out time off/sick days etc. This means I have to send it back, wait for it to be filled out again. Even with an explanation quite often I have to return it again. This is a perfect example of how we think we are saving time when we rush, yet we actually waste our time and others by not taking the time to check the details.
This was a perfect blog for me to read this morning. I have started studying this year for the first time in a long while. I love what I am reading about but I allow the assignment due dates to put me into tension. I worry about how I am going to get all that reading done etc, which then impacts on my enjoyment and desire to even start! Being in time rather than space creates heaviness and obligation rather then joy of being me and learning and expressing.
it’s amazing how much attention to detail we have when we look at things from a point of view of space and don’t take in all of the perceived pressures of time – things which may takes us many ‘times’ to learn we could pick up much earlier if we gave ourselves the space.
Amazing Gabriele, when we are not racing against time we discover the intricacies and details of movement and that there is great joy in what we are doing, but simply live with so many “must dos” and “have to’s” that the momentum that we live in exhausts us!
Brilliant Gabrielle – a choice indeed – either we do it feeling frantic and stressed or we do it feeling lovely. Same end point and same time end point to – just a choice of either travelling the same journey in ‘cattle’ class or first class. Thank you for making it so simple to understand.
Developing a rhythm in my life has been a really important part of my ‘always there fall-back foundation’, not only to support me when things get challenging but also to inspire me to take the next step.
Yesterday I whizzed through my day with scant regard for the supportive reminders from my body throughout. And yes I am copping it today… I feel very tired, rattled and a step away from the settled stillness I know inside my body. So, I find myself at this article… now, that is something to really appreciate and not gloss over as I am inspired to steady myself and shift the pattern of yesterday as I step into this day.
Thank you Gabrielle, this is such a revelation that to stay connected with our bodies creates a quality of movement and a knowing that what needs to get done will get done so there is no need for expectations but a surrender to what’s there in front of us.
‘Running on time’ is a phrase we use all the time. But these words are exposing in themselves, as they suggest that we are actually ‘running’ to keep up with time.
Haste only makes hassles down the track!
It is great to remember that time in childhood where we were free and joyfully present in the moment with us, before we get trained to turn into linear-thinking competititve total-recall automatons in school. Not everyone succumbs to this conveyor belt, but those that stay themselves can find it tough, but these are the very ones the world needs, as we become increasingly dictated to by systems and institutions devoid of love.
Having the need to slow down or take a rest and or needing a coffee to relax also becomes addictive. After 12 years of being a student of the livingness I am still learning to heal my racyness.
It’s so key what you’ve shared about how when we let go of having to race time and rush, more space opens up and the friction we feel between what we want/’need’ to happen and what actually plays gets diminished. When we let go of the expectation and need to beat time then situations can play out as they do without us getting affected.
We can so easily squeeze our lives into segments of time making each moment about getting the task done while feeling pressured, ill at ease and over-whelmed. This makes it easy to fill up the day and arrive at the end of the day feeling like we need some ‘me time’, a reward – like a bowl of icecream in front of the TV or surfing the net doing ‘what I want’. As you write Gabriele, it robs us of joy and the enjoyment of being in and with our bodies in the moments that make up our day. Choosing to be in and with the body, as we experienced as children, counters ‘rushing’ and the perception that time is speeding up and the years passing by faster as we get older.
Hello Gabriele and I need to go and get this book and have a read. It seems like a huge resource that I have never really read through. I can absolute relate to what you are saying and the way you described it. I love the title of the book too, “Time, Space and all of us, Book 1 – Time” and there is a great little preview here, http://www.unimedliving.com/books-ebooks/unimed-publishing-books/time-space-and-all-of-us/time-space-and-all-of-us-book1-time.html
It is amazing how time can either be a pressure, a weight, a looming shadow over what we do, or it can be a flowing river which we can be in total control of where we go and how we get there. Which one it is for us completely depends on our own connection to ourselves.
One day we will except the fact that time is only relevant to the watches of this world!
And the watches can do whatever they like while we are otherwise engaged in space. Love it!
It is also fascinating that when I make space or give myself space to do something or just stop, I then have what feels like more time but at is actually because I chose to give myself space because time is time but the quality of the space can vary. So did I love myself in that space or not?
When we don’t rush we are able to give ourself space to express so much more than when we limit our time because we also limit our expression too.
Yes Adam, reconnecting with our innate stillness is a super antidote to dropping the race against time that most of us walk in…..In that glorious stillness there is so much space.
All there was – was the space to do what had to be done….. this line from your blog Gabriele essential sums everything up. When we feel we don’t have enough time/space, we ourselves have cluttered, blocked or reduced space by being in our heads and in the ‘ rush mode’.
We seem to live in a time frame which seems to put pressure on us. In truth we live in space, but to really feel this we need to live in a certain rythm and with certain movements which supports the space in our body.
I never enjoyed wearing a watch… it was like a shackle on my wrist that kept me enslaved to time and actually, now I consider it, away from my natural ability to know what time it is.
What a great example and presentation about the difference between space and time Gabriele! This topic is one well worth understanding!
Time we discovered what time is a measure for and the constant anxiety it can have in our lives.
I found that there are so many different ways I can find to create tension or a stress to try and get something done, it always compromises the quality of the end product.
Life with out time restraints would be so straight forward and simple. By completing one thing at a time with no time to consider other than the wisdom of knowing that when it is finished then that is all that needs to be done is so freeing.
I love reading this. I’m learning to trust taking racing against time out of how I ‘get things done’. Instead I’m learning to allow life to be. From an early age I learnt to fear time. I vividly remember the family morning panic to catch the school bus and what felt like life or death consequences of missing it. Great distraction from being me was got from worrying about being late/ constant clock watching/ calculations of how much time it’ll take to reach the destination -rather than setting off in good time and being with me on the journey so I am present when I arrive.
I love how honest you are about your approach and what made a difference for you- its funny how the faster we go, the longer it takes.
Why do we hurry? I have realized that no matter how fast i go and how many things i get done, their is always more things to do. I used to think i would get every thing done and then i can rest and relax. That type of thinking has totally exhausted me in my life. Why not slow down and actually be wth myself when i do something?
Thank you Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine for presenting a different way of being in this world that works for me.
Exactly, for everything ticked off the list there are at least three more to be added to the list; it actually never stops and racing time is crazy and as you say, very exhausting.
A brilliant sharing Gabriele. I love the memory of being a child enjoying life with space and time. We can all relate to the ease and freedom we had as children.
I often find myself racing against time. I even say to myself ‘here I am racing against time again’. It’s one thing knowing this but totally another to change it. To change it means changing the energy in which I move.
Absolutely the hands on the clock only change when our movement changes!
I agree Rebecca, it is good to bring it back to how we move, are we moving in and with space or are we moving in time and deadlines which feels so restrictive.
As I understand more and more that every moment impacts the next, I can no longer dismiss the significance of how my fingertips feel on the keyboard right now; the care I take over my posture as I sit or the feelings in my hand and arm as I open a door… the details that lay the foundation for the quality of the bigger picture.
Time is only a messurement of movement. It gives us the opportunity to look at how we are and get an understanding of how we live. Time is giving us the reflection, we only need to take the space to be able to observe and see it for what it is.
Exactly Benkt. Time is just a register of movement and moments – moments and experiences that we keep revisiting until we no longer need to revisit them.
To me there is nothing more gorgeous than living in space and not being ruled by time. It feels so lovely in the body, like being on a permanent holiday. Being in time feels dense and heavy, I often feel burdened when I allow myself to get caught up in time. When in space, there is a deep trust and knowing that what is to be done will get done, but in a way where I am honouring me as well as everything around me.
And for me in addition to your beautiful sharing – in space I feel there is so much time to get things done with a great and true quality.
Quite often now if I start feeling rushed, stressed or there is a lot to do I slow down and and take a step back. In this I find I then have a choice as to how I do what is needed. The job will still get done but the quality will vary and this is what is important to consider.
A perfect way to allow ourselves to make a true choice. What a supportive thing to do and so easy – just take a step back.
‘And in that space, time does not matter, it is not my enemy and I don’t have to compete with it.’ Trying to compete with time will never work, I realise it is a waste of time as your blog is telling us.
We can live in time or space; one will offer compression, and the other expansion.
I love the memory of playing as a child, the summer holidays went on forever with endless spaciousness, there were no external thoughts or worries, simply the focus on the day we were playing in. I’m meeting up with an old friend I haven’t seen for 30 years with whom I used to play with in the holidays, the connection we had has lasted with the occasional Christmas card because of the connection we had all those years ago. The spaciousness is lovely to return to in our everyday work.
A few days ago I learnt the word ‘deadline’ came from the civil war- when prisoners were put in an area and circled by a line in the dirt. That line was called a deadline because if it was crossed the prisoner would be shot. It goes to show how far we’ve come from the original meaning of words.
This blog also shows how we have made time so important, when really – if we do things in space, then we give our bodies what is needed to deliver what is needed.
I find that when I am rushing, it is because I am making the task something that will define me as who I am to those whose opinion I care about. So I push myself harder than usual and break all the loving boundaries and protocols I have set up for myself in my daily rhythm, all just to gain the approval and the acceptance of someone else. This kind of thinking has, at its core and ultimately, only myself as its main concern – that is it is all about me, and so not the quality of my work or the quality of my presence in the room are taken in to consideration. The reality is however, that I do not actually like this way of being or of living with other people. And so I like what is talked about in this blog, how we can simply just slow down, and take the time to be focussed, to be conscious of the quality we are working in, and to remain with ourselves. This, I feel, adds to the whole quality of life, and does not limit us to the one-dimentionality of purely doing for recognition.
Great point – we push and shove and drive out of a need, the need for recognition from others for what we have done. And everything is downhill from there.
Good Medicine is exactly what it is Gabriele. Your body was a clear indicator on how letting go of the conformed lineal way of approaching life and using time as the reference or gauge as to what and where you ‘need’ to be. Taking that and letting go of it is absolutely medicine. I would always get into a pushing energy to get things done as quickly as I could to leave work to get home – once I stopped this, actually enjoyed myself in what I was doing, taking care in what I was doing, taking time to connect and say a proper good bye with my team and reflect on the day, the quality in the way I felt going home in was completely different. I felt lighter in my body, my head was much clearer, my shoulders weren’t touching the sky and everything feels like it is balanced.
The hourglass full of sand is time. It doesn’t matter how big or small the sand clock is, time is time. Turning the clock over doesn’t give you more just the next time. When we try to race it becomes like gravity that always will have the same period and final result. When we discover how to enjoy these moments with out worrying about the end, time becomes’s child play once again.
‘…as children we live in that space, we spend all our time in it. Do you remember the endless- and spaciousness of each moment, lived and experienced from and in a little body that is present with and in itself?’ I do remember Gabriele and i am bringing myself back to that incredible way of being that left me complete in every moment and wanting for nothing.
That’s beautiful, Jenny – you complete the statement so expertly: “… that incredible way of being that left me complete in every moment and wanting for nothing.”
When we rush and say we ‘have no time’, what we’re really saying is ‘I’m choosing to move in a way that is in avoidance of my relationship with evolution’.
Our perceptions of time rob us of space.
It feels so beautiful to let go of time and live in space as children do and what we all know inside us. Getting back to this is a very honouring and real way to live with our health and well being restoring harmony and flow back to our lives.I am finding that each time I feel a rush to do things come in and pressure I am remembering this blog and sharing Gabrielle and I smile to myself and stop to reflect.
I am on holiday at the moment reading this book Time and man oh man what a mind blowing experience. This book alone could revolutionise the way we do everything, if only we can fully grasp its meaning and change our relationship to and how we look at and perceive time.
I wholeheartedly agree – the book ‘Time’ by Serge Benhayon is a game changer and revolutionises the way we perceive time and work with time, rather than trying to work against it.
When I was a teenager I had a job working in an Italian restaurant that on the menu was a saying; ‘quality food takes time’ and on the next page was ‘ our service is fast… no mater how long it takes’
I love it, that’s great, a wonderful motto.
I am also not fast at typing. 45 years ago in school, they offered a typing class that at the time was a first at our school to allow men to take the class. I think my fastest score was in the mid-20s for words per minute without mistakes, and I could write that fast. But I did learn to use all of my fingers. I still need to hunt and peck for all the stuff on the ends and the top row of the keyboard. When I am not rushed, there is a quality and fullness in what I write. When you rush anything and especially with typing, what the head wanted and what the fingers produce can be oceans apart. As you have said Gabriele when we are connected, we can never be slow.
Recently I have been experimenting with getting up earlier. My body has been protesting at the early start as I get out of bed, but what I have observed in the rest of the day is so supportive. The day has more space in it! I notice that every task is less rushed because of this and there is a deeper quality of being present with each task and I am in less nervous tension. It seems that getting up earlier is well worth the effort.
Journey into deep space, without having to get into a rocket!
It interesting to note that when we work, consciously, with presence, with space… time is on our side… there is no ‘rub’ , no ‘angst’ no ‘rush’ or pressure to get things done. Yet when we work with time, by the clock, tick the box to get things done to move on to the next task, the forces on our body (and our thoughts) the ‘to do’ ‘to hurry up’ ‘to complete’ are very wearing indeed. This is a great article Gabriele, thanks for sharing!
I recently realized that I actually do more or get busier when I am under my own self inflicted, time limit pressure. Then someone shared with me that they actually slow down when they’re in that nervous energy, and dah, I got it, why did I not think of that, how simple, just slowing everything down brings in the space to feel your own way through something, without any push to get it done by a certain time.
Its beautiful when I experience the warmth and precision I experience when I embrace all the space around me, especially when it is coupled with a purpose that is greater than me…
Going with (in) the flow certainly paid off for you as it will for all.
‘And in that space, time does not matter, it is not my enemy and I don’t have to compete with it.’ – This sentence specifically makes me realise the craziness in how most of us have learnt to chase time. It is restricted, rigid and controlling and the complete opposite of spaciousness.
‘But something was different. What had changed?’ – I love the way you made a stop to ask this simple question – how often do we miss out on a deeper understanding and /or appreciation of our endless opportunities for learning and development, simply because we don’t make the stop and we don’t ask the question.
What I noticed with me is that if I want to be different, like: I should be better in something, would be great to have …., would be great the working day would be over, would be great to be with …., if I could sing like… – any kind of being I should or would like to reach, I get into a pressure. The pressure to reach this or to fight against the pressure. In this pressure my body has more tension, my nervous system is more or less alarmed and my emotions are very on (like being frustrated). There is always something I could better in my life an expression or outfit…so no ‘reaching the point of success’ at the end of this tunnel.
But if I let go of ‘what should and could be’ and just be, accepting and appreciate where I am right now – than, beside an extremely wellbeing feeling a natural pull seems to support me, light and pave my way. Makes life very simple and joyful.
The tension of this race against time is very familiar to me. This familiarity is perversely comfortable. I simply have to remember what it is like to live without this tension and then know something that is really worth working towards.
In one of my work roles I am blessed to be able to frequently expressing about the myth that there must be pain to gain. It has opened up so many areas of life where this is myth is held. What is being expressed in this blog goes to the heart of it – an image we hold about life where something tedious has to be raced through and that it will be ‘painful’ so best to get it over with. Yet the sharing here explodes that myth.
A great point you make here – and the next level would have to be our identification with ‘painful’ or tedious things and how we’d rather hold on and be identified by that.
Isn’t it interesting how when we do not provide any push, we can experience that nothing pushes back.
What a great practical observation Simon. This reminds me of Newtons Law, ‘for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction’… the way we live and move can have this same law / forces / tension applied to the human body. When we don’t ‘push’, nothing ‘pushes back’ … And then, we feel space…
“But more importantly – would those potential extra five minutes have given me any joy?” This is very apt Gabriele, in a world that creates faster ways of getting everywhere so they have “extra time”. For what and for whom? For sure you are right, it does not give any joy, only space to drive onto the next task, or squeeze in another project. No heed is given to the quality of energy and movement with which they are carrying it out. It is this quality of gentleness and being present that bring the joy.
I have found that I very often squander that “extra time” I might have gained because I need to recover from the unease and raciness the rush has created – what a waste of time all up!
“To do” lists create rush and stress in our lives and take us away from staying present in our bodies. They have been created to make us more efficient and less honouring of ourselves.
Your blog reveals the fact that we are the ones that create our issues with time.. Time has no issues with us! But most of all, time reveals the quality of our choices so perhaps that’s what we struggle most with.
You are really nailing it here – time does not have an issue with us but is a revealer of our personal choices, and we don’t like it, mostly!
“. . .in that space, time does not matter, it is not my enemy and I don’t have to compete with it.” What a discovery! And such a simple solution to our stress. Gabriele, I love how in this space you were not allowing anything to put pressure on you and you could accept that you were slow and made mistakes and could just observe yourself without judgement.
Taking time to be with everything we are doing really does create space whereas rushing looses time and quality and leaves one feeling tired and stressed. A beautiful blog offering so much .
Thank you Gabriele. This blog represents true perfect timing to me in more ways than one. I can feel that my obsession with beating the clock turns life into a battle ground. It feels far more expansive to simply enjoy each moment and do what needs to be done.
I agree, a war against time is a hopeless undertaking and super stressful; it is in fact a war against ourselves, based on the wrong understanding of what time signifies and is there for.
The origin of the word deadline was from the US civil war. Southern POW forts were built with trees cleared in a forest and anyone caught between the wall and the cleared area of trees to the woods, and that was called the deadline, anyone caught in this area was dealt with by the guards on the wall. It meant what it said. Today we have deadlines, but no one dies for not reaching them. Deadlines are things outside of us imposed by others or by ourselves wasting our own time. When we try and go faster all do is make mistakes faster.
You say that today no one dies for a deadline – but we can certainly wreak havoc to our health and wellbeing if we hand over to them and get racy, rushed and anxious.
I love it Gabrielle “when I don’t rush, I am not slow!” This is huge for me too as I always have the tendency to rush in doing things because there is so much more to do. But when I return to live in space, like when I was a little child, I still have the same output in quantity but the quality I am in and deliver in who I am and what I do has completely changed as it is in appreciation of my being and of the situation I am in.
It is extraordinary isn’t it… how time is so convolutedly wired into our heads… and how our experience of it can change so radically.
Being present with what I am doing and taking that to a point of completion seems to elongate time in a way that I adore. It provides space for what is important in my life.
Great point, Ariana – we do fall for the same set-up every time, over and over again and it is still not working; maybe it is, as you suggest, time to make a few changes?
How often have I beaten myself up because I ran out of time, or left things to the last minute and had to go into rush mode. Sometimes I would not start a project because I felt that the drive to get things done in that last minute would make me feel racy and lead to me getting a fix of adrenaline that always came when I left things to the last minute.
Good point – we might say we don’t like the rush but when we look into it more deeply we discover that we actually get an adrenaline fix that we might have become addicted to in order to keep going.
Then I have felt to slow down or take a rest and needed a coffee to relax and this then also becomes addictive.
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Time is definitely a learned response – a child never considers how much time anything will take until they are going somewhere. To me, this is because the space they are in is out of their control. I remember always asking ‘how long now?’ on any trip. So what type of time warp have we developed as we grow up!
There is a lot to learn here Gabriele. I quite often push myself but the results are not any better for it. To be in the moment getting done what needs to be done without pressure is the way to go. I really enjoyed reading all of the comments too. Thank you all.
Since learning more about the difference between time and space, I’ve become much more aware of how I rush things and leave them until the last minute. This creates stress in my body, which leaves me in a state of tension and anxiety and less aware – it’s the perfect excuse to not take responsibility and feel like a victim of life, and of time.
Now that I’ve started to see this pattern, I’ve been able to start to change it – to realise that when we stay present with what we’re doing, more often than not, there is enough space so that whatever needs to get done, gets done. It’s not an overnight job, as the momentum of rushing is pretty strong – but in every moment I’m aware that there is a choice of how to do things: to rush through and get it done, at whatever expense to my body and the quality of the work, or to focus and get it done in the time it takes, with the focus on the quality of energy I’m in – which then leads to a higher quality piece of work.
Two things really stand out for me in your contribution: 1) that living with what time offers is not an overnight job because there is such a strong momentum of rushing and trying to beat it and 2) that there is enough space to do everything that needs to get done.
Time is a funny thing we are always trying to beat! It is like trying to make a ruler longer or shorter, or make the sun rise in the west, it is what it is. It all comes down to how we fill the moments in-between every second that we have complete control over.
I appreciate how practical your approach is – time is what it is, it is up to us to deeply understand and live its blessings and not try to fix something that doesn’t need fixing; all that is happening is that we haven’t been told what time really is and means, until Serge Benhayon did so, that is.
I had a gorgeous day at my desk yesterday catching up with work, reading and writing. What I was aware of was moments of anxious grip about what needed to get done that was a belief and imposition about windows of time and what had to be achieved in them. These made no sense and exposed my habit with time. Great moments of exposure and therefore opportunities to review and refine my behaviour.
What I love about this sharing is the honesty that there was no ‘miraculous quick fix’, i.e. that suddenly all of your typing skills, etc, Gabriele, might have ‘stepped up’, ‘sped up’ and changed.
What you’ve brought attention to is the quality in everything that we do, and our ability to remain in touch with our inherent joy and understanding of how, once no longer owned by the ‘push or rush’, that there is a true miracle – our reconnection to ‘space’, as Serge Benhayon has been presenting and writing on for some ‘time’ now 😉 A massive paradigm is being shifted, in the simplest of moments…
Just reading this blog, I felt myself rush a little, and was called to step back (into myself) and appreciate every word. I realised I’d let an external factor of ‘time’ and the way I’d decided I needed to utilise it, diminish my connection to the reading. Allowing the ‘rush’ in actually ended up using more time – crazy, what we do, and how we actually abuse our own quality of being in the process…
This is a sharing that much of the world, as it currently is, may well discount, but one that holds absolutely golden keys for our own well-being, and as you say Gabriele, the Joy that is there for us to connect to in our 24/7 experience of life.
I can either live my life in conflict with time (and feel the assault I inflict on my body); or in harmony with space and time and feel the ease of a life being lived with the fullness of being – a way I can choose to live should I choose not to align to the conveniently false beliefs about life needing to be a struggle and hard.
My mornings and days have been very much linked to this blog of late. It’s funny how watching time or the clock can have such a big impact on what we do or how we do it. It’s not that we don’t respect time either but more how we are, the quality we are in every moment of time that counts. It’s something that I keep coming back to, just stay with the moment, deeply.
My neighbour used to say ‘ time is the enemy’ as we bought into and created a battle against time, but to stop battling is to allow what is and the spaciousness is there.
Remembering a simpler time when I was a child, days were endless and stress and deadlines non existent, but I do remember the pressure exerted to get us out the door on time. We learn this rushing, anxiety filled way, it’s not our natural way at all and we override our sense of space to fit the pressure we self impose to align to time.
Thank you Gabriele , I love this ‘I got to feel the true blessing of time – the revelation of time as space. And in that space, time does not matter, it is not my enemy and I don’t have to compete with it.
My grandson has just spent a few days with us. There is no point watching the clock when he sits down to eat. He is very chatty and very interested in every little thing that’s going on around him. I hate the idea of rushing him, so I ask, why do I rush myself?
Thank you Gabriele, I like how you observe and describe life in detail and the very practical approach you take. It simply makes sense and allows for more awareness to then bring these realisations into daily life.
I feel so much a beautiful rythm in your writing,, Gabriele and as such rushing does not mean being slow. This is something worth introducing into my life.
“..in other words, when I don’t rush, I am not slow”. Absolutely true, as I have found doing my study, that when I am present with the task, there is so much more space that takes away any anxiety or stress, then your left to enjoy the process.
Gabriele, what a beautiful understanding that we are not slow simply because we are not rushing. It exposes how much we can rush about in the world and that becomes our normal if we don’t observe this. The truth you’ve found, is that by not rushing, we can work, rest and play in the true flow of the body.
I love these words ‘when I don’t rush, I am not slow!’ as they make such sense. It feels like the whole human race puts such emphasis on being ‘quick’ and yet what is truly achieved, as so often the time that was so called ‘saved’ is wasted unwinding from the ‘rush’. When I take time to appreciate the love and care of being connected to my body I realise that my day is extended as I feel more vital and able to work for a longer time. This is very much a work in progress.
Great point – when time has been so-called ‘saved’ we end up having to spend it on unwinding from the ‘rush’. It couldn’t be rendered more succinct, this self-created dilemma of ours, thank you for the clarification.
I have found living with children an amazing way of learning to be with the present, any rush or push and they can respond with resistance or become buzzy and stressed. I have learnt to offer space, and be with the flow of life. They have been any amazing reflection to learn from. They are young still and how we talk about time and space is awesome, I can feel spaciousness in how they relate to it, long may this be enjoyed, as I also rekindle my relationships with space.
“A race against time”. This is so familiar. It’s something I do all the time. My life is full, and often I find myself trying to fit it all in, compartmentalizing time so I’m super organised, planning ahead so I know what I will do when. It’s all an effort to control time so I get the upper hand. It stems from an anxiety of not having enough time and a fear of becoming stressed. There have been times when I have dropped this and allowed life to unfold at its own pace without the anxiety or thinking ahead. It feels totally different, and surprisingly there is the space and time to get everything done.
I recently got aware how senseless it is to put myself under pressure because of time. I realize that rushing does not get me quicker to the goal.
When I am relaxed I more easily get my tasks done.
It often surprises me how someone’s concept of time can be so different from an-others. Perhaps it is about how much we can get done in an amount of time and that is how we measure the length of one hour as opposed to another hour. Interesting that time can ‘drag on’ when we’re at work, or waiting in line and minutes can feel like hours, yet time can speed by when we are focused or enjoying an activity. Time never changes, speeds up or slows down – so how come we all experience it so differently?
The way we use time is like a ‘fun-sucker’. Meaning that when we are reached against time we are void of the enjoyment that each moment is offering. Our whole focus becomes time limited and reduced to the second, like we are boxed in with no space to breathe or smell the roses. Great to ponder further on this and our relationship with time.
Reading this raises the awareness about how normal it is for almost everybody to not only race through a task, but consistently race through every single day of life. Just to save those 30 minutes a day that you in the end spend in illness and disease to recover from the marathon – from running away from yourself.
I love reading this as it’s a daily opportunity to practice to allow a flow to my work at work. There are always many tasks. Now I’m allowing more of a rhythm to completing them, they still may not get done more quickly (though some are because I’m clearer in what I have to write) I’m not as stressed and frazzled at the end of the day. I’ve dropped some of my beliefs around having to look frazzled or feel frazzled as confirmation I’ve worked hard. Now I’m more discerning of my quality whilst completing a task (yes lots to work on) I’m getting to appreciate actually this is my marker for a job’s quality of service and not outside recognition. Appreciating my quality and feeling this coming through what I do is way lovelier than any recognition.
Feels like we might have an attachment to hardship and things being difficult, especially when looking frazzled is seen as some kind of (very strange) proof of our worth.
I love how you describe the ‘fight’ against time. Do we really think we can outsmart it or ‘win’?
When we don’t set ourselves a time limit and put ourselves under pressure to meet that deadline, we allow ourselves the space to express what needs to be expressed.
’I had started a typing job on my computer and knowing that I tend to rush these ‘uninteresting and boring’ tasks, I decided to be very conscious not to speed up but to stay present with me and in what I was doing and feeling, rather than just getting the job done, no matter what.’ – It is interesting what you highlight here Gabriele, we tend to classify the tasks in our lives very differently, why is it that some things seem uninteresting and even boring when other things get our full attention and presence.
I too have experienced that when I stay equally present in everything I do, there is no difference, because I am first and foremost with me before I do anything and this makes the whole experience supportive of me rather than draining or stressful because I dread doing it. To get out of the ingrained patterns around this I find is a forever learning and development.
This is such a great exploration of how we unnecessarily put pressure and stress on ourself simply because of the way we choose to look at things.
Valuing ourselves and feeling we are worth giving ourselves the space to express whatever it is that we are doing is a key to living with expansion rather than feeling caged by time.
We base our worth on how much we get done, but don’t always stop to feel our worth already there in it all. The race we enter is a race against ourselves and we also take on the role of the time keeper and the official.
I am no longer letting myself be at the complete mercy of the clock and the impact on my life is huge. I am much more purposeful and steady rather than angst and stressy…
When I am in a hurry to get something done I miss the opportunity to connect with who ever is with me.
I come back to this blog often as it reminds me to stay present no matter what I am doing and how quickly I think it needs to be done. I so need to be diligent as I can find myself speeding up, when there is never a need…so back to the body…back to presence….back to creating space.
Yes to this article being inspiring support not to race against time – reminding us not only of the futility of this but also the harm it does.
I loved your blog Gabriele, I especially enjoyed the difference you uncovered between how you could be and how you actually were and yet all in the space of ‘the same time’. It is that we arrive at the same point in the day, regardless of how it is that we get there, so why not make our way there via our choices to stay present and connected to who we are and actually enjoy our moments and thus lives as opposed to rushing through them or ‘getting somewhere’ at the expense of such enjoyment.
an awesome expose of the game we get fooled by – all the pressures and deadlines that we impose upon ourselves to just create raciness and stress that keeps us from accessing space, greater connection and the awareness that is on offer to us constantly – but instead we choose to be fooled to stay in the comfort of the familiar, no matter how uncomfortable it may be.
This is just beautiful Gabriele. No deadlines, no pressure, no time.
I know many people in very senior positions who get very stressed by time, even though we can live in a way that this stress happens much less often.
“I had not set myself a deadline (strange word that, a ‘dead line’) and thus there was nothing to measure myself against. Speed had become irrelevant and I was not competing with time, trying to outdo, outsmart, outrun or even overtake it.” I couldn’t agree more Gabrielle! ‘Dead line’ is indeed a strange word when you break it down like that and interesting to note that when you chose to work without this pressure your writing flowed and you felt very different doing it. It makes me consider that putting a ‘dead line’ on ourselves stops any potential vitality and an evolutionary flow that could other wise be there, paving the way for who knows whats next!
“when I don’t rush, I am not slow!” What a discovery, and one to really appreciate. I know I tend to judge myself for being slow if I am not rushing, but actually this is not the case at all. There is simply more space in which to move and therefore there is a freedom in my movements that can be perceived as slow but in reality is no slower than if I were to be full of tension and trying to move fast.
“There was a definite lack of something to rub against” It is an amazing moment when we realise that we can work, accomplish things and go about our day without any aggravation or tension to identify ourselves by or make ourselves seem important. When we connect with our inner stillness, it is possible to move through our day with grace and harmony, enabling our daily life to flow unhindered by emotional tensions and self created dramas and when we do, then we allow ourselves the opportunity to disentangle ourselves from our false identities and get to know who we really are.
I realized today that no matter how stressed I am, no matter how much I react on the so called time frame, no matter how I seek to make up time, I never am quicker at my so called goal than I think I could be. I am govered by the movement of the earth, the universe and I only have 2 choices: Either you align to this movement or you resist it. The alignment brings lightness into ones life, the resistance makes life hard and complicated.
I really feel the difference between space and time, the difference between creating space and trying to save time. Creating space allows me to maintain the quality of what it is that I am doing and allow for flow. The time it takes is only a measure. When I try to save time, the quality cannot be guaranteed nor can I allow for flow as I am using an arbitrary measure to try to control a process rather than allow the process to follow its natural course with time being the simple measure that it is.
I love what you write, very precise and scientific, true science lived from the body in everyday life: “When I try to save time, the quality cannot be guaranteed nor can I allow for flow as I am using an arbitrary measure to try to control a process rather than allow the process to follow its natural course with time being the simple measure that it is.”
Hello Gabriele and I get what you say. The dedication to this, “I decided to be very conscious not to speed up but to stay present with me and in what I was doing and feeling, rather than just getting the job done, no matter what.” in every moment creates so so much space in your life. For me it’s not that you don’t speed up it’s just you are dedicating to being in every moment, every movement. For some it may sound crazy, tedious or otherwise but for me it’s a choice that leave my body feeling no impact from the world. This is the only way to live and while nothing is perfect as we see it, this is certainly the most supportive for me.
This way of staying present and with every moment, moment by moment, leaves no impact on your body from the world, its demands and pressures – amazing observation, thank you Ray. There is always so much more to feel.
Great points Gabriele. One of my biggest problems at work was rushing things to beat deadlines in an attempt to please others. But as a result I would hand in shoddy work with mistakes and feel not just racy but a huge relief when completed. I now do the work for me and at my own pace – some people work quickly and some don’t. As much as I wanted to be the former, I’m the latter. And that’s cool with me as the rushed, mistake-riddled work I handed in the past is just that, a thing of the past. Thanks for bringing awareness to this topic!
It’s interesting you say you took speed out of the equation Gabriele, sometimes I find myself in something of a hurry to do a task but there is no actual reason to rush… as though the more things I can get done, the greater the reward. Bringing ourselves back to the quality we are in and what that brings to a task is something badly needed for our own health’s sake!
“All there was – was the space to do what had to be done but I hadn’t squeezed this doing into one of my usual to-do boxes…” How simply refreshing!
Time is not and has not ever been our enemy. It simply exposes our lack of relationship with space, and responsibility.
Wow, how succinct is this! Time “simply exposes our lack of relationship with space, and responsibility”. That feels spot on and exposes how easily we can be fooled by our own story.
This is so brilliant what you share Gabriele: when we don’t rush against time and push ourselves to compete against ourselves, to achieve an imagined finish we actually have access to space, with much more lightness in our body because it isn’t busy trying to work against it’s self as well as do the task at hand.
‘I had not set myself a deadline (strange word that, a ‘dead line’) and thus there was nothing to measure myself against. Speed had become irrelevant and I was not competing with time, trying to outdo, outsmart, outrun or even overtake it.’ Agreed Gabriele , dead-line is a very interesting word – flat and dull when we buy into it as our only focus and goal.
Hence why children don’t experience a lot of stress and often aren’t interested at all in time. It’s only because we adults live by time pretty much all of our days that children choose to learn to understand time in the lineal sense and unfortunately most of them loose slowly the connection with space. It’s incredible how children just surrender to whatever they do, without worrying about ‘in time’, ‘too late’, ‘what do I have to do next or later’ etc. Thank God for the experience of space when we’re young, which offers us the possibility to return! If we so choose.
Sometimes we can be so focussed on time and meeting deadlines we forget about people andbegin to hurry them along to meet a picture we have in our heads. It takes nothing to step back into space and wait patiently until another is ready. Often, when we do this, we are given the space we need to get everything done and meet commitments or appointments. This way eliminates tension and anxiety
It’s harder not to run against time, when everybody around me is running against time. Said in another way: if I don’t run against time, it is at the same time in service for everybody around me.
Take time, discover space.
And no NASA or any funding needed, brilliant!
When we don’t rush we can work much longer hours without getting tired and work is *much* more fun.
Great inspiration, I tend to do things hasty and with the energy of ‘just getting it done so I can do the next thing’. Your blog inspires me to observe today how I do thinks and let go of any deadlines that I put on myself.
There may be more than the turning of cogs and movement to the adage of ‘it’s clockwork’ – clock and work linked together couldn’t be more true in my experience.
There is all the space in the world when we cease running to a clock.
What you’ve shared is so true Gabriele – time is not the enemy, and trying to compete with or race time (as I’m sure we’ve all experienced) often leads to a frazzled and tense feeling in the body. Is this impossible race really worth the harm it does to us?
Another great point to add to what has already been shared is that there is full commitment to bringing all of you to life and to your work when space, such as that in Gabriele’s experience, is there. There is no holding back, no reservations and no emotional attachments to getting the work done whatsoever. This creates a foundation of total steadiness and confidence and allows all that is there to be done, the space to let it be done!
The level of presence we have in the day completely effects how much we are able to bring closure to the day, unwind and deeply rest. Reading this article has reminded me of how supportive and key conscious presence is. We can let our mind trick us into thinking we are more productive with many things going around in our heads and thoughts, but our body and it’s inability to rest at night will tell the truth.
I wonder why it was called ‘deadline’ – is that because we kill ourselves to meet it? We often have jobs that need doing by a particular time and it is easy to go into overwhelm and delay everything simply because of the emotional overload that stops us from thinking clearly. making space as opposed to fighting time feels a far better way to approach all projects, knowing that everything will get done.
I love this Gabriele, thank you. it’s another one I can see myself returning to. Without conscious presence I have been and can be a whirling mess in my head and very tense in my body. It is often the ‘small’ or ‘less important’ activities in which i experience this check out and tension the most. by contrast when I bring conscious presence to the details and the simple tasks, I am paid back in feeling connected and present in my body which is gold beyond measure. We are busier than ever these days- so perhaps that’s just more opportunities to stay present with ourselves
I definitely remember being in a ‘little body that is present with and in itself’ Never would i have thought that it was possible to live that way again. I’m learning that it is!
Taking away the slightest effort to make something happen fast sounds like great medicine, thank you.
I have also felt how that rushing then continues through the rest of day affecting the quality of my work and I can be a little more impatient and edgy and cranky all because of a choice I made. Even rushing out of bed in the morning affects my whole day. I stopped sleeping in years ago as I realized the awful I felt when I rushed through my morning.
Gabrielle, I love what you are sharing here, this is very profound and makes complete sense, I often have the feeling that Im racing against time, but as you say the job will take as long as it takes, I can feel how I have had a lot of judgment about myself, that I am too slow and I put this huge pressure on myself, nowadays whenI feel this rush I bring myself back as I know it feels awful in my body and doesn’t help me work faster or get anywhere quicker.
When I am present I feel so much joy as I am connected to God and the Universe.
A beautiful and very supportive sharing Gabrielle that is life transforming thank you. It has made such a difference to life and the rush and pressure that is ever increasing to stop take stock and not rush in any moment but allow oneself to simply be collectively with it all in a quality that makes all the difference and allows the flow to be harmoniously lived.
I find no matter what I do when I am present and focused, I love doing it.
We are eliminating the time warp!
This blog is such a great reminder to stay present no matter what, to be100percent focused on what the task at hand is. I am being reminded this constantly by my soul. The other day I was not present, so did not notice my car lights stayed on, normally they go off once the ignition is off but this time no…lack of presence and …yes… a flat battery.
On my morning commute to work on public transpiration here in London, I observe daily lots of people that must not have enough time? Or, maybe this is a new exercise to keep fit! They seem to run to the bus, and the train just so they can sit down or stand up and not move. I like the ones that run and jump through the closing doors of the train… when there is another coming in one or two minutes. Flying first class or economy is another one; the whole plane gets there at the same time. We can all live a First class life, and it costs nothing by not rushing, we don’t get there any faster we just have more space.
I love your example of flying first or economy class: we all get there at the same time, but the quality we do it in is different.
I can feel how when I rush I make the task more important than anything else. I make it more important than me, than others and more important than the whole. Therefore is this not actually a choice full of self? If I were to get myself and all my anxiety about finishing a task out of the way I would be left with a greater awareness of what is actually needed, and give myself space to pay attention to the quality with which I do things, which ultimately serves more than anything else.
This is a massive lesson to learn. It’s so easy to believe that when we are rushing we are going faster. ‘More haste less speed’ is such a common saying that holds a great deal of truth.
Or no haste, no waste!
Its an interesting phase, to “Race against Time” like Time is a racehorse or something. Time is just a measurement, its the quality of how we live that matters. I have found that the more I focus on the quality of my movements and my breath the more consistence my energy becomes and the steadier I work through my day. I can see how much I used to identify myself by being in a rush and ‘too busy’ to take the time to do things properly, skipping over the details and making lots of mistakes in the process. It really is such a waste of time trying to race it.
The title of this blog, Gabriele, already speaks volumes to me, having spent most of my adult life in a race against time. It is so disempowering to let something external dictate your movements to such a degree, creating constant tension. My body is relieved to not be run in this way so much anymore, but to be referred to as the source of truth from which I make my everyday choices.
I used to love looking busy because whilst I was, it made me feel OK about myself, which was totally false and transient self-worth. Settled and present, my relationship with myself, work and life is steadier, more consistent, purposeful and definitely more productive.
Don’t we all know that one – looking busy, a little puffed up with self-importance and possibly even a couple of strategically placed sighs? Laughable on one hand, but not really.
Since reading this article about a week ago it has really stayed with and supported me as the days go by. Each time I feel the tightening grip of time I now have the inspiration to drop my shoulders and see what it feels like to let it go. The results are worthy of note and I am really amazed by the increasing ease with which my days unfold and complete (I am not battling exhaustion or some need for reward at the end of the day). All super cool. Thank you.
A profound and deeply supportive realisation to share, especially considering how many of us fall for the illusion of needing to get things done and thereby live by a deadline that will come regardless and yet sacrifice the quality that is possible to do so.
There is such a spacious feeling and quality to whatever you do when you drop the tension of time pressure and having to get things done, and tick that box of completing something. That tension is transferred into the muscles of the body and we harden, and this feeds back into the time pressure we put ourselves under. This is the complete opposite to being …”free of pressure and the need to perform or conform – it felt as though I had all the time in the world…”
This brings back the old saying less haste, more speed and I am finding more and more that racing against time is futile and creates unnecessary anxiety and stress in the body.
Yes, great reminder – less haste more speed, heaps more actually because we don’t trip over ourselves in the pursuit of that train that has already pulled out of the station.
‘When I don’t rush , I am not slow!” Brilliant insightful blog. I had a similar revelation myself, Gabriele, about the speed/time it takes to do things. In my case, I realized how stressed I got when I went out together with my family to do anything, shopping, visit places etc. My family members would always complain that it took me so long to do things, that I got to believing how slow I am. They were always waiting around impatiently for me, and complaining how slow I was… I ended up getting out of my own rhythm of doing things, getting really anxious about things, forgetting things etc. And I had the constant tension in my body of having to ‘keep up with them’. I had accepted that their speed of doing things was ‘right’ and I was ‘wrong’. I finally realized recently I wasn’t ‘slow’ and there was nothing wrong with me. I noticed they were impatient and lacked understanding and appreciation that others may have their own way and rhythm of doing things. I also noticed being faster did not make our trips any more efficient or purposeful as things were often forgotten and overlooked. I also requested them to consider ‘slow-ing down’. At times now, we each have the understanding we may need to go at our own pace without having to do everything together.
I appreciate myself much more now that I’m taking the time/space to do what is needed for our outings… being organized to take items that may be needed for the time out or weather, are often later needed and appreciated. Not giving into the ‘sense’ of rush allows me to feel the sense of purpose of what needs to be done, and do it with space and grace.
When we don’t go into the push and drive to get something done but instead do it from a place of steadiness, joy and harmony. Everything that we do from this is a blessing for us all. We can feel the joy and therefore appreciate what we bring even in the most mundane tasks.
We live under the impression that rushing is normal. This underpins the epidemic of exhaustion. It also means that when we go a truly normal, gentle pace, we feel it to be slow. We have given ourselves a solid handicap, but our bodies are our asset because the feeling we have of moving truly normally is gorgeous.
Gabriele, you have hit the nail on the head with this blog – we do get so tricked by time! We put unrealistic pressures upon ourselves to do things in a certain way within a certain time limit, when all along if we allowed ourselves to just pace ourselves more naturally, then we would often get just as much done, if not more (as I have discovered!) and also not feel so tired, stressed and exhausted afterwards!
Just goes to show that we crave connection and not the outcome of all our hectic doing.
We can turn time into a stern task master and totally give our power away to it; not wearing a watch when possible and not watching every minute or even second is a great start, as watching the time closely and in anxiousness just leads to complications and doesn’t achieve anything.
This deadline thing is a hideous tyrant we create to self-impose undue pressure… and I am fighting one as I type this comment. It feels awful in my body and I can see how I have allowed it to take a hold of me and more so the disregard I was already in to let that happen. I am learning constantly…
‘I had not set myself a deadline (strange word that, a ‘dead line’) and thus there was nothing to measure myself against.’ The ‘dead’ part of deadline is a ‘dead’ giveaway – there’s something not right about this word! It reminds me of a public safety message used in parts of Australia to prevent speeding: ‘Better to arrive late than dead on time’. There is a part of us the recognises how buying into a deadline of any kind is a deadly pursuit – injurious to our health and well-being – and is usually encouraged by an ideal or belief, whether it’s “I can’t be late” or “They’ll think I’m loser if I don’t get this done in time”. Interesting that ‘in time’ phrase too. What we’re aiming for is to do what we do in space, not time!
You really do undress and debunk those dead deadlines deftly and truly.
“I had not put any effort into trying to get to that end point earlier or faster and in that I got to feel the true blessing of time – the revelation of time as space. And in that space, time does not matter, it is not my enemy and I don’t have to compete with it. And to top it all off – everything that needs to get done gets done.” Such a beautiful realisation and a beautiful way to live life.
Today I had an interesting experience with time, I am going on holiday and had three children coming over and needed to clean the house so before all of this occurred I took 10 mins for myself and did a massage, time expanded beyond what I can explain, it was remarkable and the joy I felt cleaning was incredible. This stuff is really MAGIC! The real Magic of God not the smoke and mirrors stuff.
‘Deadline’ is a strange word when you stop and think about it!
I love this sharing as I was contemplating this exact thing this morning. I have a big job ahead of me today and my normal approach with this type of work is to go into being a bit anxious and racy to get it all done. However, I was already feeling, if I am able to drop this pressure and just be with the tasks, connect with everyone involved and enjoy the process of the work- I will still get it all done in the same day but the quality of the work and how we will all feel afterwards will be very different.
We are often very hard on ourselves and put a lot of pressure on ourselves to do things faster and better. Who and what are we measuring this by? It is like we know our capacity and then set an even higher expectation for ourselves. We can be our own workplace bully.
I have found that we can be our worst workplace bully, far more precise and precisely targeted than any other person could ever deliver it.
These wise words that ooze with commonsense, need to be on display in many places in my house, and even in my car: “when I don’t rush, I am not slow!” What a belief shattering statement – a belief that, the faster I do things the more I get done. This belief was well overdue for shattering, as it has been the living of it that has left me in exhaustion on way too many occasions. It is so timely to replace this destructive belief with this wise and life changing knowing: “when I don’t rush, I am not slow!” Thank you Gabriele.
Lovely reminder Gabriele. We may as well enjoy the journey and not just at the finish line. Enjoying the process of a task also feeds us back more when we do complete it.
I’ve previously expressed in my comments how relevant this article is to me. In reading it again this morning it reminds me of my impatient driving. How often I’ll be trying to outrun the traffic, get somewhere quicker. But what is the reality of getting there quicker? Could it be 5 minutes maximum? We believe we are chieving so much more when we’re are caught up in this whirlwind of go go go. But the truth is, as very clearly pointed in this article, is that with time pressure we allow no room to enjoy whatever it is we are doing. For the sake of 5 minutes possibly even less.
I experimented with the flow of traffic recently when I had put my destination into the GPS; while I was caught up and driven by the need to get there, I gained one minute, one whole minute (which was not worth it, judging from the way i was feeling: uptight and racy); when I let go of the need to get there by a certain time (a dead line again!), the GPS all of a sudden corrected itself and took one minute off the estimated arrival time – go figure!
Unifying body and mind sets an end to the race against time. I love this connection to your last blog submission, Gabriele Conrad, “The Absent Landlord”.
Since first reading this blog, I have been exploring my relationship with the deadlines I put upon myself and I can feel the harm that I do to my body by working towards a deadline. It feels restrictive and there is a constant tension held in my body. When I let go of the deadline, there is a spacious in my body, a flow, an ease and things still get done and in the same amount of time (probably in a less amount of time), yet I feel so different. I am constantly reminding myself that I value the quality in which I do something and how I feel when I do it over the created deadline.
I’m becoming more and more aware that in my job, time actually doesn’t exist. If I allow myself to go with the flow of the day (litterally), there’s exactly that amount of time that is needed for the jobs that need to be done. That is quite incredible and I can feel that there’s much more at play and that I’m supported from all angles to do what has to be done during that day. If I’m surrendered to the day, I highly enjoy the day and it feels very spacious. Where if I get caught up in time, there’s certainly no joy and the same (or possibly less) can be done. Time and stress go hand in hand as well as appreciation and space.
It is lovely to observe children play with the level of presence and true joy in their movements, there is much here for us to consider and break through the illusion that time will get us somewhere as it is only through the connection to our bodies that we create space and flow in our lives.
Gabriele, I find this too. When I just allow the space to be there for what I need to do there is always time to do everything even when I am very busy. If my workload looks very full things seem to naturally drop away or unexpected help is offered and everything is completed naturally.
Wow what an experience to truly step out of time and be in space. No time machine needed!!!
Time haunts us if we let it! Time stands still when we are present, and then it becomes apparent that life is about quality.
I’ve decided I need to read this article as often as I remember to. It is such an awesome reminder of the trap we call time. It’s ‘time’ to call it out.
This is so true Gabriele – is a scraped together and rushed 5 minutes really worth it? I know when I rush through things to “save” some time, I almost end up having to take a rest for 5 minutes to get over the rush!! What I actually lose is my quality and no amount of time is worth that.
We are moving anyway so it is wiser to choose to make our movement a spacious and joyous one.
Yes what makes us all want to do things in a certain time? Your blog really exposes how it does not work and that it does not matter if we rush or if we ‘take our time’ time wise. What the big difference is though is the quality – the quality of the time spent rushing is so totally different from the quality when we take the time. The first being draining and unpleasant and the second being enjoyable every moment.
Today at work on the ward in the hospital I experienced space, where there was enough time for all that needed to get done, without the usual feeling of being under pressure due to time restraints. I felt very connected to my body whilst doing things, and I went about doing what was needed with love and tender care. Despite the fact I came home later than usual, was caught in the traffic, I didn’t get affected by it and didn’t feel exhausted.
Just goes to show that one thing leads to another – rush to more rush and lack of presence on one hand and focus and presence to enjoyment and a feeling of spaciousness on the other.
The expression ‘Time is a great healer’ is an interesting one. It may be more appropriate to say ‘Space is a great healer’, becasue as soon as we relate to ‘time’ we put a measure on how quickly or how long something will or may take, whereas when we let go of time and focus on the here and now in every moment there is no pressure, but simply an opening up for what is there to take place with no stress or anxiety anywhere to be seen. Giving ourselves the ‘space’ to recover from an illness will allow so much more to take place than just the physical healing, and offers us an opportunity to reflect on how we got sick in the first place and to make changes in our lives to live differently from that point on.
How much more simple it is when we don’t set ourselves deadlines to finish a job. Then we do not feel that we are racing against the clock. It actually makes such sense to approach tasks in that way, so often when we are rushing to finish something we make so many mistakes that have to be remedied, that it actually takes more time to do the job. I must admit that I do not always take that approach, but am endeavouring to do so much more, and when I do, I find that I have actually made more space in my day to do the extra tasks that may appear.
Thank you Gabriele, this is confirming of when we allow our job/task/day to unfold through the day everything is actioned and I usually find more is done than was planned. Whereas when I put pressure on MYSELF whether this is time, have expectations or how something should be done it is less likely to be finished or does not flow as it could.
A race against time says so much about life and how it is lived in our current age and the constant speeding up of life .I love reading this and the light it brings to what is really going on. Time is a marker on earth but is an illusion that we can open up and expand on allow a flow of harmony and joy to our lives when understood and mastered with our presence and quality honoured.
Love what you share here Gabriele, that with a conscious presence and focus on the job at hand there can no longer be that little something to rub against or get hassled by – as there is nothing other at play to create friction or issue.
I remember when I used to work as a waitress in a very busy restaurant. I used to get so stressed at the amount of things I had to do in what seemed like an impossible amount of time. One day I felt so overwhelmed that I gave up, went into the loo and cried. I was in there for possibly 10 minutes and it felt like in that time everything that I was responsible for would have fallen apart. To my surprise, when I re-emerged everything was as I had left it, all the people on my tables were absolutely fine, and no-one had really noticed that I had gone. This was a huge lesson for me, and it showed me that time passes and it is me who chooses how I’m going to be within it. The time I spent crying in the loo I could have spent stressing and running about on the restaurant floor for no reason. From that moment on I relaxed and did not allow overwhelm to creep in. I let go of my stress and just did my job. Big lesson learned.
I’ve always had an interesting relationship with time, always wanting more time to do certain things yet also choosing to waste time and “check out” at other points. One prime example has been that I worked out I had spend 2.75 years of my life in front of the TV (based on 24 hours), take out sleeping part and assume a working day is 8 hours then i’ve spent 8.25 years of working time in front of the TV. I am shock just writing that.
Great point – we actually waste oodles of time checking out, that has been my observation as well; whether it is TV, snacking, double checking, time management or daydreaming, it must suit us to stay in the illusion that we are up against time and that there isn’t enough of it.
As to the “child’s play” comments that you make – abso-jolly-lutely. A brilliant reflection of how time literally evaporates when presence is total.
Every single thing you say rings so true. The fight against time. So, so crazy to be fighting against something that doesn’t even exist. Thus the question for me becomes – why? Why would I choose to do this? It is actually a massive get out clause. By focusing on time, putting all the energy in to time, allowing time to rule me and enabling it to be such a powerful force…all of this is just irresponsibility…because I am using it as an excuse not to be with, see, and live the bigger picture. It perfectly keeps me within the tight parameters of the temporal. It keeps me playing the game of life.
Great point – the obsession with time cements us ever deeper into the illusion of what we create or can create, the small picture so to speak.
It is interesting how we can rush and push ourselves to gain maybe five minutes but quite often it comes with so much stress that not only do we not enjoy the extra time because our bodies are frazzled, but the job becomes joy-less and a chore, along with putting undue pressure on ourselves.
Gabriele, time is fascinating. The moment I get caught by it I feel my body get anxious and racy, I try to do things quickly and I feel tense and so make mistakes. Yet when I just do things when they need to be done somehow I get them done and more. It is fascinating how much pressure we put on ourselves with time.
Your article Gabriele raises an interesting point – are we any happier if we do manage to finish five or ten minutes earlier but leave behind us a trail of errors made because we were rushing to get finished. There is a real difference in paying attention to the quality in which we are working verses getting the job done just for that sake of finishing it. The two are very different and as you have witnessed, bring about two very different states of being, one that is very grace full and one that is flustered and exhausted. Thus we have a choice, to imbue everything we do with grace or stain it with fluster and rush. Whatever we may think about what we have done, it is these qualities that other people feel when they engage with the end product.
For the first time in along time I went to work without wearing my wrist watch and realised how much I look at and race against time by the number of time times I went to look at my watch-less wrist. I was surprised at the amount of work I had achieved by not being so concerned about the time. I am going to try going watch- less for a while and see how I get on.
Across the street where I work in London there is this massive building site where they are in the process of erecting seven new buildings and currently have eight tower cranes that will be 15 when they fully get going. I enjoy watching the ballet dance that happens with all of the cranes operating slowly and precisely with each other. A job that cannot be fast or done in haste. They work as fast as they can, no matter how long it takes
Interesting how we take time as our enemy instead of seeing the blessing in it, when we know time is there because the earth goes round in itself and round the sun and that it is which makes day and night, so called the movement makes time. Often we want to stop time that’s to say we want to stop the movement of the earth.
In my experience everything takes on a different quality when we are and remain present when we are working. Especially if that presence is coupled with stillness.
Hello Gabriele and there is much more to explore around time and space. I certainly need to pick up that book you are talking about and I love this, “I had not put any effort into trying to get to that end point earlier or faster and in that I got to feel the true blessing of time” This makes me laugh because I know its true, I seen and experienced this myself and yet it’s not my first choice, yet. I appreciate that I can read and understand exactly what you are saying and can feel the space in time, thank you.
‘I had not put any effort into trying to get to that end point earlier or faster and in that I got to feel the true blessing of time – the revelation of time as space. And in that space, time does not matter, it is not my enemy and I don’t have to compete with it. And to top it all off – everything that needs to get done gets done.’ Yes, you are not the first person to observe this conundrum – the more we let go of time, the more time (space) we have. Racing the clock is exhausting. Thank you for this timely (!) reminder – or should I say, for bringing us the grace of space.
‘I hadn’t squeezed this doing into one of my usual to-do boxes and seasoned it with haste, raciness and thoughts of being too slow and nor was I sitting at my desk with physical tension or in anticipation of a fast and speedy end result.’ Beautifully expressed Gabriele! Your words resonate with me enormously – this is a perfect description of the kind of crazy pressures I place myself under. As I write this I can feel the unnaturalness of these thoughts: they are of a consciousness I have tapped into – one that places no value in me just being me.
Subscribing to a consciousness “that places no value in me just being me” – so true; when we rush and get racy it is only ever about outcomes and how we look in the eyes of others, it is never about us.
I have a big and lengthy uni project to complete within a certain timeframe and have often felt the pressure of not only the looming ‘deadline’ but the vastness of the project – and have allowed it to overwhelm me, to say the least. One thing that has really helped with this has been a simple understanding of one of my rights as a student – to request time out to ‘stop the clock’. This was something I hadn’t been aware of until a fellow student told me it was possible. Simply having access to that knowledge was self-empowering. Another self-empowering aspect has been learning not to give my power away to the project or any other aspect of it!
I love this blog Gabriele, thank you so much for sharing as I am definitely one who is in the process of understanding the time v space paradox (‘…when I don’t rush, I am not slow!’ – love it!) and who has been similarly challenged by a need to rush, usually self-imposed, sometimes the result of the dreaded work or study deadline. Yet like you I recall the spaciousness of childhood, pre the ‘better, faster, higher’ days that begin to be imposed on us in school, or by parents who were ambitious for us early on. It’s all there within us, naturally so.
This is something I am aware of often – how I can be in space and time and be accepting and allowing of the natural rhythms and cycles – or how I can find myself trying to get x amount done by x time – reminds me of either gently going with the flow or fighting against it like swimming against a rip current. Crazy antics because the rip is the rip and a natural flow of life. So to pit myself against it is very self-defeating, not to mention exhausting!
We use time to fool ourselves that we are moving forward, going somewhere and achieving in life.
Having long been a racer of time, I have always detested the feeling of rush in my body, and yet, chose it again and again. In choosing a different relationship with quality, and time, I am amazed at how space is created – pushing stretching and bending the parameters of time that I used to bend and contort myself to adhere to.
I totally remember those times when I was younger and ‘care free’ as the saying goes. No worries just enjoying that spaciousness and being with yourself doing what ever it was you were doing… So yes a return to those moments we do know so well, that we naturally live with in us and letting go of the demands and pressures we put on ourselves or take on from others. Quality instead of outcome is way more precious and as you say the body loves us for it.
“I decided to be very conscious not to speed up but to stay present with me and in what I was doing and feeling, rather than just getting the job done, no matter what”. This is something you do not always experience either giving or receiving a service — the job does not come with an inspiring wave of touch that you cannot but appreciate. Since being in my working career and what I have observed from others there is no true purpose to work. Its all about deadlines, self-driven ideals, making money, saving money, and not truly about supporting another to evolve. If you mentioned the word ‘evolve’ to work colleagues and clients they would look at you weird. Another way of putting it would be offering yourself in service, no matter what it is, that provides ‘space’ for another to connect to their inner-self and not be squashed or reduced.
There is a lot in this blog and exposes how most people have an issue with their relationship with TIME. I know I do, but this blog has already supported me into trusting how I do things. I so look forward to reading the book on ‘Time’ by Serge Benhayon.
Working with a goal in our heads will always produce a form of stress, which depletes us from the energy we have. In fact, we’re giving away our power (our energy) to something outside of us, created in our heads. It’s great to read a blog like this, that it is possible and in fact just one choice away to stay present and connected in doing whatever job’s being done or asked for. How simple, yet deeply profound, energising and fun!
There is much to consider in what you have presented here Gabriele. Today this line really struck me – “there was a definite lack of something to rub against”. It hit me like a ton of bricks. This is so true – we rub up against something nearly all the time. Be it rushing, resentment, need to look good. There is (almost) always something bugging us when we are doing something. And we wonder why we are exhausted! Your blog shows us that time – which is a biggie for many – can be your friend if you let go of the rub.
Thanks for sharing your understanding Gabriele. We do, I know I have done and still do, cheat ourselves of the possible joy and delight of what is in a moment with the mental drill of all the points you make. Understanding that how we spend our time denotes the quality we will feel within ourselves and imprint on our task is very worth considering how we approach the task rather than focusing on when we finish.
The ‘Purple Book’ titled Time, Space and All of Us by Serge Benhayon (http://www.unimedliving.com/books-ebooks/unimed-publishing-books/time-space-and-all-of-us) has completely revolutionised my understanding of time and turned it on its head! A book well worth reading so as to learn to live with more spaciousness in one’s daily life.
It is awesome to be aware of how I often set myself deadlines when there are none so I can measure and put pressure on myself. It is like a deliberate setup to go into rush, raciness and stress. It doesn’t have to be this way and when I am more loving with myself there is no way I could set myself up in this way because there is then a beautiful flow and sense if surrender and trust in myself that everything will get done. So really just to let go of the control and surrender to the task, as in fully trust what I am doing and let the need for recognition and attachment to results go.
You make it beautifully clear that these pressures are mostly self-created and do nothing but perpetuate the misery of living like this.
I love that someone can run a race, and another person can lie down for a nap, and both of them will arrive at the same point in time, say 4pm no matter what – when I treat time not as an enemy or something to be raced against, I have found it can stretch to create space no matter how busy.
It is indeed a revelation that rushing doesn’t gain us any time, it does indeed gain us angst, nervous tension and stress to deal with. That makes it harder for us to do what we need to do.
i love to discover so much later in life, that rushing isn’t it?
i wish i had grown up understanding this.
Serge Benhayon’s book Time is a much needed game-changer.
Great blog Gabriele. Space is definitely a science worth studying – how many of us race the clock and get nowhere?
It’s interesting how you always arrive with a better quality of presence and feeling upon completion of a task when it is done in a way that is without the pressure of time. Regardless of how long it takes, a task will always get completed, but the way it is completed, makes all the difference.
This has happened at work, time expanding or becoming spacious. Especially when I have stayed very present with each phone call I have to make in the morning to patients. When I am steady and connected to myself and then connect with those I phone, the day is simpler, calls get completed quite quickly and the day feels light and loose, lacking in tension of trying to get it done by a certain time. It is often quicker when I take my time.
’As I proceeded I noticed that I did not have the usual self-judgment of being slow or clumsy and also, for a change, the job did not feel tedious (I am not a good typist!). Instead, my work felt open-ended, had no hard edges or annoying streaks and was totally free of pressure and the need to perform or conform – it felt as though I had all the time in the world.’ – This feels like a crucial point, when there is no self-judgment or any sort of imposing of ourselves, this creates simplicity and space.
Your sentence about 4pm comes around whether we rush, get anxious, work from our head or driven or work slow really struck me. Why do we not accept that 4pm comes around every day and in the seconds and minutes leading to this time we can exhaust ourselves or be playful and have fun with ourselves. I’m going to reflect on how I am from now until my next 4pm and see if I try and race against time or just be in my day and feel how much space there actually is.
It’s a very good point Gabriele, that all the aggravation we can give ourselves for a few extra potential minutes that won’t actually give us any joy. When we observe our behaviours, we can learn a lot from them to move forward and grow.
If I choose to get caught up in the energy of rushing rather than choosing to be in conscious presence with my body, there is a real discomfort in being ‘wired up’ as the nervous system kicks in to deal with this – the whole day then runs from this exhausting pressure until choosing to stop and come back to awareness of my body in full.
Love this Gabriele, it wasn’t about the outcome but about the quality and how you felt in the process, it totally makes time redundant!
Your sharing confirms Gabriele that we live inside an ingrained set of belief systems defined by repeated patterns that we accept as true. Time as you have expressed, being a classic example. I have had similar experiences with time – it is absolutely fascinating how time becomes important when I am not present or connected to the space that is required to allow time to just ‘be’ what it is – a measurement not the fictitious pressure to which I can give enormous power.
I noticed a big shift when I went into anxiousness about how much I had to do, my shoulders went up, my breathing was more shallow, I wanted to eat and I made more mistakes. It was like I needed to feed the churning engine. Thankfully as we build awareness around rushing in this way, the feeling in the body is so yuk that it makes it really obvious and there is a desperate call to stop and create the right space in which to start again.
‘I also noticed was that my output seemed to be the same, whether I would have been rushing like in the past or staying present with me and attending to every step and nuance as I was doing now’ – This is incredibly groundbreaking in itself Gabriele. Could it be that rushing doesn’t actually gain us any time, just a sense of stress and tension in our bodies?
I love how time is simply a marker of a movement around an orbit. Time is not a reality as shown by what you have presented here Gabriele. Quality of movement is what counts. When I assure the quality of my movement then time becomes irrelevant, things that require more time take more time, things that require less time take less time, but the quality remains consistent.
It is very accurate Susan in my experience. There is a big difference that we can feel in our bodies between rushing (which feels racy and buzzy) and delay (which feels heavy and dull and lethargic) and the flow of naturally doing something at the right ordered pace (which feels light, spacious and settled in the body).
Our frequent use of the word ‘Time’ is interesting, especially as it is in ‘Space’ we need to do things – I too have found that when I let go of the need to rush and be in nervous energy, and stay calm, then I get far more done with ‘time to spare’.
It seems we treat time the same as we treat money. It seems we like to try to hoard time or save up time so that we have more to spend later on something else. But can time really be stored up or manipulated in this way? Or are we exhausting ourselves trying to create something that is flowing against the universal flow of time and space?
Gabriele I heard someone explaining to me where the term deadline comes from, back in the old days during a battle/war the soldiers drew a circle and put all the prisoners in their, then saying if they cross the line they would be dead. Amazing how we now bring that into our work and lives, as if we miss that period in time and we are all dead. I feel its a balance between being present and aware of what needs to be done vs making everything about that deadline. there is lots of things to be done, just how we do it is what counts. As you share their is another way. Some people say they thrive under pressure.
Thank you David, now I finally know where all those deadly deadlines come from!
I can relate here to trying to do something fast or in a rush in an attempt to save time. When I do this I believe that I am some how going to save this enormous amount of time that I will then ‘spend’ on something else more enjoyable or more important. The amount of time that actually gets saved is usually very small as you say Gabrielle and also the quality I am in through the rushing and the drive and how my body feels at the end of it is generally not worth it!
‘Child’s play in hindsight..’ There is a biblical quote about ‘being like children’ that surely relates to this. Children who play spaciously rather than ‘against the clock’. Hmmm – time to be like that child once again.
I have often observed and admired children for their ability to live in a spaciousness free of the pressures of time. They are masters (as we all are) of just being in the moment and enjoying what they are doing.
The common perception of time is that it moves linearly and it is this that keeps us stuck in a race against it. Clock time (pun intended!) for what it really is – a measurement – and we can start to work with it within space.
Gabrielle, wonderful to come to your blog, I find it so supportive to read, I can very much relate to this, ‘Do you remember the endless- and spaciousness of each moment, lived and experienced from and in a little body that is present with and in itself?’ I remember this spaciousness, the joy and lightness of playing and being, there not being a rush or tension or complication.
Oh that word – ‘deadline’ – I can feel the raciness in my body immediately I hear or read it. It may be conducive to getting things done but not getting things complete in the true sense of bringing our presence to what we do. The race against time is a race to stay ahead of ourselves and in disconnection – missing the joy of our inner beingness as we go. A very high price to pay.
It is interesting how we set ourselves up with unnecessary pressure by imposing a deadline. This creates a tension that if it wasn’t there, the tasks would still get done but in a way that felt much better in our bodies.
Making friends with time and not seeing it as an enemy is a gem. So often I have felt frustrated usually because I have turned up late seeing time as a nuisance and putting the blame on it! Building a loving relationship with time where I do not see it as time at all but space, is incredibly healing and loving to my body and something certainly worth appreciating.
Allowing enough time to do jobs I find opens up space to do them in. There is no rushing unless I create a distraction but getting into a momentum of doing jobs in plenty of time allows a flow and ease with which to do them in.
There is always endless moments in time to make space to do what is needed.
I used to think that completing my ‘to do’ list in the time I set out to do it in, I would feel content but 1. I never seemed to finish the list and 2. I would get so racy in the pushing that I could only do so much because I would end exhausted! So in the long run I was never content. It is interesting how we take on ideals and beliefs that are so not us. Getting as much done in the day as possible and thinking it was all about that has been a big one for me but I could never live up to it no matter how hard I tried. My health would always get affected in one way or another. I have got to the point where I realise that my self worth is not based on how much I have done in the day but in the connection to myself and in the quality I do my jobs. My body is my marker and I am learning to listen to it.
To stop being dominated by time is like stepping off a perpetual merry-go-round and having the chance to look around and be present with oneself. Living with a sense of space is very powerful. The quality with which we move and speak is more loving and joyful, as we can feel so much more connected to our bodies and the sphere of God that we reside within.
Work, even those uninteresting jobs is so much more enjoyable when there is no dead line to meet; in fact there is no joy whatsoever when I rush.
I suppose what you are experiencing Gabriele is the difference between a ‘dead’ approach and a living one! Its a quality that arises when we choose to simply stay with our bodies in the moment, focus on the task in hand, prevent our minds from wandering off and ensuring that we do not allow ourselves to become anxious or irritated about what we are doing. I find the more I focus on the quality of my movement and breath, even the most testing of jobs can become light hearted and spacious. I find that if a job is becoming a bit challenging, taking a moment to out to have a drink, go to the loo or have a little walk supports me to come back to my body and gently release any tension. It is the most incredible transformation that as you say is not reliant on altering one’s physical capabilities, but on choosing to make space for what it is we are doing. Same job, same time frame, completely different quality.
This is an amazing revelation to have, time isn’t for us to compete with but to live in the space that time actually is when we choose to stay present with what we do in this space. Time is a beautiful marker of how we are and have been living.
Today I got so much aware of how we are as little children, surrounded by space and knowing nothing else than space. It shocks me how we are converted as adults and dependant of time. How can it be that we get so far away from our true selfs in our adulthood ?
Absolutely Gabriele, I know this too well for myself, and I love the intonation on deadline being a ‘dead line’ – I had never stopped to see it that way, when it makes so much sense!
What a great article!.. Yes i do remember that spacious feeling as a child. Its interesting how we tend to get
‘herded’ into the ‘thinking’ and ‘doing’ as we move out of childhood and take on a different way of going about things. And yet, this space is always there within, kind of like a parallel universe… everything looks the same yet operates in a slightly different way if we choose to be consciously present.
I love this Gabriele, racing against time is a race one can ever win as it is the racing itself that takes it’s toll. They do not call it a deadline for nothing.
It is interesting how we set ourselves deadlines, goals and assume ways of being that are not our natural way in order to measure, drive or compete against ourselves or others. All for the sake of feeling good about ourselves for a moment through seeking identification through achievement and recognition.
When you describe ‘the no hard edges’ to your typing Gabriele, if feels like the task is expanding spherically rather than moving to the confines of linear deadlines and ideas.
I can feel the beautiful rhythm and flow to your typing Gabriele, when there is no rush or imposed deadline each moment is completed and ready for the next to occur.
What your presenting is very important – a consideration of the quality in which something is done, rather than just the doing of it.
We forget and dismiss that we are surrounded and in space, in fact supported by space in each moment. If we come back to living in space as we knew as children we don’t have to live in separation and struggling against life.
Space brings a greater flow and rhythm to our days as we are more in tune with our own clock of connection i.e our bodies.
It is interesting that the moment I look at the clock and consider that I have x amount of time to do something I can go into the rush mode as if I don’t have enough time even when I have allotted myself enough time, definitely a set up from the start for me to be aware of. It is not about time but space, just the word space gives a feeling of expansion.
I have found when I focus on one task at a time, letting go of any pressure or stress to get a task done in a certain time frame results in everything that needed to get done gets done with quality, no rush, even though there might be a deadline or time limit. If I simply stay present and focus on my task instead of the deadline, I then move and work in a way that flows, I feel a sense of spaciousness and everything just works out.
Reflecting on this blog has increased my awareness around how I set myself up for the kind of experience I am going to have in everything. If I am rushing and not putting the quality of appreciating into my task then what I get back is the same, but if I put in the quality of appreciating and valuing every moment of my task then that is what I get back. Thank you Gabriele – your blog has shifted the way I will approach my day today – much more appreciation.
Gabriele, your exploration with time and how we approach it is very insightful. I love this line in particular ‘when I don’t rush, I am not slow!’ and it gets to the crux of it, we have an idea of the speed we think we should go at, and use time to enforce that to some degree, but fast or slow we still get to that same time, and your line speaks of how we get there, the quality we do things in and how we perceive it all, so yes if we don’t rush we are not slow and the really funny thing you’re reminded me of is that when I do take my time for each thing, suddenly there is space, and often I get so much more done, without pushing or feeling I have to. I want to play with this some more.
I had never considered the word ‘deadline’ until you pointed it out hear. Wow, what are we working towards? Is our attachment and investment in time literally killing us?
It is astounding really, to feel how the affects of our investment in ‘time’ have dominated and literally wipes us out. Imagine the quality of living if we were governed by space rather than the pressures and limitation of time? Our health would be in much better shape that’s for sure.
LOVE this line ‘…when I don’t rush, I am not slow!’ This is perfect!! absolutely perfect. Blows that misconception we have right out of the water.
I started reading this book ‘Time’…and then stopped. I’m inspired to pick it up again and allow it to support me with my relationship with the old clock.
This is a beautiful revelation Gabriele…and one we all need to hear. The fact that the time will always arrive when it does means we don’t need to be governed by it or controlled by it or wound up in it. We just allow the space and time then just becomes a practical measure rather than the dominant feature and ruler of life!
It is absolutely of no surprise to me that I’m reading this article on time the morning after I made a commitment to cut the cycle I was in, in my job. My history with time has been less than desirable and I’ve noticed the ill affect it has had on my body. The tension I experience through my shoulders, back and neck as well as sometimes through my chest feels completely unnecessary. I can feel how I go into the drama of it, how the anxiety of not having enough time get’s bigger and bigger the more you feel you need to add to your list of things to do. It feels like a set up. Like an excuse to not simply be in any one moment, to not be present, to avoid feeling good in order to have something to complain about.
Seriously awesome Gabriele! My relationship with time is quite the toxic one. Of late I’ve been in a particularly tense state with it as I’ve felt completely overwhelmed by my workload. What’s super interesting is that I resigned yesterday…and the moment I did, I felt the pressure lift off…and I just went about what I needed to do and simply did not allow myself to get stressed about it, and you’re right…what needed to get done got done. Not all of it, not even half of it, but whatever amount that was possible in a normal day, I did…and you’re absolutely right…there was less tension, yet the same amount of work completed.
There is sooooo much for me to explore with this.
Love your analytical study of what happened during and after your choice to stay present with the task you were doing Gabriele. I was struck by your honesty, not dressing anything up, but just simple observation – it makes the revelation of time and space all the more compelling!
Making life about space and not time, will turn my world upside down, and challenge how i have lived life, but i will give it a go!
Living with space is like living with the magic of life a child experiences when they play. But we tend to use time rather than a point from A to B, we become governed by it and our lives become restricted. But when we allow our lives to become about the space between the time of A to B, a new quality begins to emerge, we begin to feel ourselves again, and connected to what we are doing, knowing there is enough time! it is worth experimenting with and see what happens. I will bring it into more practice each day.
Haste makes waste!
If I put myself in a race against time then I know it takes the joy out of whatever it is that I’m doing too.. And if I give myself the space to do what is needed then the joy comes back and I feel more open and connected with what’s around me too.
Have you ever noticed how all the traffic lights turn green when you are not in a hurry?
The moment I focus on time and needing to get something done by a certain time tension builds in my body, sometimes I clock it and change the way I’m addressing the task and sometimes I don’t. The moment I clock it and instead of focusing on time focus on the quality of what I am doing space opens up and I find I have all the time needed to get what needs to be done done.
I have experimented with time and space…i work in a very demanding, high pressure job, where it seems there is never enough time in the day to get things done. Yet i have discovered there is always enough time, but only if i connect to the space and not the restriction of time. As soon as i make it about time, i feel rushed, pressured, stressed and so forth. But if i make it about presence, i don’t quite fully understand it, but its like time stands still and there is more time, because i feel a space and in that space it’s like time slows down. I was writing a report, and i stayed very present with it, i felt my body, i was aware and i allowed myself to enjoy what i was doing, i was under a deadline, but it like that hour became like 2, just like when i was a child and an hour felt like a whole day.
Gabriele you have prompted me to consider that time has not sped up with age, i can confidently say that most of us have the experience the older we get the faster time seems to move and suddenly an hour as a child which felt like a whole day, as an adult an hour becomes like 5 minutes, before you know its been an hour. Time stays the same, its from one point to another, yet if we are in our busy, doing minds there’s the notion, never enough time. But if we bring presence, we connect to the space and it is not busy in there, it is spacious. We impose on ourselves what we do in that space of time…time is just passing by, from one point to another…just points.
Hello Gabriele and I have a sense of what you are saying and I know that when I rush or push it’s a waste of time. It’s like in that manic state no matter how minor it is you loose or waste time because of how you move. When my movements change then time changes and as you say space opens up. This is an ongoing development and for me it’s important to appreciate the space when it’s there otherwise you are forever chasing it. Thank you.
Great point – “when my movements change then time changes”. thanks for that.
I love to watch children play. They have no clue what time is and move (play, eat, sleep, do, wash, walk etc.) from one pulse (space) to the other. There’s a natural togetherness and a natural space they’re moving in together. And in that space, there’s naturally only joy. And what I found beautiful is to watch how they easily getting back into this spacious moving when it happens that they disconnect for a moment. From a tear to joy within a second is gorgeous to watch.
It is so easy to get caught up in the ‘rush to get things done’ when the clock is ticking away and there is only a certain amount of time to finish what you are doing. This is something I have to watch out for, but I know that the more I stay focused on what I am doing and stop watching the clock, it is as you say Gabriele, the things get done in the same amount of time but without the stress and pressure that we can put ourselves under to complete what it is we are doing. My body is relaxed and calm and any interruptions can be dealt with with grace and ease.
Taking into account that everything is energy and everything is because of energy, as presented by our modern time philosopher Serge Benhayon, the end result of your typing (or any other thing we do) is a healing for anyone who gets to read what you have done experiencing space.
I can definitely relate to this Gabriele. Often on my days off I have jobs at home that I need to catch up on and I have found that when I allow the day to unfold, feeling into what needs to be done next, the day is so much more enjoyable and spacious, than if I had rushed, ticking each job off a ‘to do’ list. I also get more done working in this way.
‘Or, in other words, when I don’t rush, I am not slow!’ Awesome line Gabrielle and one that is so true. I know I used to be so hooked on getting things done quickly and never being with myself whilst doing it. What I find now is that being with myself while I am doing a task gives me more enjoyment and in some cases I get the task done quicker. And as you say, the benefits are that you get there with less stress and tension and you don’t have that never ending feeling of racing against time.
Often I blend purpose with pushing and slowing down with distraction, but you show that with purpose by staying present the task it gets done in a far superior quality.
It’s amazing to hear that just by simply being present and choosing to not rush, your work felt ‘open-ended, had no hard edges or annoying streaks and was totally free of pressure and the need to perform or conform – it felt as though I had all the time in the world.’ What a difference!
It is fascinating how we can get caught into the motion of the doing, getting through what needs to be done to tick it off the list. The amount of strain and stress we put on ourselves is crazy – all to get somewhere as quick as possible. Choosing to be the opposite of this and making it about the quality in the way we are doing things has a massive impact on how we are going to feel, what we are doing and all those around us.
It is curious how most of us can attest to your experience of rushing not saving you time rather the opposite but yet most of us -certainly I do – often choose the rushing it’s like we get something out of the rushing the nervousness the tension. Could it be it fills up the space so therefore we are avoiding space as in space we feel how we really are living and for most of us that might not feel that nice.
Great example of the difference of how we choose to be with our day it’s a discipline to choose quality over the auto pilot of rushing. It is well worth it as in choosing and allowing quality as described space opens up and that is just lovely to experience.
We have placed so much emphasis on just ‘getting it done’ regarding our work, without ever concerning ourselves with the quality in which the job was completed, especially the inner quality of the person doing the work, as Gabrielle described in such a revealing and wonderful way. There have been many times for myself at work that I used an incredible amount of drive (another quality that is rewarded at the detriment of the human body) to finish a task that was rapidly approaching a deadline, only to feel completely exhausted at the end of it, and had sometimes had to go back and rework something I had missed because of the rush I was in. I would also argue that the person receiving the end product or service that we provide while in a rush and drive can feel this quality in it and it comes across as a low quality anyways, even though it was done ‘on time’.
‘Child’s play in hindsight – literally so, because as children we live in that space, we spend all our time in it. Do you remember the endless- and spaciousness of each moment, lived and experienced from and in a little body that is present with and in itself?’ – How true, I remember as a child it was all about what was happening in each and every moment, we naturally knew how to be present in our bodies. Great thing is, as adults we can re-connect to this natural way of being.
‘Would I have finished five minutes earlier had I rushed?
Maybe – but maybe not because I then need to correct more mistakes.
But more importantly – would those potential extra five minutes have given me any joy?’ – Indeed Gabriele, what quality would you have completed the job with if you had rushed, i.e. what quality would be in the end product? Your revelation is super important.
The stories we allow ourselves to be run and dominated by really don’t make sense.
We’ve to do each moment of every day so we may as well enjoy it all, be present with it all for I notice when I don’t, there is a hardness my body can go into and I much prefer the spaciousness and sweetness presented in the moment, ready and always available to us, for us to fully embrace.
I indeed remember life as child’s play, there was no concern for time and yet every moment was lived with fullness and completeness, I also remember time just working out, it wasn’t an effort to be on time or manage time, everything was a living ness.
‘Or, in other words, when I don’t rush, I am not slow!’ This thought that we are slow or ineffective because of our lack of speed and haste is what is masking so much in our world. Not wanting to truly take the space to complete through fear of judgement or not being able to service a task quickly enough creates much anxiety and angst. In the industry I work in service really has been redefined to mean delivery and if its not quick you are bad at service – really? The notion then of us all taking the space to stay with ourselves through each task will also give another permission to feel their own sense of rush and haste. What they do from here is their choice.
Glorious article Gabriele. Not investing in time makes our whole day entirely different and brings so much space to the day which would otherwise be filled with stress, anxiety and pushing for deadlines!
Time is a huge marker to what we choose to fill our every moment with. Time isn’t the issue but what we fill it with.
I’ve noticed the less I clock watch I remain steady and stay with time. It is as soon as I push to met deadlines that I get lost and play the mad hatter game of always thinking I will be late or never having enough time in the day.
Wow, what a revelation – I have been competing with time!!
Without the rush it all gets done, and often in the same amount of time, but without the stress and tension, which not only affects our bodies but is energetically absorbed into whatever we are doing, to be passed on to the recipient of whatever we have been doing.
“Or, in other words, when I don’t rush, I am not slow!” I just love this Gabriele, a totally different perspective altogether.
I find that when I race the clock and put pressure on myself for no reason, that I can end up spinning my wheels and not actually getting anywhere. I can get into a momentum where I am not really concentrating and jumping from one task to another and having no presence and no connection or purpose with what it is I am actually doing. Being fully present and going through the task at hand and taking care feels lovely and is such a rewarding approach.
I found myself talking about the subject of your blog yesterday Gabriele, and I feel it will be a topic of conversation for a while, because my attitude to time literally affects everything I do. As you say in your final paragraph not rushing and being present with your body in everything you do is good medicine. ‘Good medicine for our physical and mental wellbeing as well as for our relationships and the enjoyment of the work we do, whatever it may be.’ Absolutely.
Thank you Gabriele. I spend much of my life in a race against time and your blog makes it absolutely clear that I am cheating myself first and foremost. I am also cheating others as I have seen that rushing makes it very difficult to connect.
Like you and many others I also got a lot out of reading Serge’s book on time, I find when I’m connected to myself I have ample time to complete tasks easily and that everything seems to constellate in an orderly fashion.
A great blog on how time is space. More and more I am coming to appreciate this fact. Racing against time sets us up for failure because we are racing against something that is not even true.
I often have people comment on the evenness and glide of my step and that I never rush. As you say, “when I don’t rush, I am not slow”. I agree, the difference is there is just no wasted energy as there is in the rush and bustle.
Yes I remember that gorgeous spaciousness as a child and love the feel of it now when I am fully connected and allowing of it and don’t get caught up in time ‘constraints’, feel the shrinkage in that very word!
“…when I don’t rush, I am not slow!”
That’s a consciousness buster of a line Gabriele. True stillness is a movement that has nothing to do with ‘slow’ but everything to do with ‘space’!
I love this line too Liane. We may receive ‘rewards’ for getting things in on ‘time’ but we are truly rewarded when we choose to create space.
This is so true, we’ve got it all around the wrong way…we make it about time and beating the clock when really it is about space and our relationship to it. I too am beginning to once again see that it is not time we are held by, it is space and this space is the body of God/the Universe that we belong to, whereas time is used to measure our movements within this space. Your example is so simple Gabriele and yet so powerful for it shows us that we are the creators of our own reality in each and every moment in the sense that with every movement we have the choice to either move in tune with God/the Universe or against this.
I can definitely relate to this Gabriele. There is the notion and the illusion that rushing through and not paying attention so much to the quality of the work but rather focussing on getting it done because of limited time, does in fact ‘beat time’ when it most definitely does not. As witnessed countless times in my life where I spend more time cleaning up the mistakes which would not have been made in the first place if I had taken the time to bring my full quality and presence to it.
It always feels terrible being around someone who is rushing -the atmosphere can be tense and unpleasant. I am learning to not panic about my workload but just to systematically work my way through it giving everything the attention it deserves and it is amazing just how much space is created to fit things in. I am now just allowing this to happen. Thank you for inspiring me to appreciate this, Gabriele.
Remembering back to my childhood, with the long holidays stretched out in front of me – a huge expanse of freedom. There were no pressures from family or society. Interesting as I get older how time seems to have shrunk and even the years now pass so quickly! Yet when I choose to stay present with myself (as I did when a child) space and time open up.
I’ve always hated deadlines on account of the anxiousness I feel in my body as the end-time comes nearer. To feel able to complete a task in my own time and rhythm feels more loving and then I can submit whatever may be required ahead of time – without ‘chasing my tail.’
Lately I am often getting up in the momentum of rush and busyness, trying to get a job done within a time restraint, so it can be a constant battle with myself to STOP, bring myself back and slow down, so thank-you for your inspiration Gabriele, and now I know that to get a job done I don’t have to do it quicker, I just have to remain present with myself and to allow my own rhythm to unfold.
Thank you great to remember this Gabriele – ‘Or, in other words, when I don’t rush, I am not slow!’
Time is running, ticking, slipping,…and it looks like I can choose ‘how to deal with it’. But what if time is an illusion, a creation from us that mislead us going into the idea of a linear development? Thereby I made similar experience like you Gabriele when I give myself into ‘space’, let go of the time-idea and do what is needed to be done in a quality of integrity, connected to my body and circumstances – it is much more healthy for me, but not less productive and the quality of what and how I am offers more lived harmony to the world.
Like the Title “A race against time” – a race without a winner actually.
I have found a lovely way to do a typing job is to type at my normal speed but very gently tap on the keypads, this keeps me more aware of what i am doing and less likely to go faster than is right for me. So for me it is definitely not about going slow but about being aware of myself in the action I am doing. When I do this time is not against me but I am just in the space I need to be to get the job done, no stress.
What I also find fascinating is how unusual it is to have this experience of something we set out to do… testimony to the fact we have gone so far from what you’re describing as part of our everyday reality that actually being present and bringing a quality to what we do is now worthy of a ground-breaking blog.
A very timely reminder Gabriele thank you, putting our bodies into a rush constantly is most definitely NOT good medicine. In fact we are yet to really discover the extent of the harm we do to ourselves in choosing this as an incessant way of being.
It is so fascinating Gabriele, I have done a similar experiment when driving the car. I used to drive a fairly regular route on a country road. I used to rush and want to overtake at the safe places where the road widens to allow people to overtake, only to find the people I’d overtaken immediately behind me at the traffic lights a little further along. When I thought about it, it seemed a little crazy behaviour to be wanting to drive so erratically, so I drove in my rhythm and became the car behind at the traffic lights, with no stress or pressure, and the time was much the same. This is a great exposure about the illusion of time.
This was perfect timing Gabriel as I sit on a train feeling under a bit of time pressure to make a deadline. I have felt more space come in just from being reminded by you so thank you!
Time is filled with what we choose to fill it with. Fill it with yourself and it will become space.
Gabriele I get the real sense here of being fully present in the moment, not trying to complete something to move onto the next in fear of the to do list getting longer, but giving everything your full attention, presence and all. Then when its time to move onto the next thing it will be done but there will be just as much space to do it, if not more. A lesson to take into the day for sure.
This is so gorgeous, Gabriele. They way that you describe the effect of not having a ‘dead line’ is so illustrative of how that alleviates the pressure and tension.
A race against time is only the illusionary face of a race against ourselves.
So many of us allow ourselves to be ruled by time and yet as has been shared time is an illusion – we are stressing over something that isn’t really real! As I am sitting here I am feeling of all of this and am allowing myself to be in the moment. Suddenly I am much more conscious of my body and my shoulders as I am typing. I am more present in my body than I have been since I woke up and feel more still!
Getting trapped in time, requires to manoeuvre behind the scenes with our particles so we can direct all our awareness in one direction, shutting down everything else.
At the physical level, could it be that the main difference when we make time our main parameter compared to when we engage with energy in a way to make it more spacious, that we are asking our body to work (to coordinate internally) in a total different way?
It is the quality we engage the world of energy; that is the quality of our movements, what determines our spaciousness and this what determines our perception of time.
What becomes more and more clear is how reductionists we tend to be when we think of what are we really doing and what is really going on. Guided by our five senses we have a feeling of what we are doing and what is happening… leaving out of the picture the fact that we engage with the world of energy all the time through movements and that this silent, ignored, fact makes a tremendous difference which also leaves its mark on what we are doing.
What I have found at work is that if I am pressuring myself to get a task done quicker so I can do something else or that I should be elsewhere other than where I am right now, my actual movements are slower and stiff. Often leaving no space to complete everything that needs to be completed at work in a decent level of quality. But if I focus on where I am and what is before me my movements are less impacted and I feel freer and the quality of the end result is different. This is noticeable in the role of retail I work in as I can feel the difference handing over a coffee in haste, not caring to look or acknowledge the person receiving the drink and actually taking the time to hand over the drink, smile and engage with the person. When the focus is on the task the being doing and receiving often get forgotten.
This is a stunning article by Gabriele Conrad, as she manages to put every element in to place so succinctly that the whole of time and space makes sense in an instant. Thank you Gabriele, this is going to stay with me all day.
‘There was a definite lack of something to rub against’… that captures the feeling precisely. There is an ocean of space to play in, all around us all of the time. But when we introduce time then suddenly it becomes ‘pressing’ and I can feel the world get smaller and tighter.
Multi-tasking is just a name for how to make more mistakes on different things, all at the same time. I saw a sign in a car garage once that said; a good job done fast but won’t be cheap, or a fast job done cheap that will not be any good, or a good job done cheap but will not be fast. It all comes down to choice and what you are willing to accept.
The transformation of time into space, simply by arresting our futile attempts to beat time – super cool article, thank you, Gabriele.
Over a period of time I noticed my thoughts, I am often wanting to get what ever I am doing done so as to get onto the next thing, I too have been practicing surrendering in each moment and fully embracing what ever it is I am doing and bringing the quality of energy to my every movement, it is a work in progress which I am committed to.
I so remember the feeling as a kid where there was endless space to do what ever you were doing, great reminder Gabriele, no need to rush, or fret , this takes us into time and we then run out of it.
Is it not interesting to note how you said “(I am not a good typist!)”. If you stuck to this new way of doing this task being with yourself as best as possible every moment of the job (the way you described it was perfect) .. I’m sure it would not take that long that the relationship you had with the task and typing would change. What a difference it makes when there is space to learn ‘in your time’ as Gabriele states “ – it felt as though I had all the time in the world.” Complexity in time – Simplicity in space.
This is profound Gabriele — most of this blog is — a capturing innovative read literally. “When the job was finished it finished at a certain time as measured by the clock, a time that would have arrived no matter what I had been doing and how I had been doing it.” You either can do a task being controlled in anyway that is a drive from outside of yourself in an ideal about time or you can do it with the very fact you are with all of you in your body i.e. Did the job give you Joy while you were doing it, on completion, and added value to the next job you did? We have used our relationship to time to take away our purpose to life.
When we impose a time limit on ourselves to meet a deadline on the clock we push ourselves and focus on time at the expense of whatever it is we are doing, so we are, in effect, in two places at once. No wonder we get frazzled and make errors.
Staying in tune with my body brings a rhythm to what I am doing and also a quality to it, so besides the fact that I can get it done as efficiently if not more, I know that when I come back to that same activity or feel the result of what I did, it supports me to reconnect again. So the notion of linear time is replaced by a cycle that can be built on. This understanding also works in reverse, where something I do haphazardly is a little harder to redo the next time. Perhaps it is true that we leave an imprint that affects us in everything we do?
Staying present and not being focused on time has actual health benefits as it takes so much stress out of life.
Hi Gabriele,I do a physical job and I always have it in mind that the quicker i get the job done the higher my hourly rate is, but the difference at the end of the day is how much more knackered I am if my mind is on the clock instead of giving myself the space. So I may get home a half hour earlier but the energy I have used through not being with myself is quite extraordinary.
Thanks Gabrielle- great reminder to be in the moment with all that we do, and it is the quality we do things in that matters- from no demands, expectations, timeframes as children so naturally play in.
Gabriele you wrote: “Or, in other words, when I don’t rush, I am not slow!” That was also a big revelation for me as I was a person who was always rushing. I have to admit that there is still work in progress as to rush is such an ingrained behavior for me but it is worth it to allow myself to not rush as I am not so exhausted as I was.
Fact is that when we race against time we will never feel being fulfilled as time does not truly exist to measure our outcome against but instead we are living in a space and when we start to understand this, as we know it form our childhood, we are just with ourselves in everything that we do. And in my experience with that comes a joy because I am with me in full appreciation of myself and not in competition with time that only brings me frustration as I will never be able to win that game.
Brilliant Gabriele! This blog totally blows away the in-grained lie embedded in the human psyche that time is the ‘enemy’. ‘And in that space, time does not matter, it is not my enemy and I don’t have to compete with it’.
We have been educated from an early age by school and parents alike to use competition as a fuel in our lives, to drive our actions. This can make the ‘other’ with whom we compete the ‘enemy’. As they say on the sports field ‘go out like gladiators’ and ‘bring home the booty’. And so we also compete with time instead of surrendering to spaciousness and presence. Great ground-breaking blog.
I can really see how I adjust my movement according to the limitation I would imagine from what the clock says – how I would rush and wind myself up, and how I judge myself according to how I measure up against it. It’s really amazing how we have assimilated ourselves into this illusion and mastered to leave ourselves in its process.
What a great exposure of the illusion of rushing to complete a task. It does not actually get anything done more quickly, even studies have shown this, and yet so many of us continue to think that the way to do things is as fast as we can. What? Is it maybe because we get recognition from others when we are seen to be working hard regardless of what our actual output is?
KISS! Keep it simple Student! Oh my, what would life be like if I had learned this lesson early in life, for I am very much new to typing and often get into rushing to meet a perceived dead-line.
I love the practical-ness of this article Gabriele. It is like a scientific experiment that you are conducting, about what actually happens when I drop the ‘deadline’ tension and observe what is happening – yes my body feels a lot better, I still made typing mistakes, I still finished when I did, but without the dire affects of frazzle-ment. Just brilliant.
This is indeed very good medicine! Thank you Gabriele for your ‘timeless’ sharing. We did, as you say, play and inhabit the world in space rather than time, when little children. There was no concept of rushing, pushing, deadlines. And that enabled us to keep in connection with the ‘whole’ of life. It is paramount to keep aware that our connection to our Soul comes before anything else, and then we live our life . . . our life comes from the space of Heaven.
“As children we live in that space, we spend all our time in it” – so beautifully said, and so true. I can feel how we try putting past and future as well as the present in the space of now to give ourselves an illusion of saturation and overwhelm as if to challenge the forever expansive nature of space, and the ridiculousness of it.
Working from the rhythm of our bodies is amazing and it allows the movements we make in each moment be the reflection of quality and light needed for all too. Thank you Gabriele.
Another classic example which serves to remind us how we have forgotten how to just be in the present moment – we just need to take the time to stop and observe small children at play to get a true sense of this.
Hi Gabriele, this is a great experiment to do . . one I have undertaken when driving a car. I discovered just how much I am hurting myself when rushing in the tension of getting somewhere. I do not get there any faster and I arrived frazzled. When I am focused on driving and being very present I arrive at my destination at the same time the difference being that I am with myself when I do arrive. A point of difference well worth noting.
Rushing never gets us anywhere in a quality that is enjoyable to be in.
An inspiring sharing Gabriele ! It makes a lot of sense to put as much care and attention into whatever we do and not just the things we enjoy or feel are important. Its what we put in that we get out of it.
I often wonder how life would run if we removed all our clocks and time pieces. It would probably be a bit chaotic to begin with… I remember travelling across the desert a few years back, and what a memorable experience it was to be living for those weeks outside of the structure of time, but very much in the rhythm of nature and its cycles. Perhaps it is actually possible to live and function by our internal rather than external clocks.
“I had not put any effort into trying to get to that end point earlier or faster and in that I got to feel the true blessing of time – the revelation of time as space. And in that space, time does not matter, it is not my enemy and I don’t have to compete with it” – agree Gabriele, i know that the more i leave space in my days, arriving places/meetings earlier, waking up a bit earlier, leaving the house for work just 5mins earlier, the less i feel up against it, anxious or wired, and where time becomes a sought-after feature, specifically feeling time-short. And so time IS (about) space. Space creation.
It is so true Gabrielle, as children we live in that spaciousness and it is beautiful to remember how expansive and joyful it is to live like that.
Very interesting experiment you did with Time Gabriele…so, what it boils down to is not one of time, beating the clock or getting anything done quicker, but more the quality of how you felt in yourself first and afterwards that was the ‘experiment’s finding’ and thus your decided focus, as opposed the focused goal of finishing the typing…so being in Space or spaciousness in the body, instead of ‘The Clock’ or what we equate with as ‘Time’….
Is it not time we changed our relationship with time? If time is not truly moving but it is we that move, what quality of movements are we in, and where are they leading us?
So great to reflect on this Gabriele for myself and also to feel how as adults we impose on our kids to pull them out of this spaciousness that is so natural ~ ‘Child’s play in hindsight – literally so, because as children we live in that space, we spend all our time in it. Do you remember the endless- and spaciousness of each moment, lived and experienced from and in a little body that is present with and in itself’
When we are no longer ruled by time and work with space the particles in our body respond and there is a natural sense of rhythm and harmony of how our day can flow. There is something so ordinary, yet very extraordinary about working in space that allows for a settlement in the body.
All works so perfectly and timely in nature and there is a natural rhythm and order to it. I love how when I am in connection and in rhythm within my own body, I have all the time I need, there is an order and flow and it is spacious. At those times it feels like I am outside of time…
We have conceptualised time to be a provider or deliverer of the things we need to be identified, to be recognised, to achieve being seen a ‘good’ yet we seldom take stock of how we are feeling in our bodies or if the quality of our fulfilment is honoring of who we are in essence.
The space we are in is given, it is constantly ours to be with however we choose. Our awareness of how we are in this space is our responsibility, as however we live in this space is what we share with this world, whether we choose to be aware of this or not. Yet when we choose to be, rather project our minds, out of the space we are in, we are left with feeling the ‘lack of space’, which we call a ‘lack of time’ as we have left ourselves and instead invested in a timeline or end-time rather than surrender to the space we are in and be with our essence.
Last year I heard Serge Benhayon present on Time, Space and All of Us in Sydney and it really changed my relationship with time as I recognised that time is a measurement and it is how we are within time (ie, the space) that determines how we feel. When we take the emphasis out of getting something done and focus on the quality in which we do things then this allows us to be working with space rather than being ruled by the clock.
When I don’t rush I am in conscious presence and that is the difference and something we can all choose.
Gabriele it was a great comment that if you had rushed and had that extra five minutes would it have brought you any joy? I can make the deadline everything and feel that I am competing against time, yet it’s for no reason because it takes me ahead of myself and definitely out of any potential joy.
I love the point Gabriele that you make about ‘deadlines’. I know for myself, when I let go of the concept of a deadline, I feel spacious and often get things done more efficiently. When I work to a deadline or create one for myself, I feel restricted and I don’t enjoy the process of what I am doing nearly as much. It is great to expose the meaning of deadline and the affect that it has on us.
Thank you Gabriele, what you’ve shared truly is a form of medicine in my experience too and something to very much appreciate and put into practice!
Why not choose to enjoy in full every moment we live, and choose to be loving with every movement we make as this would be far more joy-full that the stress, pressure and anxiety than we put ourselves and our bodies through in our race against time.
I have always liked to be early, never liked the feeling of rushing or being late. I like to get to my dental appointment, work or whatever at least 5 minutes early so that I can sit for a moment. I like the feeling that I have space and giving my self that extra time means that if I need to do something, I can.
What I do have to be aware of though, is that I can ensure that all that needs to be done is done, but then….. a few extras that are not part of my plan pop in, and if I go into and need to get them done, or drive or push it can throw me completely, and this then has an effect on my whole day. It can only be one minor detail to my morning, one extra job that really is not essential but I make it out to be like my life depended on it and believe it or not, it has an impact throughout my day.
What a gift the book Time by Serge Benhayon is. I have realised how trapped and driven our world is by the concepts of time, and as you say the race against time, myself included. Yet who we are in essence is timeless, eternal in fact and whenever we are connected to our essence with whatever we do we bring a quality of presence that is Divine, full and rich with joy, not owned or defined by time in any way. As it is only us the uses time to diminish the quality of what we bring, as time itself only marks the quality of our presence lived in any moment.
Seeing time on a clock ticking by, and as a finite thing, creates so much anxiousness that is exhausting. What I can feel in what you share Gabriele is the ease and openness of space, an allowing of life to be fully lived in each moment… how gorgeous!
Awesome to read your blog Gabriele, it confirms what I recently realise too. No matter what we do if we do it in a race against time we get anxious, exhausted and stressed, but we can equally carry out the same task in the same amount of time or less but be more connected to ourselves, not rushing but bringing joy into every moment and movement of our task. This totally shifts, changes our stress levels, improves the quality of what we do and more amazingly, we can bring joy to every task we do throughout our day, simply by choice, choose to not let time control us but choose to connect first to ourselves and what we are doing.
Yes we get to 4 o’clock or what ever time it is no matter what we do, so we may as well enjoy the process rather than go into the hectic, frantic rush. And it is so true that when we go into the rush, we often take longer than normal because we are all over the place, rather than with ourselves, knowing what step to take next.
The concepts that you are busting through in this article are huge. I am often late and rushing to arrive on time for work or social occasions. I have felt and experienced the ‘good medicine’ you refer to, the space that is created when you cease to place the clock as your enemy, it always surprises me how little time you actually save through the rush but the quality you scarce in order to save it hardly seems worth it?
Rushing sets us up to fail because we are setting ourselves up to feel exhausted later in our day.
This is a great point… To be with what you are doing and not be fixated on the clock. It makes sense that time doesn’t matter… As if you rushed to complete something you probably would finish at the same time then if you just did it- the outcome is what would be so different though. The quality of the task as well. it’s an illusions we have to rush to get things done quicker.
I do remember as a little kid how spacious everything was- and how time didn’t matter. It was a beautiful thing to feel- rather then constantly racing against the clock
love what you have shared here Gabriele. There is a big difference in the experience of a job or activity when we allow ourselves to do things at a pace that is lovely and supportive rather than rushing things. For example, I love doing laundry, especially when there is no time frame set on getting it done. I love hanging up the wet clothes, placing them in exact positions on the line and pairing up the socks etc. But if I am rushed and have to do it quickly I find it annoying and a nuisance. This is similar to what you have shared with just taking the time to do things in a way that allows the full space for it – and as we discover, it does not need to take that much longer or can actually take the same amount of time to do because when we rush we make mistakes, and not only that but when we rush we also walk away feeling incomplete! It is worth feeling complete after every thing that we do…
Not only does rushing not make us finish things faster and increase our mistakes, it also leaves us exhausted very quickly.
I can relate this to when there is something that needs to be done I always have the option to either rush and try to get it done quickly or with presence that feels like there is all the time in the world and the quality of the outcome feels very different. Often when I choose to rush I make mistakes or the quality is not the same as when I am being all of me with the task at hand. The other thing I’ve noticed is that I’m less likely to feel tired and stressed when I’m present with what I’m doing.
At any moment we have a choice of how we move and with what we choose to move. Rushing is a choice as so beautifully explained in this blog.
Beautiful Gabriele. I have been amazed at how time opens up and in space that is all there is – space. Whereas time is very definitive and restricting.
Our relationship with time is so fraught – rarely does anyone feel they have enough of it and always want more. To start developing a relationship with space, is a whole new (well maybe not so new) ball game and your blog is a great intro into that. As to how we can just be with the task at hand, and not get caught up in time/ deadlines etc…
Such delightful wisdom and simple – re-turn to the spaciousness we new as children and repeat often.
Thanks so much Gabriele, my body feels lighter from reading and appreciating what you’re sharing.
Hello Gabriele and another great book by Serge Benhayon as you say. When you say “After all, 4pm is 4pm, regardless of how I spend the time until that time” So time is time and it’s how we are with it that either creates the ‘space’ or creates the ‘friction’. This is a great way to look at moments and time and brings us to the quality we are and not the drive to the deadline.
Thank you Gabriele and I fully appreciate your experience. It is quite a profound feeling when we take the pressure off ourselves and simply get stuck into the task, no expectation, no dead line to stagger across, just a light, focussed attention on the job in hand and a quiet enjoyment of the process. And its true if we don’t rush we can never be slow because we have abandoned the clock and chosen spaciousness instead. When we make this choice, there is nothing to measure our progress by except the exquisite feeling of stillness and appreciation in our bodies for a task is being accomplished with love.
I notice that I often get a lot more done in the same time frame when I stay very present and in the moment throughout each task. It is a phenomena that fascinates me and feels so divine when I slip back into space and stop “fighting time”.
“Or, in other words, when I don’t rush, I am not slow!” I like this and can say that is what I have experienced too. It is simply one step at a time and as you say what “needs to get done gets done”.
The switch from time to space is a choice that I now consciously have – after reading Serge Benhayon’s book “time”. The race against time is over.
Yes Gabriele, our whole world is running on the belief that speeding up and racing is the way to be. We even celebrate people who drive around in circles on a racing track. Yet all of this looks at life, as if it is measured by the amount of things we get done. As if when you die, there would be a review meeting and your big boss (God?) would say ‘Great – you completed task a, b and c – that seems awesome to me!’. But what if that is not true? What if we are defined by the quality we choose? Then what we aspire for our track record to be should be one of deeper quality, and days where you chose to be more and more loving. The end of time as we know it, is the end of pushing through and the start of us nourishing me and you.
It is the quality how we do something, what counts, not how quickly we can do it, which often causes stress, because the movement in itself to do the job as quickly as possible is under tension.
It is an interesting observation that although we make a point of teaching and encouraging people to be ‘serious’ and push themselves to be ‘faster and better’, when you chose to not function under those drives, the speed and accuracy was not that much different, but your experience certainly was. I know that how people feel does affect the quality of their work, so in the long run this would show a higher quality too. It is remarkable how false our perceptions can be when we think pushing ourself and feeling anxious and inadequate is a good thing.
ah I love this feeling and it is something I know I need to work on more – that there is a space in which you can do things, where the doing of them is not the most important part, but the quality of how they are done
‘Or, in other words, when I don’t rush, I am not slow!’ – Haha Gabriele, I love this simple revelation – it highlights the games we play and the utter illusion about time.
Totally agree Gabriele, the end job feels better and I am left feeling greater, rather than squashed by the pressure I’d have placed on myself if I were to have rushed.
‘I had not set myself a deadline (strange word that, a ‘dead line’) and thus there was nothing to measure myself against. ‘ When we measure, we disappoint ourselves or are relieved we’ve made it. There is no true joy or appreciation in that and we give our power away to the deadline, to time, something outside of ourselves.
Gosh Gabriella, the pressure of time I can relate to that so I am pretty sure I will re visit this blog. Fighting time is useless and yet I try to do this on a daily basis. I have been called slow several times in my life and felt judged and rejected, so thank you for the words ….’when I don’t rush, I am not slow’.
Time is a very interesting subject and I love what Serge Benhayon presents in his book Time, basically saying that time does not exist…. especially because time is such a real experience for me. It really did my head in at first but I am starting to grasp what he is talking about whilst I am reclaiming this space in me where I can simply surrender to timelessness – like we all could as children. The is still very much a work in progress, but absolutely worth the commitment.
Thank you Gabriele, exactly! We as children are not rushed whatever until we are met with the concepts of rush and needing to be there a certain time. It is by virtue of our choice and these concepts that we are learned to pay more attention to fitting in these matters then allowing our rhythm to do things on time. This is a huge subject that would be very benefitial to explore further – as by this an illusion , that time is, is stopped and no longer given power – then our true rhythms come back alive and exists.
Time can be such the bane of many peoples lives, with everything balanced and geared around it. Our whole lives can be governed by it. A silent illusion is what we grapple with every day of our busy lives.
Well worth getting back to and repeating frequently, like the good medicine it is; good medicine for our physical and mental wellbeing as well as for our relationships and the enjoyment of the work we do, whatever it may be.” I can taste the goodness of this good medicine.
I love this subject Gabrielle, and for me it is not about going fast or slow but just making sure I take the time I need to really complete something with 100% of my clarity. Sportspeople often talk about enjoying the process more than the end goal and perhaps it is similar in all life, it is not about getting somewhere or achieving something but how we are in the process, that is where the magic lies and it isn’t something we need lose once we pass childhood.
“When I don’t rush I am not slow”. I love this. Things take as long as they take. As you say, 4 pm is still 4 pm, regardless of what we have accomplished in the time up until then and 4 pm will come around tomorrow and tomorrow. Time is a man-made artifice. We then can become its slaves if we are not careful.
I love this Gabriele, having always been a ‘speed merchant’. Taking time to complete something with presence makes such a difference. I have noticed that with driving. Not rushing, I still get there when I get there and often not any later than if I speed.
‘ When I don’t rush, I am not slow ! ‘ this is so true Gabrielle. Staying present in the moment with my body more seems to get done, effortlessly with a real flow to it, and there’s no go slow. I can feel how time is so limiting when I get caught up in it. Great blog thank you.
Oh yes, I remember this time as a child when the world was spacious and there was no time pressure or need to rush. It is a shame that we ever loose this space in us and then have to work hard to regain it again.
I feel yep time in the temporal world is very much something we need to adhere to e.g going to a meeting or appointment but it can also be something we put pressure on ourselves about. I recently realised it was me that gave myself all the deadline times at work .. no one else! I also feel it comes down to self-love and self-care, if I give myself enough time in the morning my day flows if I rush I then become late .. the self-love and self-care aspect that come in here are getting up early enough to do all I need to so I am not late. As a wise and beautifull young women, Simone Benhayon, once shared .. if we are late we cannot blame the traffic it is how we lived in the morning up to that point, the momentum we have lived that we bring with us throughout our day.
Gosh I recognize this. I am almost always racing against time. But it’s true, where do we think we will get to apart from arriving at the same time as everyone else, no matter how we have been living.
I remember my son once saying at a very young age, “I hate time,”, I now know what he meant by this, I know he meant he felt uneasy and stressed by the rushing and pressure of life and how awful that felt to him.
I love how you explained that by rushing one would actually be wasting time…. That is a golden insight, so hard and so futile to hurry then isn’t it, yet this is exactly what people do when they don’t understand how to be with time. Great blog Gabriele.
I like how you write Gabriele – very detailed and explanatory keeping the reader in the story. Making it personal but not so personal as the story has a deeper bigger meaning. Our relationship with time and space can be understood by your simple investigation. How many of us are racing around more and more ‘thinking’ we are achieving lots but there is no joy in what we do, and we just carry on .. creating more and more exhaustion in ourselves and imposing this on each other?
Super cool blog Gabriele! All about quality and allowing the space. Thank you for the experiment. I can see this maybe be used as an excuse to go slow and not to worry. I would add to this the absolute commitment to completing the task in what I know to be true. I know this was not a part of the simple expose of time, and space, but I can see how this can be misinterpreted exactly like we reinterpret ‘deadlines’ and agenda items, when all is needed is to be with yourself and to honour just what is there and not repeat the same mistakes and thus the same day.
My sister once gave me a card and on the front was a picture of a rabbit and a tortoise wth the caption that read “the hurrieder I go the slower I get”. And my mother used to say “more haste, less speed”. There’s truth in this and I’ve experienced it often in that the more I push to get a task done the longer it can take me to complete and I feel frazzled whereas when I stay connected to myself there’s a simplicity that emerges.
When I don’t make time the enemy, I find that everything still does get done, but I am more at peace and not agitated. This is a gem of a quote that I may well put on my fridge door – ‘when I don’t rush, I am not slow!’ Thanks Gabriele.
I have put myself on an ‘eat slower’ program since I tend to bolt down my food. It’s been very interesting to work on breaking this habit and I have noticed so many changes as a result. I put my knife and fork down between mouthfuls, I actually enjoy what I’m eating more, I engage more with the people I am with, and sometimes I feel full before I’ve finished everything on my plate. Amazing how slowing things down has had such a big impact.
Gabriele this is great for me to read this morning and read over and over as a reminder. I am someone who is prone to rushing. I loved this question – ‘would those potential extra five minutes have given me any joy?’ When I ask myself the question, I know the answer is ‘no’ as I usually end up feeling tense and frazzled when rushing. This is a great question to keep asking when I find myself operating in this mode.
This is great Gabriele,
I have often found myself racing against the clock to get things done so I can get onto the next task.
But I have also experienced what it is like to not have the personally set deadline and just how freeing that is, and how much better I felt when completing the task without the pressure to get it done.
Once upon a time, I would rush from one thing to the next and would feel exhausted by the end of the day – I’d rush for the train, rush to get my work done, rush to get ready in the morning so my body was in a constant state of ‘go’. Not only was it exhausting, it meant I needed stimulants or ‘false fuel’ to keep me going so I would choose sugary or starchy foods to give me a boost of energy, crash and need another boost. It’s a cycle that continued until I stopped the rushing around and started listening more to what my body was telling me.
Whenever I watch the clock to get something completed by a certain time – bang, in comes anxiety, my chest feels tight, my breath changes and I go into my head and if I continue in this even for a short while, I feel exhausted. Racing against time does not work.
Many good points made in this blog. I find that time is a trap and is used as a goal in many ways.
Many industries pride themselves in the efficiencies and effectiveness they can complete a job. Usually putting high strain and stress on themselves, staff and ultimately the consumer.
Who wins in the end and is the 5min better productivity actually worth the exhausting process?
Wow this was the best thing I could have read this morning, I had just given myself a to-do list and a time frame in which to do it all by, but in doing so stressed myself out. Your blog Gabriele has reminded me of the importance of not rushing, staying present and en-joying what I do instead of rushing & missing true quality time with myself.
Yes, I love that example of how 4pm arrives at 4pm no matter how fast you move or not!
Reading the book Time, Space and all of us, Book 1, Time by Serge Benhayon was hugely liberating and transformed my life. Most people are slaves to all the lies and misunderstandings that abound around this word “time”.
There is an old saying, ‘More haste, less speed’. There is wisdom about time contained in these words…something we intrinsically know but don’t very often apply. But you have taken it to another level Gabriele with your sharing of space and how everything opens up when we take our time.
I love what you have shared Gabriele. I know that feeling of being ‘frazzled and on edge’ by putting myself under pressure to get to the end of a job by rushing the process “I had not put any effort into trying to get to that end point earlier or faster and in that I got to feel the true blessing of time – the revelation of time as space.”
Thank you for sharing this Gabriele,
I have recently felt the difference in my body from feeling flowing, present and simply in the space I am in to then feeling tense pushed and pressured by time.
The difference in my body was huge and left me pondering on the undue stress most of humanity places on our bodies every day.
Brilliant blog Gabriele. It is such an illusion that when we do something fast and therefore rush ourselves we will get more done in the day. It starts with what is our purpose in life, to get things done or the quality we bring to every moment? In the first instance rushing might seem doing its job, yet in the second, which I prefer and feels true to me, it doesn’t serves as whilst and after rushing the state we are in in our bodies is totally different (less good most of the time!) and the quality of our work is less. So which one do we prefer?
As you share this Gabriele, it is obvious that the conditions, ideals and models of how we think life should be and how we think we are to be in life are the very things that set us up with behaviours and tensions about time. As you say, in child’s play we did not aim to be the fastest or the bestest, these are simply ideals we have taken on and they are holding us back enormously so.
I love how you relate to how young children play, enjoying the spaciousness that is available when we are engrossed in what we are doing. It is sad that we lose that great ability, I guess it starts with our parents who want to rush us to finish things quickly. Once we are at school then we all seem to have to conform to this constant race against the clock. I am beginning to feel the enormous difference when I set aside any consideration of the time, and focus on the job I am doing with no expectation of when it will be finished. Rushing is so upsetting, it never saves ‘time’, as you suggested, when we rush, then we have to fix all the mistakes we have made during the rush, that takes more ‘time’.
Thank you for sharing an inspiring observation 🙂 I like what you say here “After all, 4pm is 4pm, regardless of how I spend the time until that time,” as it shows that it is not the time that is important but how we are in the space in-between one point and another. We are our own determinants of this part and as you show the way we are left feeling in our body can be quite different.
‘when i don’t rush I’m not slow’ – love this Gabriele – it really shows how being fully there and aware when we do something means we essentially do it once and do it with quality. A massive difference and the way we feel about doing this is completely different when we are not rushing.
To take our time is to honour what is needed – not push ourselves as a ‘race against time’ – I understand that there is a huge difference between space and time, and to allow ourselves the space is to complete what is needed – not based on time or rushing, but based on quality.
It’s so true Gabriele that rushing really doesn’t make us more efficient – when we’re in that frazzled and overwhelmed state the quality of our work naturally goes down, and often we actually don’t make up any/much time by rushing in the first place due to clumsiness! I’ve experienced exactly what you’ve shared about how the same period of time can feel incredibly short or much longer depending on how we are within that period, and although 4pm is always 4pm we can choose to live previous to 4pm in a whole lot of stress and tension or with lots of space.
Gabriele I love that fact that “when I don’t rush, I am not slow”, it goes against the way we normally approach our work, our life, that to fit more in with rush. Yet what effect does rushing have, I do remember that endless time and space as a child, in effect that is the part of life that I seem to often have left behind yet it is the part of my childhood I love the most. There are always many things to do, but if I don’t clock watch – dead-line driven for every moment then perhaps the quality I do it in will be very different.
A beautiful understanding on time and presence and much for one to reflect on.The lightness and joy can be felt by your sharing of letting go the rushing and pressure and simply enjoying taking your time by being with you and the quality of this can really be felt and appreciated.This is a very different and beautiful way to live honouring ourselves and it feels that time opens up and gives us the space and grace to get everything done and is very magical. Thank you Gabriele.
What a great blog Gabriele. I love how you express the joy and freedom that is available when we stop being in a rush, relentlessly measuring ourselves by time and taking twice as long having to correct the mistakes this has caused anyway!
When we have a big task in front of us it is easy to go into overwhelm, but when we simply sit down and begin and take care of the quality in which we do every small thing, then space does indeed open up and everything gets done without us feeling frazzled at the end of it.
The wisdom of children appreciating the space we all have to truly live life until, for the majority, they are forced to conform to society’s expectations and then spend a lifetime chasing their tail in ever decreasing circles and wondering why they are constantly exhausted?!
This is such an awesome reminder ‘when I don’t rush, I am not slow!’ Allowing myself the space to undertake a task without the constant judgement of the speed with which I am doing it is something I am still working on. My parents used to call me a ‘slow-coach’ because I was slow to get dried when I got out of the bath and I somehow translated this to being about everything I did and would constantly berate myself that I was e.g. typing slowly (although I am in fact an accurate touch typist) but as soon as I start to rush I make mistakes and end up slowing myself down. Racing against time is exhausting and the quality of what we produce is inferior so everyone suffers whereas if we stay present we experience the expansiveness of space supporting us to accomplish what is required without draining ourselves.
Even sitting behind the computer and reading this blog made me aware of the fact that I wasn’t enjoying working, but actually reading to get ‘the job done’. It takes away all the joy, the sillyness, the playfulness and in fact the Love I naturally am. I love to feel the joy while typing. Even working from this place is a totally different way of working – as I observe that I’m actually observing what I’m doing. In which I’m realising that I am (!!) not what I am doing (!!). There’s still connection, even a deeper one, but one that’s far more still. There’s a strength and a knowing in it. Which in turn makes me feel joyful.
This is so amazing Gabriele, it is so simpel. I still notice how attached I am to the doing. It has to do with truly claiming how precious I am and put myself first and give me space to be with me. Thank you for inspiring and sharing in such a practical way.
It is funny how if we rush we think we get things down faster, I can feel there is not a flow when I rush, life is more disjointed and I drop and knock more things. There is a natural rhythm in life, in the universe and it is something we can align with and it comes though being consciously present.
Agreed, Samantha – there is a definite difference in in rushing. It’s a disturbance for the natural flow and for others to see and feel as well.
I have been setting up a new business with my husband and although I have made a project plan, and there are some dates to work with, to support functional aspects like a builder’s renovation date and photo shot etc, there is space in it, we do not feel drawn to deadlines all over the place, we are feeling more what is required next rather than pushing it along. This is a new way of completing projects and one I am enjoying learning.
Thank you Gabriele. This is something my attention is being drawn to a lot these days too. Yesterday I had a lot to do but I allowed myself to get on edge about it and let nervous energy begin to run the show. In the evening I went to a party leaving my house later than I planned. As I left the nervous energy expressed itself in my thoughts and I suddenly found myself going back into the house to get more food for my contribution to the party, making a card with the ingredients as had been requested. I knew all along this was not needed but the apprehension around there not being enough kept me going so I began to drive in haste. Fortunately I caught myself and slowed down or there could have been food contributions all over the inside of my car, however this really highlighted to me how rushing just does not work, thinking that I have to do more and what I am doing is not enough. Needless to say the extra food was not needed it was put in the fridge and I brought it home at the end of the evening. Looking back I can see my day as a piece of music where some places were open and spacious and felt harmonious while others were squeezed tight and felt jarring and out of sync. and not in accord with the rest of the symphony so to speak.
Some days, I can flow with what I feel is needed rather than push to keep up, get things finished or watch the clock and things I need to get done, I am relating to time in a different way. I used to really react to it as concept, and this got me feeling like i was a reluctant prisoner to it. This is changing.
We are in school summer holiday time in the UK and I remember how these weeks would be timeless and yet, on the way to adulthood this changed and I began to react to time and what I perceived to be time constraints. I have children in my life now and it is amazing to appreciate their relationship with time and space. It is truly spacious and not restricted by pictures of what needs to happen or when, it is felt into rather than thought.
Love it Gabrielle. Playful and wise. I loved particularly what you shared about would there be any joy in the extra 5 minutes if you had of been rushing and finished the ‘job’ a little earlier. Your blog really begs us to ask the question of why we rush at all.
Gabriele, I love that you paused to feel and observe yourself in the way that led you to find another way. It’s interesting how your experiment brought new awareness and proved that there are few gains in rushing our work, that we can experience space and enjoy what we do more when we simply carry out the work without pressuring ourselves in anyway.
Thank you for writing about your observations whilst typing and how by buying into the need to rush only causes tension and disharmony in the body. I can relate to feeling under pressure and then getting myself ready to bash out my paperwork on the computer and at the same time feeling how my body then responds. The point is we may save five or ten minutes or not, but is it worth the feeling we are left with at the end of the day – definitely not.
Gabriele, something I find fascinating is that when I choose not to rush at work and actually give what ever I am doing my full attention without putting a time limit on it usually I do it much quicker than if I tried to rush it. I make less mistakes, my body does not get agitated or racy and my thoughts tend to be much clearer – so I get things done quicker and with a deeper level of quality.
Wow Gabriele your blog is such a good refection for me – thank you so much for not holding back about your experiences and observations with time and space – your simplicity helped me to get a deeper understanding of the distinction of them.
I have also come to experience the magic of the vastness of space that is contained in time. As you have said, Gabriele children only exist in space and have to dip into time from things outside them for meals and bedtime. We all have all the same amount of time, but we can choose how we live and fill the space of every moment.
This is gorgeous, Gabriele – such an exposé of the illusion that rushing alleviates pressure. Your description of how it was without rushing is so eloquent, “There was a definite lack of something to rub against, get hassled by, or even be the slightest uptight about, nothing provided friction or an issue of any definition or description.”
Beautiful Gabriele. I have had this experience on many occasions with different tasks. The output is still produced, however, what changes is how I feel while I am working and the output actually feels better even if the end product looks the same.
I have always Raced Against Time, love the title of this blog! My dad nicknamed me the road runner, as I literally ran from one thing to the next to be done…..And guess what I never had enough time in the day, plus all that running around left me exhausted. But I do feel that most of the world live int his constant race against time, making it about quantity (getting the job done, no matter what) rather than about quality….and is a battle that is never going to be won. When I started to slow down several years ago, I observed how much time I actually had and just as important, I got to feel how best to use my time, and also when to say no and when to stop especially when I was tired.
I love the feeling of freedom and joy in your words, Gabriele. To not be pressured by time opens up a whole new world, and like you I remember the feeling of living in the moment as a child, that anything was possible in the space within which I resided and played.
‘ I had not put any effort into trying to get to that end point earlier or faster and in that I got to feel the true blessing of time – the revelation of time as space. And in that space, time does not matter, it is not my enemy and I don’t have to compete with it. And to top it all off – everything that needs to get done gets done’. Love the truth so clearly delivered in the above.
A pure revelation Gabriele “when I don’t rush, I am not slow!”. Which makes me wonder what are we doing when we rush? Caught up in the list of things to complete rather than in the activity of the moment.
Could rush stand for Really Unnecessary Supermovement, Help!? Probably so!
How about RUSH = really unnecessary speed high.
I am often on the road and made the experience that I meet the car that did overtake me a few minutes ago on the next traffic light again. Only that I am relaxed and the other driver seems stressed. ..What remembers me on a friend who works in a kindergarten who shared how stressed the parents often collect their children, not able to connect to them at all. The focus is to get into the car and drive home or shopping or what ever. And the kids become frustrated because they had a vibrant day and would like to share with their lovely ones. They need to be met. But they don’t and so become whiny or upset and the relationship between parent and child becomes stressed. Because of that they become late for the next appointment… and so it goes on and on and on. Till we brake this cycle of ‘time’ and truly meet people, give people a space in our life. Ourselves first and so all.
What a super fantastic blog on time, I can so relate to setting deadlines and then going into a rush mode to get things finished….. and while in the middle of one thing, my mind is on the next thing to get done. This way of working only creates stress in my body and no doubt affects the quality of the output. When I do not rush the job still gets done and much more as I stay connected with myself and my inner knowing of what needs doing that day.
Thank you Gabriele. A great reminder of the choice we have in how we use or abuse our body in activity whilst relating to time. Do we allow time to rule or allow ourselves the space to have the experience within the time and not rob ourselves of the joy we can feel when we choose to be present. As you say ‘child’s play’.
We can do a lot. But in which quality we do it and so, what quality does come out at the end? I see that in my workplace where we are used to doing things quickly and sometimes hectic – this is the main way it is done. But the quality in how it was done does lay the ground for the next action and so on. So I am not surprised that we are all more or less exhausted and stressed. As I am given a medical certificate to stay away from work for two weeks (my body says: stop! different quality please!) I really have to ponder on which kind of quality I live at work and everywhere. So our bodies reflect to us that working in ‘time’ does not work at the end.
To make the jobs we have to do in space and let go of the ‘time-idea’ requires trust – to let go of control and give myself and my actions into God’s hands again.
Yes this is so true Sandra. It is truly that simple yet we complicate it to delay our magnificence.
What blows me away is to ponder the fact that time is just a man made concept that doesn’t actually exist.
“What I also noticed was that my output seemed to be the same, whether I would have been rushing like in the past or staying present with me and attending to every step and nuance as I was doing now.” A very interesting observation. If the output is the same whether we rush or whether we stay present then the only choice becomes the one about which quality we are choosing. I am sure the befits of choosing the latter not only support us to appreciate ourselves and then to deepen our self nurture, supporting the appreciation in turn, but that everyone else gets to feel the quality of the project/output/piece of work and then get to be inspired by the quality felt there too.
It is like ‘in space’ all of me is there and ‘in time’ just a part of me. So, ‘in time’ always left me with something missing – no matter if I’ve done the job faster, good or however.