380 thoughts on “A Race With No Finish Line”

1. There are days when I flow with what is before me and then there are days when I’m thinking about all that needs to be done, what to do next and looking at the clock to see how much time I have. The latter are days where anxiety is present. Whilst I still have days like these, I’m much more aware now that I am racing time and that there is another way.

2. Recently I made a commitment not to rush to complete a piece of work before a client deadline. Rather than focus on what I needed to do within the time I decided to trust that the space was there and to commit to the quality of the steps rather than the end result. It felt so different to the push to complete and what’s completely bizarre is I even had time to run a few overdue errands and get a short rest in before the meeting.

3. ‘For example, bringing a focus on my breathing’, recently on a longish car journey I felt to connect to the way I was breathing rather than stop the car for a break. I had never really committed in the way I did that day to the quality of my breath and being fully present with it. What transpired was incredible, I went from feeling tired, heavy and grizzly to feeling light, revitalised and joyful. That day really showed me how transformative something as simple as breathing gently can be.

4. We have access to so many tools in order not to get caught up in the illusion of the spirit, this needs to be deeply appreciated as the more our movements align to that which is of truth the less chance we will have to deal with that which does not exists.

5. It is great to catch when the drive kicks in, so we are able to stop it and come back to ourself, ‘ feeling when I go into drive and motion, and when I get stimulated and leave myself behind.’

6. So simple and so true.

7. I noticed myself being completely caught up in what I needed to get done this morning. I have a deadline on Wednesday and another on Thursday, so I started to rush and became intense in what I felt I needed to do. I realised that it was me creating the tension and that the truth was I actually had plenty of space to do what was needed, so I took a moment to rest in the middle of the day (which in the past would have been unheard of) and the quality of the second part of my day was completely different.

8. If we let go of pictures of how we think our days should look and instead focus on the quality of what we are doing whilst allowing for stop moments activities space naturally opens up.

9. I can really relate to this blog in how you talk about not completing things/tasks and having a form of anxiousness running in the body as I am sure many others can also relate to. The beautifull thing is with this awareness I am now steadily completing all tasks and giving myself space to feel why I am living with a low grade anxiousness running so this will eventually cease completely.

10. Rebecca, I agree with all you have shared and it makes perfect sense to always see “every day as an opportunity to learn” and may I add with the great attitude you have from what you are sharing we also have the opportunity to evolve every day!

11. Not being a terribly driven person but I can still relate to starting one job then to find myself halfway through another before I realise what I have done, and what I haven’t finished of the job before! I am working on it!

12. It’s amusing to consider how much we’ve been duped – myself included – that when we rush we get more done. The truth is, we get less done, less done well and we leave a flurry of chaos behind to impact the next thing we do, and then the next etc.

13. “Bringing a focus…” to how we breath, enables us to alter everything that we think are habits and ‘just how we are’. Challanges, emotions, tricky life stuff is simply with practice observed and responded to with a steadiness and sense of wisdom to that is a wonder to experience. I had no idea that this would be possible, through just being aware of my breath, but it has unfolded in this way and I know with no doubt that breathing our own breath changes everything.

14. I was always turning away or walking away from something I was doing before it was finished and it used to annoy me that I did. I would return to it eventually but I would always be questioning why; why was I doing this? And then finally I discovered the power of the pause; a moment in time where I stop what I am doing and bring all my attention to me and to my breath. As I began to do this I started to notice that I was now completing tasks. There is no longer any walking away with them half done and if the urge to do so begins to grow I simply pause and come back to me in that moment.

15. I am back at work after a long summer break and I can feel how I get ahead of myself, and my movements want to rush to the next thing, before completing what I am doing. Interestingly I have hurt my ankle so I cant move as quickly as I usually would. Its a great reminder to go at my pace and not try and keep up with everyone else.

16. The title captures in essence anxiety. For me anxiety is when I live a few steps ahead of myself, not being in my body in the present moment. And from the place of those few steps ahead, they are always trying to get somewhere. But the only place we can truly be is in the present moment.

    1. Great call Nikki, yes there is a lot of anxiety in living that way. Taking time to stop and feel and connect with our body is a tool well worth developing and living.

17. An enormous pressure we put on our body and therefore ourselves to be everything other than who we naturally are – this inevitably will take a toll and require correction. The simplicity of breathing and moving to our own natural rhythm requires no effort and is indeed a seamless flow.

18. To allow space is a sure way to observe life rather than be swept up in its current/

19. This is beautiful Rebecca, as it proves the power of the Gentle Breath Meditation. When we rush and race we miss what is on offer for us to connect to and learn from.

20. When we race through life we miss out on all the magic in the world.

21. ” I am beginning to see every day as an opportunity to learn ” This is so key to the way we live and its a clear understanding of our life as human beings. Every day has a purpose and the purpose is learning , there is a teaching in every moment of each day . The more present we are with ourselves the more teaching we receive and therefore more learning , and therefore an understanding of purpose.
    Thank you Rebecca

22. This was very timely to read this morning, as I’ve been grappling lately on a whole new level yet again with the constrictions of time. When we make it about time we’re constantly swimming upstream and exhausting ourselves in the process. I’ve observed how that disposition to make it about time, comes from inside of me first – and it’s like my whole body than becomes this pointy thing aiming for a certain hour, a certain point to achieve that it never does achieve. It’s a conditioning that we’ve let ourselves be under for eons, and the more we see it for what it is, the more we see that we don’t need to belong to this false construct, that is in fact never in tune with our bodies’ rhythm and timing. It may take some ‘time’ to let go, but the irony is that inevitably we all eventually will…

23. A powerful message for us all. Getting to know what is true and what is not is the greatest liberation one can choose. I have been deeply supported claiming back that I have this inner knowing : and that I actually know what is true and what is not, and with this Serge Benhayon has supported me immensely, till this very day. Thank you Rebecca for expressing your truth.

24. The raciness keeps us disconnected from our body and perpetuates itself if we don’t put a very conscious stop to it. Raciness is as much a habit as it is a big fat trap that incarcerates us in the confines of time.

    1. Very true – we literally are spinning in another rhythm rather than moving in our own.

25. We miss so much in rush, all the treasures in life.

26. Its fascinating how much time I have spent trying to get to a certain goal or place then got there and there had not been the fireworks and completition I wanted. It shows me how much I was trying to fill something up inside me and then suddendly the goal is achieved and im left empty wondering whats next. Whereas when I see something as a never ending building and deepening of love there is no emd but rather a continual appreciation all along the way – no fireworks either but plenty of love and joy!

27. So interesting to recognise that when we are are in a constant hurry we are absolutely not with ourselves, and not in space but in time instead, fighting the clock so to say. How different this actually is to how we naturally are, when connected and in full surrendering to the cycles we are in, we cannot else than be in connection with everybody and everything and from there just be and perhaps do that what is needed and will serve us all.

28. Awesome to read your blog again Rebecca. I recently went into anxiousness and it felt exactly as you’ve described. I feel the space close in on me and I couldn’t feel the spaciousness anymore. Instead of reading the situation I reacted and created anxiousness. The lesson for me here is to give myself space before I race into thinking I have not time or space to read the situation. Giving myself space is a loving thing to do and to seeing the truth of any given situation.

29. Letting each moment be spacious rather than polluted and impinged upon by what has been and what is to come is an amazing way to make life feel light and spacious.

30. The more we commit to develop our relationship with our own quality, the easier it is to become aware of that which does not belong to that level of stillness and gentleness within and with no judgement we can simply bring ourselves back to what is our natural way of being.

31. True – there is no escaping our choices and the tension within of living less than what is true.

32. A great reminder that we need to stop our momentum in order to create the needed space to eternally observe life.

33. Making life about space and the beauty that then encapsulates us when we move in this way and not against time we feel a completely different quality in our lives and connecting with people has a greater substance and feel. Enjoying the space and our bodies moving in this quality really does give us a greater awareness of our lives and how we interact within it.

34. It is all the simple basic practical everyday things in life where I find it can be so easy to go into auto pilot yet the moment I bring my focus to them it is like my whole body lights up and then I am supported in everything else. I now see these more mundane tasks as crucial aspects of my foundation and then the rest naturally takes care of itself.

35. I lived in conscious anxiousness for most of my life and reading this article tonight I can feel how one of the greatest ‘benifits’ of doing so was that it kept me separate from others and this brought a pretend feel of safety, as I believed I couldn’t get hurt. Now living my life with much less anxiousness and in more connection with others, I now feel a true safety, and that has only coming from my decision to connect first with myself, the beauty, purpose, strength, wisdom, joy and love I feel within. This I never felt when I allowed anxiousness to run my life.

36. I feel being honest is an important key here, as it is only then that we can feel the way we are living is not it, and it is our willingness to develop and nurture our true quality that allows space to be created where things get done for the good of all and not just another way to manage life.

37. So true Brendan, we can try and fool ourselves for many lives, but the body holds all markers of our movements.

38. Function, busyness, anxiousness and raciness are great ploys of the spirit to stop one from deepening in there love and living all they are.

    1. Anything which stops us from deepening and surrendering to the love that we are is ultimately a ploy to keep us from bringing and loving all that we are. I know for me I have used being in a rush as a great way to get caught up in things, like leaving something to the last minute, or making it so I need to drive fast to get somewhere on time, it is crazy all the silly little games I find myself playing all to avoid feeling my amazingness!

39. Its so great that you are able to address the root cause of the raciness and get on with sorting it out with honesty, so many of us go through life with low level anxiety without even looking at it until it has caused another type of illness in the body.

40. Seeking approval by driving myself to achieve and do in life, can be a huge trap that only ends up in ceaseless motion and never really confirms who I am and what I truly offer in life.

41. Rebecca I hear you! I read a great article the other day about ‘flipping’ and how to overcome it in relation to writing a thesis – which is pretty much what you describe in your opening paragraph. I’m such a great flipper that I even flipped out of the article several times! But you’re spot on. For me, drive and motion has been just another way to avoid my true and sensitive nature; my fragility and vulnerability. If I’m working at a fast pace (and poorly, I might add), then I don’t have to feel. That’s the bottom line.

42. It felt like a stop and regathering moment reading this blog. I know I can get caught up in the drive but by allowing space into my life by being present with myself – I am able to breath with so much more ease. Life returns to being simple and situations are not stressed out at as much or at all. A good reminder of the value of presence. Thank you.

43. Thank you Rebecca for such a powerful blog, having lived with drive most of my life it’s been an interesting process to begin to let go of this pattern and surrender to the flow of life instead of trying to be in control all the time – making simple, loving choices and learning to appreciate myself have been a beautiful support with this.

44. A beautiful lesson for us all here Rebecca, that being there is no finish line, just a gentle loving unfolding and expanding into who we so naturally are. A lesson also in appreciating the joy of being a forever student.

45. Anxiousness is a very prevalent and insidious emotion that has a huge impact on the body in my experience, not just in the short term discomfort but as an underlying contributing factor for many chronic ill health conditions. Putting our bodies into this sort of motion, without any quality of gentleness or stillness, is completely unnatural and disharmonious.

46. “We are everything before we do anything”. That is so true and we all need to hear this and apply it in our lives because it will give us space to feel the level of anxiety we live with on a daily basis that can go unnoticed, unchecked, and therefore lead to a life lived with anxiety of not being enough, and therefore constantly searching for what is already inside us.

47. For the first time in my life it took me a week to paint my small living room. Usually I would have done it in a day but this time I took one small section at a time and what I found was that there was no going into anxiousness about finishing, or had I done it good enough, was it perfect. The result of working like this meant that I actually got to experience myself in my movements, the room looks awesome and even though it is far from a perfect job, that’s ok.

48. I have found that when I am in the ‘busy’ mode thinking about the next thing before completing what is before me, then that same incompletion happens, both physically and energetically, and it keeps us under the tyranny of time, never having enough of it to complete all the things that are piling up in my head. It is a paradigm shift to bring that full quality of presence to exactly what we are doing in the moment, but the returns are beyond measure… as we now have space to support us to bring even more of who we are to that moment.

49. It is becoming ever more clear to me the damaging effects of drive and stress in the body – all at the expense of being who we naturally truly are. It doesn’t make sense to allow ourselves to run in it, yet it is so deeply ingrained that we are there before we know it… or are we.. there is that space between the decision to choose drive and in that space is the choice of something different.

50. It is almost tempting to not explore drive, as it is so rewarded in society. Yet it feels horrible in the body and does a huge amount of damage over time. It is really only through being so distracted and caught up in drive that you can temporarily avoid feeling this. It is amazing to read about how such an apparently ingrained pattern was able to be reduced by more attention and inner focus.

    1. It is so true Fiona, we are rewarded handsomely for drive. Yet I am starting to discover there is another way to be equally efficient with space and energy that does not deplete or harm. Day by day we have an opportunity to live this experiment and deepen the understandings coming from our own bodies.

51. Thank you Rebecca for sharing how true power comes through our willingness to be honest with the quality we are feeling our bodies and being. It’s so beautiful to feel how when we do honor the truth we feel we are able to reclaim living this truth in our lives as we begin to live more of who we are throughout the day we live. What could be more fulfilling that being in connection to who we are, which is everything already, and moving with our exquisite presence in all we do, as best we can. And as you say when we do not, and if we are open to it, we are simply offered the opportunity to learn of how we can deepen our connection and let go of what does not belong or support us to move in the power of who we are.

52. Understand that I can be busy and not racy was a big aha moment for me. It is a noticeable difference in the the tension and hardness in my body. And this is a great indication if it returns that I am in the drive or the push. If I work like this I feel exhausted the next morning.

53. Brilliant blog Rebecca. You remind me that our relationship with time is reflected in the quality of relationship we have with the people in our lives.

54. Sometimes when we are in anxiousness it can feel like there is no way out but the truth is we have a choice to be in anxiousness or in stillness. When challenging situations arise and we choose to stay connected instead of being anxious this offers healing, clarity and love.

55. Rebecca, this is absolutely gorgeous what you have shared here and I too can relate so much to the whole process you have shared – the inner anxiety that I have been unwilling to acknowledge and deal with, and the drive and raciness that kick in as an excited personality. In reality it is about allowing ourselves the space to be in each situation, to give ourselves a moment to read it and to know how to respond each and every time. And though each situation might appear the same from the outside, when we read it, it may be needed that we respond completely differently each time in order to truly handle what is outplaying. There is no script written for how to ‘get it right’ as things happen all the time that changes so much, hence we can only let ourselves feel each situation for what it is and work with it from there, in connection to ourselves and not from the excited-ness and anxiety. Thank you for this great and timely reminder!

56. I live life thinking there is a finish line – something to try, reach, gain or attain, it’s a picture or pictures in my head that I allow to control me – think I have to be, I’m not sure exactly what they are, but I am nearly always thinking I have to get somewhere – never or very rarely do I allow or let myself to feel I am enough. I have this constant I am not good enough or trying all the time. Which is very sad really.

    1. I can certainly relate to what you are sharing Gyl. Rebecca’s blog reminds me that getting swept up in time, finish lines and deadlines is a choice. I have learned that I need to bring understanding to myself when I catch myself racing against the clock. When I do this it is easy to see that I rush in order to avoid feeling what I feel, connecting to who I am and living my true potential. I begin appreciate the fact that I am a very sensitive being and I always have a choice, connect to rhythm or connect to time.

57. Observing my voice when I speak has been a great exploration at the moment and shows me where I am going into rush and or anxiety. It beg me to go deeper as to why I do this? Is it because I feel not worthy to take the time to share every word in full or a judgement comes in when speaking with someone? Observation of our bodies and enjoying the moments to explore why we have these patterns is a great tool to deepen our own relationship with self and the flow on affect it has in other relationships is super important too.

58. Thank you Rebecca for writing this down; ‘Or I would leave one task half-finished to start another and swap between, rather than completing one before moving on to the next.’ Last weeks I am becoming aware of how I need to focus on completing my tasks and not go from one to another. I thought it was caused by how many tasks I have but by reading your blog I feel the drive behind it and how this and my anxiousness that follows is where the root cause is lying,

59. I’m stunned by how much power blogs by students of Universal Medicine bring. This was just what I needed to read today, and along with my willingness and openness to heal reading the blog and comments has brought about a profound change in how I was feeling – from anxious and racy to feeling more settled.

60. Having been one who has lived life at the pace of an Olympic runner, sometimes without even lifting a finger, I can totally relate to all that you share Rebecca. If I were completely honest with myself then I would say that the reason I go into raciness is to avoid deeply connecting to people, myself included. By living one step ahead I have a convenient excuse to not read in full the depth of what is offered to me in each moment to arise out of the loveless momentums I have ensnared myself in. And so in raciness I can just charge on with eyes closed and hope for the best that I do not bump into anything or anyone on my furious way away from the love that I am. Clever trick on my behalf to avoid true intimacy, transparency and thus evolution…

61. mmm… completion is something I need to work on – be it in a conversation, moving on to another school, not seeing kids again. Completing every moment so there is nothing left behind.

62. I often think of this blog Rebecca when I have finished dinner as I can feel there is a real push in me to get up really quickly and move on to the next thing. Usually this is an indicator I need to stop, connect and appreciate the moment. Life is to precious to miss!

    1. Taking regular moments to appreciate ourselves and where we are before we move onto the next thing is super supportive. It set us up to be in appreciation for the next moment.

63. “A Race With No Finish Line” is a very appropriate title to how I can sometimes feel in life. There is this feeling I am behind, not enough, and therefore I am feeling heaps of tension. For me this often results in stepping on the breaks and doing nothing at all anymore which creates even more tension as you can imagine! When I do stop though and observe my thoughts and all I have to do, I can not really find what it actually is I am feeling I need to do and am behind with. So indeed a race without a finish line or one where the finish line is being moved further away each time I approach it. The true settlement is found in stopping and feeling that I am enough just by being me in what I do, whatever it is.

64. This race sounds very familiar and it is interesting that when we stop to realise that the only one running the race is the individual it can be a real big wake up call. To push and drive the body this way leads us away from the true knowing of how we can live with commitment, dedication to work and life where each moment matters and all that is needed at every moment is provided.

65. Its beautiful to see someone take such an honest look at themselves and by choosing a better way of living, definitely beats living with anxiety any day.

66. I have rushed and been anxious for a long time. Coming to a place of deeper connection simply by focusing on the quality of my breath is the perfect antidote. It’s quite something to feel my body shift into greater steadiness in a few moments by simply choosing to.

67. Recently in an Esoteric Yoga session I felt how by moving with my body there were no aches or pains, moving to outside instruction hurt my body. Throughout my working life it’s been commented that my work is ‘slow’ and so I would try to do as much as possible to show that I was not slow. But choosing this way of working to an outside beat has hurt me a lot, whereas yesterday I felt how working within myself, moving how I felt to I was faster than I’ve ever been at that particular task, I felt like a wind was pushing me from behind and it felt very light. So different compared to the compounded affect I can feel when rushing to meet an outside finish line.

68. For a long time I was never quite satisfied with how things were in any part of my life. There was a restlessness and a disconnection that I could not shake. Learning to reconnect to myself and allow myself to be fully present to any given task has gone a long way to eliminating the restlessness and also brought greater appreciation to my life in general.

69. For A very long time and in many levels of my life I was dissatisfied with where ever I was. This dissatisfaction permeated all aspects of my life. It was also fed by a restlessness and a disconnection from myself. Learning how to reconnect to myself to the task at hand, has brought a lot more simplicity and appreciation into my life.

70. For years when I had dinner with people that were very loving I was not comfortable with the amount of love I was being held in so would get up from the table quite soon after eating and wash dishes while every-one else stayed sitting and chatting. After I realized what I was doing I stopped this behavior, I remained at the table, let in the love and the washing was done when the dinner was complete for us all.

71. To use nervous energy to constantly get over deadlines requires the body to be in constant state of nervous tension which ultimately is not its natural state of harmony.

72. Anxiousness sets us up to be on the back foot – and not accept what we can in fact bring to everything.

73. Great sharing Rebecca! when we look at a lot of these behaviours that you listed its clear that these patterns are a restriction on our body and how we experience life. And there is so much to apprecciate about introducing more stillness and expansion into our movements.

74. I often blame other people for needing to rush or creating deadlines in my head of when I need to get something done by which ensures I stay in a drive to get things done rather than staying with my body and feeling what is true for me and those around me.

75. I notice when I do esoteric yoga and bring focus to whether I am with my body or not how often my mind wanders off and I have to bring it back. During the day when I’m doing tasks I am far less aware of when this happens as I get caught up in what I am doing rather that how I am doing it and whether I am with myself as I’m doing it. Introducing a pause between tasks gives a much needed check in point to see where we are at rather than just racing from doing one thing to the next and then feeling exhausted at the end of the day.

76. Reading this again I can feel how ingrained the race is in me and how by making myself racy I am blocking out feeling the layers of anxiousness that I carry because I’m frightened of making a mistake and believe that I am not enough. I love what you share Rebecca with the very practical tools you have used to clock when you are going into drive and how you have used these to unravel what lies behind a perceived need to race against time.

77. What I have found for myself is that motion of busy-ness itself is a filler. It distracts me away from what is there do be felt and truly dealt with. It numbs me while I think to myself that I am committed to life because I am doing so much. It’s rather deceitful.

78. Today the world seems busier than ever before. Despite our technological ‘innovations’ the maddening drive seems to have gone out of control, to the extent we need to drink all sorts of stimulants just to ‘keep up’. But what if the speed is not a race ‘to’, but a movement away instead? This is the question I feel you present Rebecca. What if we are so aware, and increasingly so, of feelings and sensation we don’t like? What if we have gone for the flight rather than the fight? This starts to make a whole heap of sense of the increasing speed that we see. Wow, if this is the case, just what is the awareness we have, and what power lives in the senses we possess, if we just stop deserting our post and trying to run away from it all.

79. I find I can go a long way before even acknowledging that there is anything amiss. I have been slowly realising how important it is that as soon as I notice all is not okay in the quality I am experiencing, that I stop and give myself the space to clock what I have felt. This opens the possibility to reflect on my choices that have brought me to the moment and fine-tuning the quality in which I choose to take the next step. Without the stop moment at best I will keep ‘trying’ to change a viscious cycle from within the spin- an impossible task.

    1. Same here Golnaz, that stop is so vital. Sometimes it can be a physical stop or even allowing myself to slow down as I get caught behind a mother and pram taking up the pavement and not able to overtake.

80. This is a great blog because it is asking us all to stop and reflect what is going on in our lives.
    and I too have found that when I’m racy there is not a chance of me reading what is going on around me, and how I use food to keep me in that racy momentum and so I miss out on the magic of God before me.

81. “When I am moving at a million miles an hour, at least on the inside, it is much harder to be present in the moment and deal with what is there to be done,” I can sooooo relate to this. I have so often in life been in a lot of drive, both physically and also on the inside. But I have also begun to feel what it feels like to give myself space. To open up to read more and see what is really going on, not only for myself, but for others also.

82. There is a part of us, the human spirit, that seeks to live in constant drive so as to forever be in the perpetuation motion of ‘the rush’ so it/we can skip bits and therefore seemingly not be made accountable for our reckless behaviours that are void of the love that we are. Arresting such an ill momentum requires us to be very honest with ourselves and take responsibility for the way we have moved, if how we have moved has not been true to this love.

83. Drive is sometimes a dominating force for me too – if I let it be. I find it is so much easier to be in drive than stillness, even though the drive is without doubt bad for my health. To be still in my body and work from that foundation requires dedication and commitment, but the difference in how I feel, and how my day flows is like night and day. I would like to reverse the drive and the stillness so that one day my body is so used to stillness, this is the norm, rather than the other way around.

    1. Yes totally Heather, that would feel absolutely incredible. With commitment and by loving ourselves we are able to shift well ingrained patterns.

84. I know the anxiety of living in drive well. For most of my life I was not even aware that I was in anxiety (or drive). For a period of my life I moved from tropical beach to tropical beach and had nothing to do. Yet on the inside I was in drive and the accompanying anxiety. It is not related to anything external that needs to be done, it is purely a choice in how we live.

    1. This is a great point that you make Nikki. Drive isn’t related to how much we have to do. As you say, it can even be there when there appears there is nothing to do. This also highlights that deep down we can feel ourselves delaying our evolution and we can use drive, stimulation and distraction to not feel this choice.

       1. Good point Vicky. Recently something came to my awareness that I had been avoiding for a long time. I chose to eat to not feel the extent of it although no amount of eating could quell the tension. Then when that became too uncomfortable I found myself choosing drive and anxiety. I had such an insight into how I use anxiety and drive to avoid feeling and what is on offer for my evolution.

85. I agree Cathy, when we are moving a million miles an hour internally how are we ever going to be present enough in the moment to actually stop and feel.

86. I agree – I can feel the moment in my day when I start to feel rushed or anxious and it can become like a snowball, running through the entire day if I dont pull myself up and stop the race.

87. When the cutlery drawer at home has been shut to hard the separate racks of knifes and flakes etc. move to the back of the drawer creating space between the drawer and the cutlery contains so I have a marker of how hard I am shutting the drawer. When I close the drawer and it does not create any space then in that case I feel it is creating a different space in the rest of my day. It is amazing because as a gauge I can tell what I need to do next to evolve and I am always aware of what happens to this drawer. More and more as I shut this drawer I have to stay focused until it is completely shut before I move to my next task to soon it creates space so I have to stay present when in the kitchen and this flows into the rest of my day.

88. When I finally realised that there is no finish line, it was a relief to stop the rushing. I can still slip back into that mode because I have used it for decades, but its a real joy to feel how time seems to open up when I drop the drive and allow myself to be present with each moment.

89. Many people run their lives in drive, I know I used to and I still have to be continually aware that this old pattern does not creep back in.

90. I feel I can easily put pressure on myself to get a job done in a certain amount of time or to do it a certain way and then when things don’t fall in to place easily then I can react which puts even more pressure on . This all adds to the nervousness in my body and nothing of any true quality can come of it. I have to stop and reconfigure before I can be with myself in a true rhythm again

91. I have also recently been clocking how we can present a picture, an image of how we should be, how I should perform and how other should see me, showing the ingrained belief that what I can do and how well I can do it is of greater value than who I am

92. I can now see that I need to begin to appreciate that what I do and what I bring is enough, for then and only then will the anxiousness and the need to prove myself resolve. it makes so much sense that if we aren’t held in our own loving support and acceptance of us, there would be tension in the body and then anxiousness would build because your then trying to get the answer or a resolution from a body that is ill equipped to handle the task.

93. It’s so healing to have this conversation about drive and where I leave myself. Mine is never resting but attempting to allay anxiousness through being prepared but never present because I’m always trying to be one step ahead, forseeing issues and trying to problem solve them before they materialise and then giving myself a hard time for not avoiding those I don’t prevent in an unhealthy drive to learn from my mistakes. This low-grade stress is highly toxic to my body so now I’m taking breaks in my day like going for a walk and choosing to surrender to being in my body with each step.

    I’m constantly bringing myself back to choosing to be in my body and accept there is a solidness to being. It’s been very revealing as to how much I just flitter on the surface and haven’t committed to fully being here – though superficially you’d never know this. I wonder if the not fully being present is what creates the anxiety and not the being fully present. I know I’ve believed that being fully present is too much to cope with – something the world reflects in its myriad use of dulling/stimulating/distracting techniques of TV, gaming, drinking, eating/not eating etc. I do know that when I am fully present I’m connected with my essence and God and there is no space for fear or anxiety.

94. Thank you for sharing this Rebecca as this has really supported me to identify where I also go into drive and in effect cut out any potential space where I can stop and feel what is going on. I really appreciate you sharing this and it gives me some tools to start to explore where in my life I allow this drive.

95. When I am racy and not still on the inside, I tend to make more mistakes, put things in the wrong cupboard, doing things in another sequence as usual, walk in a different pace and stumble, and all without any appreciation of myself. It is the way my body is calling me back to be present and to enjoy every moment as I am in it. So I completely agree Rebecca with what you are saying here; ‘I can now see that I need to begin to appreciate that what I do and what I bring is enough, for then and only then will the anxiousness and the need to prove myself resolve.’

96. Great insights Rebecca, I can definitely relate to some of what you’ve shared. I know when I don’t want to feel something more deeply, the first thing I notice is that I speed up, not just inside but in my movements as well. It’s like an automatic pilot takes over and I am no longer present in my body and moving with an ease and flow.

97. It is amazing that you have been able to bring the awareness you have to addressing the anxiousness that was driving you to come to a place where you recognize and feel that you are already enough and worth appreciating as you are… melting away any need to prove anything to anyone, including yourself.

98. ‘I can now see that I need to begin to appreciate that what I do and what I bring is enough, for then and only then will the anxiousness and the need to prove myself resolve.’ Rebecca, you have given us a key here to deal with anxiousness at root level – appreciation not just of what we do but of who we are, and that we are enough as we are. When we know this we can more easily connect to ourselves and when we connect to ourselves we know this intimately and anxiousness cannot then affect us because we are living in this moment not in anxiety about the next moment.

99. “I can now see that I need to begin to appreciate that what I do and what I bring is enough, for then and only then will the anxiousness and the need to prove myself resolve.” Wow amazing that not appreciating ourselves can play out in so many ways, I know when I don’t appreciate me and give myself a hard time I can let the world own me as I get caught up in all sorts of things I shouldn’t, when I appreciate myself I create space in my life to move forward with a true sold foundation without appreciation I building on shaky ground.

100. When I flap, and fluster the task in hand never gets done in quality… quite the reverse in fact, I make mistakes and have to save what’s there. “More haste less speed” could never be truer.

101. Rebecca, the title of your blog: A Race with no Finish Line exposes how ridiculous this drive is. We think we are getting somewhere and we think we are doing it faster but we usually do not have a true sense of completion for there is always another peak to climb. We do not stop to appreciate our contribution because often we are not present with what we are doing so we do not have the sense of fulfilment of a job done with the quality we would bring to it if we were connected to ourselves and worked with loving commitment instead of just trying to get the job done.

102. Rebecca, what a lovely demonstration that so much can be revealed to us if we see ‘every day as an opportunity to learn’. I enjoy how you peeled back the layers like a true scientist observing your behaviour and how it affected you and people around you and how you came to see that your driven movements were motivated by an underlying anxiousness which leaves ‘no space for me to stop and actually feel what is going on with me, or with other people’. 

103. Great blog Rebecca, I know very well the pattern of living with drive and the feel of anxiousness in my body it is very difficult to connect with yourself or anyone when you are choosing to live this way. Learning to let go of this pattern has been huge and I agree does allow the space for you to truly connect to your body and make choices that are more supportive and true.

104. Anxiousness used to rule my life. Thankfully, I began to understand that it can only be in the body if I was not present with myself in the moment. The raciness that anxiousness placed my body in made it difficult at times to stop this momentum, but it is so worth committing to being present and tender in the moment, for living a life without anxiousness is far more beautiful than anything I have before experienced.

105. Being driven is not a natural way to live in, it takes a huge toll on our health and wellbeing and it also affects others around us. I find that when I go into drive if I am honest I have all these conditions and expectations of the things I need to get done and I’m in drive before I know it! letting these go and embracing more of the tenderness in my body and moving with it allows me to live more from feeling what needs to be addressed in the moment without getting ahead of myself.

106. I could relate so much to what you have expressed here Rebecca, drive is such a debilitating way to live life;
     “I discovered when I am caught up in the drive, there is no space for me to stop and actually feel what is going on with me, or with other people”.
     A beautiful reminder to stop, connect and enjoy being oneself.

107. This is exactly what I needed to read. A great exploration of what is needed to support us to stop the rush to avoid feeling empty or sad or scared or anything other than build our connection to our essence.

108. I’ve found that by addressing ‘the drive’ what reveals itself is the deepening sense and knowing, that I am enough.

109. When we run our body on over-drive we can be so busy ‘doing’ that we lose the feeling of who we are.

110. Rebecca, this is an awesome blog post and your experiences (like dreams) help me to understand my drive and anxiousness much more. Thanks for sharing!

111. ‘A race with no finish line’ is a great statement that describes the momentum of anxiety and how exhausting this is for the body. Thanks for sharing the way you shifted this pattern.

112. I agree Jane. They are but a few words, and yet what they are saying is pretty grand. Just imagine the difference in our lives if we woke with these words every morning?

113. It is great to stop and ask why we are living in a state of anxiousness. This is something we rarely do, but it actually is very empowering and freeing. To explore what we get out of anxiousness allows us to see the capacity and greatness in ourselves we are avoiding. When we let ourselves feel instead of being scattered, we get to feel the flow and rhythm of life and the truth in each moment.

114. Anxiousness is a huge driver of our behaviours. It makes us carry on when we know we should stop or rest, say yes when we would like to say no and keeps us always ahead on the look out for potential threats to our safety. I have found a huge shift in my level of anxiousness since finding Esoteric Yoga and living from this way. Simply being very tuned into your body and present with what you are doing and feeling, allows me now to feel very solid and steady in myself.

115. Absolutely Brendan. We can get really frazzled and the job done in a nervous energy is not going to bless anyone. We have a responsibility to leave behind a harmonious imprint or feeling and this is almost impossible where anxiety and nervousness reside.

116. Anxiety is a huge problem in society with many people, but as you describe there is a raciness that can often accompany anxiousness, and I think it would be fair to say almost everyone lives in that raciness. The consumption of foods like sugar and caffeine greatly contribute to this situation.

117. There’s way much more space when we don’t race.

118. ‘A Race with no Finish Line’ – this is actually a joy to read, not the race, but the no finish line – if there is no finish line, then there is no need – that smashes the picture of getting somewhere – and life can be enjoyed, fun and playful as we learn, grow and evolve – it doesn’t have to be a struggle nor full of misery.

119. It really is so detrimental to our bodies to constantly put it into a drive and into nervous energy to get things done from a mind driven picture or ideal of a timeframe of when something needs to be completed.

120. When you are racy there is no finish line; nothing ends, there is no completion. It cannot be since internally there is no space to go there.

121. Rebecca, I can relate to this, ‘I am connecting more with people because I am not so caught up in my inner race and so have more space to actually stop and meet them in the moment.’ I notice that if I’m rushing and in drive then there is no true connection with people, I am often in my head thinking about the next thing I need to do and not giving myself and the other person the space and stillness to fully be with them, if I am feeling still and present and not caught up in the rush then I feel a much more natural, loving connection with people and enjoy being with them in full.

122. This is pretty exposing – I can relate to this very much and all the things I can do to take me out and feel anxious when I can think I’m being bubbly. Rushing is a pretty common one and something that takes me out pretty quickly. So it’s great to read here what this actually stems from.

123. Lovely to read your steady growing awareness with your raciness, how it leaves you behind and now your deepening relationship with you, feeling reading and staying with your body. I had alot of raciness and anxiety, it elevated me so as to not feel or read, also it stopped me from taking responsibility for my choices.

124. As someone who lives in a lot of raciness- thank you- I needed to read this today and surrender more into my body.

125. Great blog Rebecca, you have really exposed the circular coping mechanism many of us have going to fend off feeling what is going on for us or with those around us . . we act efficiently doing many things at the same time always racing to the next thing to avoid feeling the underlying deep seated anxiousness that we believe is due to whatever dialogue we have running whether it be ‘we are never going to be good enough’ or that we are going to be found out to be the fraud we think we are or whatever our particular critique of our self is . . . all a set up to avoid the responsibility that comes with feeling what is really going on. It is a very clever strategy. When there are feelings that we really do not want to feel the more extreme the anxiousness and raciness becomes. As stated so beautifully by Rebecca it is only being present in our every movement that we come back into our body and allow ourselves the space and build the confidence to feel, deal and express what is needed in each and every moment.

126. Even on extremely busy days space can be found when time seems to run away.

127. A beautiful blog about the rhythm of how we live daily, which is HOW we do things not just what we do, having this sense of connection with yourself Rebecca would surely support others when they see how deeply you connect.

128. It is soo amazing to not be on the racing track yet be on the ever unfolding path of life returning back to the love we are from. So as much as we can seek the relief of getting to an end line when we appreciate what love has to offer why would we want to cap it or put a limit to it, when we have the wonders of the Universe right here in front of and with us.

129. Coming from the point that we are already enough before we do anything knocks anxiety completely on the head.

130. We are everything before we do anything, this should be told to us and supported right from when we are very young, and most definitely when we enter school. If every child knew this first up, we would all be living as the amazing people we naturally are.

131. By recognising the push and drive that we are often in, and then choosing to live in a way that we are more present with ourselves in whatever we do, is sure to expose so many other issues we have been holding onto. Unfortunately this is the time when we often revert back to how we were originally living as making any changes can seem just too overwhelming.

132. ‘And I find I am not getting so caught up in things because I am making more space to step back and look at the situation before responding.’ This feels so expansive. Like we have all the time in the world when we are with ourselves. I know I definitely set myself up to be late, or disorganised so I can take away from being with myself – afraid that whatever it is I am trying to avoid feeling/ being aware of is bigger and badder than me when actually what I’m discovering, when i give myself a chance, that underneath the hurt, the anxiety, there is a natural strength to who I am when I stay present.

133. that sense of being driven… Of literally being trapped by time is endemic… It does take very conscious choices to take oneself out of this ongoing rat race that has had us trapped as a species for aeons.

134. How can we expect to engage and understand life when we are not with or connected to the body? The mind can only DO so much, but the body is where the BEING is at and where we feel what is happening around us.

135. It has been life changing to feel that my sense of worth comes from inside of me, and not what I do in the world…this is such a massive change in a world that rewards achievements, goals and drive.

136. It is always revealing , revealing AND disturbing when we realize just how much anxiousness is embedded within us, and also, when we simply start to release the anxiety, how profoundly different our lives can be

137. I was squirming in my seat when I started to read this Rebecca, I know this too well. Being on the go not really letting the moment have its complete cycle. Much to learn here. What I do find is that taking moments to just sit with myself really helps to wind me down and get myself more still.

138. I used to see a messy table, banged door or bashed hand as a sign I was in this drive. Today I can see that ultimately any time I am not with my body in a connected, super gentle way I am off into this rushing vortex. The greatest thing as you present here Rebecca is to grasp this is no accident but an addictive behaviour that blocks out what we feel. If we are able to look underneath what is happening something deeper is revealed.

139. “What is it that the anxiousness and drive stops me from getting to feel about myself?” and the answer to such a question is, the amazing powerhouses we all are when we connect to the true source that we belong to.

140. What a gorgeous awareness and transformation Rebecca; I can relate to so much of what you have shared. Like you I enjoy developing a deeper sense of awareness, conscious presence and expression.

141. There is no coincidence that your blog appeared before me Rebecca. Yesterday I participated in a fantastic ‘Expression Workshop’ presented by Serge Benhayon. There was much that was included in the day that was true wisdom that can be applied to our everyday and this quote also sparked a deep resonation with-in me: “Anxiousness is the amazingness of an explosion of expression waiting to happen” – Serge Benhayon.
     Rather than run away in busyness it is more supportive of ourselves and everybody if we simple say what is there to be said.

142. What a gift you are giving yourself at 19 – amazing!

143. This makes total sense – ‘I am connecting more with people because I am not so caught up in my inner race and so have more space to actually stop and meet them in the moment’. How often do we stand there having a conversation with someone but only listen to a fraction of what is being communicated verbally because we can feel our inner turmoil, and the urge to interrupt.

144. I can see that drive in many things I do, and I wonder if this is the same for everyone, does a drive to complete things come from not valuing ourselves as being enough as we are. There is certainly a lot of external pressure to do this or that, but the drive comes through when we haven’t accepted what is really within us. To achieve tasks without drive is marvellously different to feel.

145. Connecting more and more deeply and genuinely to people is one of the amazing rewards that we reap when we are not all over the place, driven and racy. And once we truly start to connect, there is no going back because not living this way is actually a rip off, of others and of oneself.

146. Anxiousness and drive are just of the many coping mechanisms we use in order to not feel what is being presented in life, the moment we allow ourselves to observe and not absorb and appreciate the beauty of our beingness we can start to break away from those patterns that are not in line with our evolution.

147. Appreciation used to be something to become familiar with and re-learn as an action to do. It is gorgeous to feel appreciation arising from within now and deepening, as I re-connect to my essence and observe old patterns beginning to drop away (this is a joy to appreciate!)

148. Appreciation is indeed the only way to stop anxiousness – the feeling of that I will be fine in my day because I am with myself.

149. You have such great awarenesses Rebecca. I hadn’t clocked the movements of going onto the next thing before finishing the first or doing 4 things at once was actually perpetuating motion and giving no space for reflection. These movements pretty much make sure there is no transition period or moments of appreciation for what ever has been done.

150. It’s interesting how our sensitivity, and not wanting to feel and read everything around and inside us, can be the motivation for many harmful behaviours such a drive and busyness. Ultimately though we cut ourselves off from staying connected to the wonderful being we are.

151. I find the more you do the more people step back, it doesn’t foster equal responsibility, and people love the easy option in not stepping into responsibility, so it becomes a pattern that does not serve anyone.

152. Well said Samantha, when we live in a way that doesn’t allow for space, it also doesn’t allow for us to bring our all to a situation and sometimes this is exactly how we set it up – I know I still use this motion to keep me held above my inner knowing of what is needed to be said and done

153. The thing about anxiousness is that you get so much less done and are forever making mistakes; best way to overcome this is to stay as connected as possible.

154. The drive and anxiousness that Rebecca refers to is literally endemic in our society and that there is a resolution to this plagues is surely a reference worth studying.

155. It’s tempting to think of this drive as directly related to speed. If we slow down and take our time it can seem we are calm and at ease. But through what you share here Rebecca it is clear to me, this is just a trick we can play on ourselves – the drive and underlying agenda to ‘get it done’ simply remains the same. So let us not look to the hecticness alone, but consider the attitude we have to how we speak, move and think. Then at last, we can release these driven ideals.

156. For me the Gentle Breath Meditation was also the first tool or moment of stop in my life and introducing it, along with other techniques into how I live has given me the ability to not be at the mercy of life and instead create enough distance from it to respond rather than simply react.

157. The anxiousness you describe Rebecca can seem very real. It takes a steady and solid hand to see through this illusion, to see the projected disaster or travesty we fear does not actually happen. The way of being present with our breath and movements you describe is sublime and our best friend, holding our hand as we make our way through the false anxious beliefs. Your words have inspired me to experiment with focusing on breath in my life today.

158. How beautiful Rebecca to start to see that beneath every habit and ill way of being is a deeper and bigger cause for us to understand. When you start to unravel life this way its stops being a matter of good and bad. Finding an issue we may be doing is no longer like getting a speeding ticket but being alerted to the fact that the petrol you use may not actually be the best for you. We so often brush off the world today as ‘crazy’ or so busy, but what if we all stopped and truly considered why that is and just what may be hiding beneath?

159. Drive, anxiety and the propensity to push through life is so normal that to stop and consider another way can seem quite alien, but feeling the transformative change that comes with creating space and slowing down is enormous…it becomes well worth making the effort for.

160. ‘ Being in this raciness stops me reading what is going on in situations and being able to bring my all to it. ‘ Bringing ‘my all’ to situations is rendered impossible when I am anxious or in drive. Seeing this written here is a stop moment for me to go deeper and feel how I can sabotage my own power and gracefulness by allowing myself to be ‘taken’ by these emotions and bodily reactions.

161. That isn’t you. The way you opened those draws wasn’t true. The way you sat and typed wasn’t with all of who you are, but went so quick it rushed past like a speeding car. Yes Rebecca, imagine if we had an internal commentary of the truth on our lives like a grand prix. “Here is Joseph he’s going great, oh but look he has chosen to speed up and go crazy in his work – someone warn the pit team he’ll be needing some of their support real soon”. It actually is like that because we do know and all have this guide inside that tells us that when we race and rush it really isn’t true. Its this knowing that as you beautifully show we try our best to shut down. But this certainly isn’t a race we can ever win.

162. It’s obvious to me now how much pressure we put the human body under, unnecessarily so. It feels great to be learning to live without this unconscious pattern of squeezing ourselves through life.

163. Moving ahead of myself only keeps me behind .

164. I am so glad I read your blog Rebecca. I have begun to make changes in my life as a result of reading it and I have come back to your words for support as I have been confronted with my own well of previously numbed anxiousness.

165. Completing one thing before starting the next – this lesson alone has changed my whole life. My body is much less tense, my sleep is deeper, I have less need to eat sweets and I am more open in relationships with people. The ripple effect of this single habit is immense.

166. Living in this drive and momentum feels squashing: we literally compress our bodies with thoughts of how much there is to do, there’s no space to feel ourselves at all as we race from one activity to another, and we end up resenting the activities for being so relentless. But as you’ve shown, it’s not the activities, but how we are in them that makes the difference. There will always be a million things to do, and we can either be in this constant race to do it all, or bring the focus to how we are.. By focusing on what I’m doing and being aware of how I am being in that moment, instead of stressing out about all the things I have to do and haven’t done yet, instantly the pressure is off and there’s more space.

167. Reading the title of this article again has made me realise the madness of human behaviour that has us running in a hamster wheel with certain values being put on the speed with which we get nowhere.

168. In the past week I’ve been given subtle and not so subtle clues that I was moving in the energy of rush and drive. I went to work on a day, I wasn’t booked, arrived for an appointment an hour early, eat for comfort, missed a motorway junction and then pranged my car. The prang was a blessing and the stop I needed to deeply reflect on what was happening. It revealed I had lost connection with my body, become pre-occupied in mental activity and had moved into the future rather than be consciously present. Eating for comfort is a sure sign of a deeper disharmony. All that is called for is to be fully present in the body, here and now. Fast-forwarding into the future takes you nowhere and so much missed in the here and now.

169. Great comment Joseph ‘ So is it possible that we are all rushing around racing like you say, in quite seemingly small internal ways?’ I can relate to this, just had an awakening and felt the consequences of not being in the here and now.

170. Universal Medicine is always there for humanity, presenting the opportunity, the possibility to live life without the overwhelming shroud of anxiousness, however subtle, that wraps around everyone’s lives, stopping the true spark of joy of life being ignited.

171. I spent much of my life living with anxiousness and being caught up in things that I would be doing days ahead of where I presently was, which left me feeling stressed and running on empty most of the time. To now see how truly awesome it is to return to the simplicity of our connection and being present with everything we are doing, it leaves space for us to see life truly expand and grow from our deeper awareness and observation of the world around us. I love space and all it encumbers.

172. I loved the way you have exposed how a behaviour such as ‘drive’ under the guise of being busy, being excited etc can hide an anxiousness underneath and that this anxiousness tells us so much about what is really going on. Now that you have removed the many layers of protection the world is getting to experience who you truly are – wow that is gorgeous.

173. Yes it is true, when there is anxiousness it is for me often because I have not been with myself and feeling what was going on around me consciously. So to go out of that is to start to feel again and to do what is needed to be done.

174. I too used to be very driven and over the years have been letting that go more and more. Drive, emotions, sugar, coffee, certain thoughts… these are all drugs we use to stimulate ourselves but they disconnect us from the natural, true and eternal fuel of our Soul connected life force. These false fuels don’t work, never satisfy and keep calling us back for more. I am gradually letting go of them and do at times go through periods of semi exhaustion as my body adapts to letting go of the stimulants and converting to more fiery fuel – but boy oh boy it is a great investment and the rewards are priceless!

175. It is so true Rebecca we can break every part of the day into a movement that needs to be completed with our eyes on finishing it or achieving rather than the quality that we bring to it.

176. Giving ourselves space, is a simple self loving tool, but one that is truly necessary if you are to stay present with what you are doing and then do it in a quality that is worthwhile.

177. I like how you shared the way your awareness unfolded – from being more aware of the drive and letting that go, which lead to revealing what was underneath it and so being able to address and heal it on a deeper level. Thank you.

178. Keeping our lives simple and not trying to be more than we already are, may seem boring to the distracted spirit, but who can beat how exquisite the body feels in this grace as it moves, confirming the love it holds within. The mind cannot do that.

179. Reading your words Rebecca leaves me reflecting on our world, like we are all stuck on one of those ‘Dodgem car’ rides at the fair. We circle around at breakneck speed smashing into each other sometimes with much glee. And yet all the time there is always the chance to stop and get off. To step out of the ride and its mad hurtling pace and see that this actually is not the reality of life.

     1. I love the analogy Joseph of the dodgem cars, this so aptly describes the approach to life we can get caught up in.

180. Training myself to look after myself well has been an ongoing process. I am so glad I am giving this some time and focus now as I richly deserve it

181. Cruelly the world sees the image of the doing as the ‘thing to celebrate’. And we strive and struggle to keep up with the pictures it paints. It is harming us all and yet no-one dares bare this side to the world, we uphold the image, we show the shiny and the bright side. The fact is this non-stop doing is having a detrimental effect not just to the one or two, but to all. We barely want to say hello to a person in the morning – we have to be somewhere important. We just need what we want to get what we need to be done. Where will it end? The statistics in our present day get more and more confronting. It is time to draw a finish line in the sand and end the race.

182. ‘Where are you off to in such a hurry?’ The last couple of days Rebecca I have been getting in a very strong way that there is no thing on this earth that I need to race for, there is no project I need to smash out, or deadline that I must beat. There is no train I must catch or sale I must accelerate to get to. There is no person so important that I must run and bash my feet and get to at the expense of me. The whole way we are here to be on this earth is to be Love, it is not slow or reduced or slack – that’s so far from the truth, but it definitely does not play this racing game.

183. We can spend our lives trying to win an impossible race and think we’re ‘progressing’ by driving ourselves to complete all the to do lists in the world, but what is the quality of this kind of life where things work in such a linear manner with no opportunity to deepen the relationships we have with others or the one we have with ourselves.

184. Over time it has become extremely clear to me that it is not how much I do in any given time but the quality of the energy that I do it in that either fuels me or drains me. When I have no agenda or attachment to an outcome and go about my day with love and purpose I feel vital at the end of the day.

185. Hello Rebecca and great blog thank you. What I have found is that there are subtle parts to this ‘racy’ as well. So it may not look like a run for the stairs or a speeding driver but you can still have a walking person that looks calm on the outside but inside is anxious and racy, they may even be different behind closed doors. What I am saying is that ‘stop moments’ unfold like everything else. What may have been a moment to stop this week may change and look different in a couple of weeks. This is the flexibility you have when you are living something and not just learning it as a process. The fluidity of this ‘living way’ is evident with Universal Medicine, real people living in the real world supported. They aren’t supported from outside but supporting themselves by holding or dedicating themselves with a quality that then comes out into everything and to everyone. As we grow or expand what we had a picture of ‘normal’ being changes because in each moment we all change, so The Way Of The Livingness is for all the ages, a true religion for us all.

186. so true Rebecca, there is finishing line, and we don’t leave anything behind, it all comes back to meet us the next time around – how would that change the quality of how we live in the world, if the politicians, the corporate leaders lived in the understanding of that principle.

187. I know drive very well. Even reading the title of this blog made me feel what living like that is like. So much anxiety!

188. What if there really was no finish line? What if we kept going around in circles, how then would we change the way we live? These questions popped up for me when reading the first paragraph of your blog. As so much of life is lived to get past one finish line to the next, the importance of allowing space, of feeling the next impulse is almost disregarded throughout the day – yet when we do allow ourselves to listen to our bodies call then the magic really happens.

189. I can very much relate to this blog, I can feel how exhausted I am reading the title. I pretty much constantly live in a raciness, from going into my head, it’s actually a saddening way to live, but joyful in knowing that. In the sense I know so I can change it, and I’ve felt how it is to live another way. A way with so much magic, connection with God, nature, the universe, yourself, and other people when you live this way. Everything is very simple and way much more joyful when you don’t race. It also allows for far more space, and understanding people and seeing people for who they really are, rather than reacting to what is not them.

190. A race with no finish line is an exhausting way to live. Having stop moments in the day, even very short ones, break the momentum of rush, push and drive. Given time with regular practice these stop moments begin to build a quality that reverses the race in life to a walk with purpose and connection.

191. It is amazing how being ‘driven’ is a sought after skill, and encouraged as a must have when going for a job, but it makes me wonder what would be the long term effects of living in this way and the health conditions which may present themselves. From what you have described here Rebecca there is a huge difference to every aspect of your life, from your well being to your relationships which shows that employers do not know what they are asking when they want a driven person.

192. I love the example of leaving the dinner table before the conversation is finished and how through being in space we get to feel and honour other people as we learnt to feel and honour our selves.

193. I had spent years in that ‘race with no finishing line’ I never even saw the finishing line but I was successful in beating myself for it was nowhere to be seen behind me. Motion was my life till I had the pull to attend a one-day presentation that a friend said I should go and see. I had no idea about what was going to be presented. I had reached a period in my life where I was looking for something more. The presentation given by Segre Benhayon was not more; it was coming home to what I had spent years running from…Me. I never have since that day looked back to see myself, for it is always with me now.

194. The joy that floods the body when I allow it to become still is enormous. Almost equally enormous is the force that tries to prevent this to happen.

195. Funny how we can stop and take a moment just to be, and this is when we begin to feel anxious or restless or unsettled. In actual fact it is not really true that we ‘begin’ to feel this way, for this has been there all along, but it is simply more tangible to feel when we stop the business and the rushing around. And so it is often easier to keep busy and to keep rushing than to allow ourselves to feel the anxiousness that lies within.
     But what if that anxiousness was just a sign to show us that we were disconnected? A way for the body to signal to us that we have just lost our connection momentarily to our essence, our inner strength? Would it then not make sense to use this anxiousness as a cue to come back, to re-gather and to re-turn to the essence we all knew and held as children…So simple, yet not something we do often enough.

196. A great sharing – often we are in too much of a rush to consider a pause, let alone stop.
     It is well worth allowing ourselves the space to connect to our bodies and what is needed in any moment – a needed, very loving step towards ourselves.

197. Thank you so much for writing this Rebecca. Since I first read your blog I have recognised so many of the behaviours you mention and it is uncomfortable to see but wonderful at the same time because I am starting to change things and make more space for myself. Today when I read about the way that making space opens up connections I thought about quite a few instances where I see a particular person I have always wanted to connect with but I have been unable to as I am rushing to my next destination. I feel inspired to monitor the way that making space supports my relationships.

198. I recently put myself onto a program of not multi-tasking and let me tell you, initially it was hard as I would move in the old pattern and then realize as I am moving how I felt in my body, which was tense and running on nervous energy. I realized it depended on what task I was doing as to whether I went into drive and wanting to get as much done as I can quicker. Definitely can feel how lack of self worth comes into play at those times. It’s so great to feel the difference within my body of completing tasks before I move on.

199. ‘These things may seem simple, but they allow space to be with ‘me’’ It really is the simplest things that support us in making the greatest changes in the way we live.

200. To recognise that we have a coping mechanism to mask, hide or bury an un-dealt with feeling (like anxiousness) is superb to catch, because this opens the door to then be able to observe just how many other ways we may employ to avoid that uncomfortable issue. Like over eating, or eating certain types of food when we are not hungry, serial T.V series watching or over exercise to name a few..

201. So inspiring and poignant to read as I’m realising how rigid I am in life. I try to get things perfect in a drive to avoid criticism that’ll trigger feelings of shame. But I’m also feeling how lovely it is to be present, or walk through the park and notice the delicate yellow leaves gracefully fall to the ground, to be spacious and allow myself the openness to learn and observe, to feel what’s needed in a moment and trust I don’t have to be trying to be ten steps ahead and out-think the world!

202. I agree – I look forward to using the many years I have ahead of me to constantly grow and work on these areas – to come to know myself not as the driven or anxious person, but for who i really am.

203. It is so true, I have felt there was never enough time and so started noticing that I was moving on to the next thing before I had finished the thing I was doing. Once I started being aware of that, I started noticing half closed cupboards, drawers, have made beds, half finished washing up…it was everywhere which led to a huge underlying anxiety that I had never finished! Great blog.

     1. Great observations Lucy. I have been noticing this in myself too and it has been great because it helps me to see that I am actually trying to dull down my awareness.

     2. Well said Lucy – it’s amazing how often I move on before finishing something – the most recent being at work, where the corridor door, and the door to the office are very close to each other, and I will open the next before having fully closed the other behind me, so end up doing both at the same time – its a great catch and im enjoying leanring to do one door at a time.

        1. ha ha what a great opportunity each day!

204. What a gift to realise the drive is coming form an anxiousness born of not feeling enough. While this is running there can be no ease or stillness in the body. When we realise that we (and everyone) are born more than enough, it is like a deep sigh rippling through your body. There is no need to chase or prove anything and whatever we do is already enough as we brought all of what we have to share to it.

     1. I agree Fiona, living from this basis of never being enough, there is no rest or surrender, there is never a point at which we feel enough. When this is healed, we can begin to live and appreciate ourselves for a place that cannot be quantified by any action, but is instead a quality.

205. I imagine some people see the drive they observe in others as a positive thing, even inspiring, as we applaud doing and achievement in society. It also subconsciously means that if we know someone else is doing it, then we can sit back and do the bare minimum. There is the saying, “If you want something done, give it to the busiest person. There is certainly a lack of shared responsibility in society, and those who overdo and those who underdo. This all feels like it comes from the same energy though. What is needed is for people to feel a purpose and sense of shared responsibility ands take whatever steps are needed together, with each using whatever strengths they have to complete the whole.

     1. It’s the same with perfectionism – we’re yet to see it for the poison that it is to the body.

206. In my life the exhaustion has not come from the amount of things I have done but the quality of energy I have done it in. When there is love and care and attention to detail and a purpose to support humanity then there is nourishment when there has been self and recognition and need the emptiness is magnified and it hurts even more.

     1. I agree – often the most tiring days are not necessarily the busy ones, sometimes Ii do very little, but it’s the way I was that drains me – a conversation where I get emotional or a situation I make a fuss of that I don’t need to, saps my energy far more than a day full of activity done first from a connection to me.

        1. That is the significant element –“done in connection to me”. We can walk fast, move swiftly from one task to another, express something to somebody at speed and not be exhausted or racy if we are coming from that inner connection and staying in our own presence. Then the walk, the moving, the speech are from our inner rhythm and a consistent steady pace, however fast.

207. Thank you Rebecca – you have made such sense of the life I have been living and explain how we can take simple steps to get off the merry-go-round.

208. ‘The way I would be the first up from the table at dinner and clearing away the plates even before other people had finished eating’ I’ve been aware that I have been doing this for sometime but it wasn’t until I read it from you that I was prepared to look at it and start to change it. I can feel that when I am eating I am already racing to get everything done, including my meal finished so that I can get to the end of the day. Living like this has been utterly exhausting and has squeezed out every ounce of enjoyment from my day. Recently, I took my time to eat my food with full presence of the purpose of the meal (to nourish) and took my time to wait for others to finish before getting up. What was gorgeous was that I was left with absolutely enough space to then get everything I needed to do done and it was far more enjoyable as I felt connected not only to myself but to the others I had been eating with.

209. Bringing focus to my breathing I can easily catch if I’ve fallen into the race for the non-existent or should I say completely self created, finishing line.

210. “A race with no finish line”. When you put it like that it seems ridiculous that we would race to do anything. There really is no finish line in life – it just goes on and on – and we are required to engage with life until our last breath. It’s worth taking a pause and considering exactly how we want to live, instead of simply pushing through it in a blind panic!

211. I like what you share here Alex Braun. About how it can all seem so real and necessary when we are looking at life from the view of life – what I mean is that when I am in the whirlwind then the whirlwind feels real and thus I react to it and get swept up in it and feed it. What supports me amazingly is having rhythms, moments, tools that allow me to step out of the whirlwind – and then I can see so much more clearly.

212. Very true ottobathurst. I often think I am feeling quite calm but when I connect to my breath I then become aware that my body is actually stressed and racing a million miles an hour. The more I allow myself to be aware of how I really feel the easier it is to bring myself back to a truly harmonious state.

     1. It’s also great to catch it early, before it becomes too embedded in my movements. A constant awareness and constant checking in serves me well. If I drop the ball and let it roll down the hill, then the walk back up is harder!

213. Awesome Rebecca. I love the way you explain that drive is actually unnatural for you. This is huge because there are many that would consider this a positive and unchangeable ‘personality trait’.

214. “What I am beginning to find is that by introducing more space, I am more able to feel what is needed in each moment” this is something that has taken me a while to comprehend as I always found it difficult to trust that by being more gentle with myself and present I could actually get more done but that is truth of it all, connecting to our stillness allows us to feel what space is all about.

215. Imagining a race with no finish line would make one very exhausted! This is a great blog Rebecca, revealing just how easily we can go about things in a rush or hurry and how this gradually can over time bring on fatigue or exhaustion to our body.

216. its so interesting that you talk about the reason behind the drive you had. Often we are aware of a behaviour but don’t scratch the surface to look at the underlying cause. Its lovely how you share that by appreciating you are enough, you are healing the need to prove yourself with the incessant drive.

217. I too had not experienced what it was like to live with stillness until I met Serge Benhayon. Being caught up in anxiousness, drive, push and rush I didn’t know another way of being existed…Learning to stay present with myself in each moment and focusing on the gentle breath and quality of my movements has been life changing.

218. I made the same experiences Rebecca! When I started to take more care of myself, when I started to be more loving with me – I did become anxious. This fear was quite unexplainable or unrealistic and it brought me too to wonder what is going on. And I can see how this fear was there before but covered and hidden by my busyness/actions and disconnection. To care for me contains also a state of conscious presents and here I feel where I am. So I came to the result that it is good to feel the anxiety – so I can deal with it, face what brought me there. And I found that I am in fear when I am disconnected to my belonging and to who I truly am. In fact we are all missing a true religious life, what contains the knowing and feeling that we are the suns of God and on our way back to live unity again. This contains responsibility and a giving up on individual creations.
     That we try to run away from truth, will truth not make go away.
     So it is my choice: will I try harder to run from it, or do I choose to surrender again?
     Will I choose true intelligence again?

219. I am inspired to create space to have moments to pause, reflect and feel what is going on especially when I am around others as it is when I am around others that I can let things slip and ‘fall in’. Simply asking myself the question Rebecca has posed in her blog ‘Is the decision I am about to make true for myself and other people…’ can be all that is needed to bring me back to truth when I am in the presence of others.

220. A race with no finish line sounds exhausting! But then who said life was a race? Who coined the term ‘the human race’ and why do we accept that as the way we have to be. If we were to move in a different way, to walk and not rush around everywhere then we know we would enjoy the view more, be in a better place when we arrive at the next junction or thing to do. We would not arrive in a jumble and already be thinking of the next leg of the journey, but appreciate more fully the current steps we are taking.

221. After reading your blog, it reminds me of a quote that states..’slow and steady wins the race’.. Maybe whoever came up with this also realised that living in a steady and not rushed way you are always a winner because you do not miss out on being with yourself in all that you do – and with this connection, there is no race.

222. “The way I would be the first up from the table at dinner and clearing away the plates even before other people had finished eating” – this one made me smile Rebecca, it was the scene of family dinners as a child where i would race to eat, finish and clear away the plates.. then dash to make the teas, wash up.. there was no time for any digestion, and we always use to laugh and joke that the dinner would take 3+ hours to make, and 3mins to consume or wolf down should i say ; ) This self time-bound way of eating, was also how i studied too where the quality of rush or impatience was in every aspect of my daily life.. dressing, walking, bathing, exercising, shopping … and the lack of space brought anxiousness and desperation, though today thankfully the creation of space has brought an ease, steadiness and confidence to be able to feel more what’s going on, which, in the past was something very easily dismissed in the speed or race.

223. “What I am beginning to find is that by introducing more space, I am more able to feel what is needed in each moment.” I spent much of my life in anxiousness and needing to be doing things as a form of recognition. I now see just how much torment I placed on my body under constant stress and it makes me question what kind of quality was I moving in when I was in this pattern of behaviours? Having a greater awareness of my connection with my body has given me a new understanding of space and simply being present in any moment.
     We do not need to do anything, simply be our lovely selves in every movement and moment we can without perfection but with honesty and a deep appreciation for all that we are.

224. I was discussing this topic with my sister last week, how so much of our world is geared to be in drive, but it wears us out, the use of stimulants are out of control. When we connect with ourselves there is no drive there, just space and a beautiful stillness.

225. “..I am everything before I do anything…” Absolutely Rebecca, and so many of us thankfully hold this knowing within ourselves thanks to Serge and the Universal Medicine presentations and workshops.

226. Beautiful to read Rebecca, thank you for sharing, I know only too well the the continual doing and the raciness that accompanies that way of life, i too have come to realise it is not what I do that defines me but who I am being with me in each moment. I love the word space, my body feels it and responds with a beautiful ease fullness.

227. It is really interesting that when I work on the computer and drink some water, how tempted I am to continue looking at the screen rather than be with what I am doing.

228. I find it really beautiful how you asked yourself questions and by that got to let go of a lot of things like the drive and anxiousness. It is amazing how these questions can bring awareness of what is truly going on for us and that it is not ‘just the way we are’.

229. ‘For example, bringing a focus on my breathing, the way I open and close a door, the way I am sitting or walking. These things may seem simple, but they allow space to be with ‘me’ in what I am doing in that moment, whether it be catching the bus or eating my dinner.’ A great reminder Rebeca, to bring this detail of awareness to everything we do , as the quality in one moment leads to the next.

230. Feeling the raciness that is within is confronting. But it is giving us the opportunity to let go of this. And take the space that we are capable of when we choose to let go of this anxiousness.

231. It’s true so many of us are in a race all the time- I know as this used to be how I lived daily, and it never ever ended. Now I enjoy when I am feeling calm and still in every step of my day- that is everything for me.

232. It was for me such a revelation to know that ” I am everything before I do anything”, and the more I bring this to my awareness the more space I create as I surrender to what is presented in front of me.

233. Haha, I know what you mean, Otto. Re-discovering stillness in the body was so alien at first for me too, yet it has brought me back to a quality in the body that feels so familiar and true.

234. Exposing the drive and motion in one area of our lives opens our eyes to the other areas that we may have it in. Through the exposure we then have the opportunity to work on shifting it.

235. Thank You Rebecca for this great blog highlighting something so important for most of our racy world today. I too was one of those until I came across the work and teachings of Serge Benhayon.
     I love what you say at the beginning about the ‘unnatural drive’. I was known for multi tasking and highly motivational and yet this was totally in contrast to what my body needed and stillness was not a word on my radar. Moving onto the next thing as you mention and also thinking about something else whilst carrying out the task in hand was classed as normal and lets face it most live this way so I fitted in.
     I realise now that all this drive made me exhausted and got me craving more and more sugar filled foods.
     Today I can appreciate how far I have come and my focus is on the moment and dealing with what comes up however small and not pushing it down or racing to get somewhere.

     1. It’s crazy because we actually champion multi-tasking. I too was forever trying to multi-task but I couldn’t do it and was even criticised for not being able to do it. I couldn’t do it because I was a bit of a perfectionist and had to do each job as perfect as I could. It is no wonder I was always feeling exhausted! I am letting go of the perfectionist and boy do I feel so much better. I am beginning to enjoy doing jobs because I am enjoying being with me.

236. Brilliant blog Rebecca. I have experienced so many of the examples you gave and I have even had the same types of dreams you describe here. It is very revealing to see that this drive is actually a calculated choice that we use to avoid being aware of all we are feeling.

     1. It also allows us to function while we are tired or exhausted, both of which are useful if we don’t wish to feel what is happening to us.

237. “A huge thank you to Serge Benhayon and my Universal Medicine practitioners, who have always presented that I am everything before I do anything – a valuable lesson in a world where your worth is defined by what you do, and not who you are.” Thank-you Rebecca for this sharing, anxiousness and raciness is rife today – how can it not be in a world that applauds muti-tasking supermen and women. Accepting that we can live in the knowingness, the beingness that we are everything already is life changing.

238. We live life like we are stuck in 5th gear with our foot on the floor. We hurtle round corners at breakneck speed with little regard for our body Then when we crash and burn and break down we make life about going slower. But as you beautifully show Rebecca, this is just more of the same that caused us the issues in the first place. For if the race actually does not exist, except in our head, if the mad dash is but a trick then the only way out for us all is to live breathe and move knowing this race is not true.

239. It’s much easier not to get caught up in things or overwhelmed when we create space in our day; not necessarily meaning that we need more ‘time’, but there is a quality of being that allows us to still live our lives and work that’s spacious and allows for us to observe things that are going on around us and the quality of how we’re choosing to be in each moment.

240. I have been noticing recently a hardness or ‘push’ in my right arm that creeps in when I do the simplest things like brushing my teeth or typing on the computer. When I consciously let go of this ‘drive’ and just surrender to being in my body, and being more gentle with my arm, it feels very different in my whole body not just my arm.

241. I can so much relate to the racyness, Rebecca. What I observe in becoming more present with my movements, the racyness sticks out even more. In the past I have given up, because it was uncomfortable to feel. Now I stick with the feeling , stay with my movements and observe. The rise of energy I receive from observing and not reacting is enormous.

242. “The over excited way I talked and gestured with my hands” – I can relate to this one Rebecca, it was quite a trait of mine before and something others use to know (and like) me for i.e. it became my personality, though I do recall that after I talked excitedly and animatedly that my head would race, I would feel a rushing and end up feeling quite off, or dizzy afterwards. Today I just can’t do that as the moment I do, it feels so awful to feel my head spin like that.

243. It is so interesting how things like being driven, that can be seen as a good thing, take over our lives and end up masking something that we don’t want to feel. I use to run off nervous energy, doing one thing then the next and the next, always having many things on the go at once. This created a constant nervous tension in my body with the driver being all about how I was seen in the world and being able to get things done. This nervousness was covering up that I did not feel like I was enough. By addressing the underlying feeling of not being enough, I realised that I don’t need the nervous tension. I can actually do more things in a day now, but doing these things does not define who I am, nor does the amount I get done. My quality is what I take to the things I do, my quality is not defined by what I do.

244. “The way I would be the first up from the table at dinner and clearing away the plates even before other people had finished eating” I so did this too for years and especially if I was having dinner with people who were super loving, I would want to avoid my discomfort at not being able to surrender to the love on offer so jump up and clear the table. Now I am able to sit and bask in the love.

245. When I stopped to contemplate why I was in this perpetual race against time I actually had no idea. It had been happening for so long that it had become normal, despite being awful. When I stopped racing against time I began to feel how futile the race was and how wonderful it felt to embrace the moment. What blew me away and still does is just how full each moment can be when we don’t race past it.

246. The willingness to be honest about how I am feeling (not necessarily as a public declaration but simply with myself) is an unfolding practise that is gently and incrementally changing my life. It is getting behind the scenes of all the games I have played and the facades I have created in an attempt to comply with a rule book, that I am pretty sure doesn’t actually exist…

247. This really does reveal some of the tricks we play, the cover-ups and the layers we create – to not know our Divine nature.

248. Life is constantly reflecting back to us the life we are choosing to live – what a gift.

249. And yes – seems ridiculous to take note of how we might close a cupboard door, but it’s oh so much more than that. Reading this makes me realise how often I am always have way through the next task before having completed the first, forever living 2 steps ahead and often not present with the task at hand. It begs the question – what on earth is the rush?

250. Awesome Rebecca and um, did you say you were 19!! Hello role model of the century. Seriously amazing to be so open to allowing yourself to feel what’s actually going rather than just following the masses down a path of complete avoidance. I’m very inspired.

251. Rebecca that very last line of your blog, describing a world where our self worth is defined by what we do and not who we are, is the key to the whole anxiety driven way of living. When we accept responsibility that we have allowed the world to dictate this way of being to us we empower ourselves to say no as we move forward.

252. “I realised that it has been this anxiousness that is the force behind the drive I have in life, an anxiousness based on not feeling enough or being good enough, and so having to drive to prove myself and to get recognition.” I can relate to this drive. I have a deeper understanding about it now. I didn’t realise how much drive I was in until reading your blog and noticing similar reactions. Amazing how it can creep up and into our every movement.

253. Only by understanding the root cause of the drive ie. anxiousness of not feeling enough and addressing this underlying energy can we make a true change.

254. It is fascinating how when we let go of time and the need to get to a certain point suddenly we have all the time in the world. I know for me constantly wanting things now without actually putting any effort in has always led to my downfall. After all it becomes easy come easy go. Whereas when I do not have a goal in mind, or a finish line suddenly everything slows down and I actually enjoy the journey rather than simply focusing on the end result. I also found when I go for a goal I then want another higher goal or beat myself up for not getting there – whereas when I give it my all anything is possible and regardless of the result I know it is exactly what is needed.

255. Like a dog without a leash, we can run away from ourselves into an anxious state. It is like we get fixated to go to the park or throw a ball or scared of other dogs who are tall. But if we just develop the ways to bring ourselves back, we can start to understand in our body that there is no greater thing than being right here right now. The cool thing is the more we do this consistently the more we get to see what may seem uncomfortable or a big effort is actually natural and our way. Thanks Rebecca for walking us all through this nervousness back to the stillness of the truth.

256. Thank you Rebecca. You remind me that space is created through the way I am not what I do. I have often tried to create space by shirking my responsibilities and I can now see why it never worked. The things I do can support me to make space if I choose to be aware and read what is being reflected to me.

257. Anxiousness is like a silent driver, pushing us along to reach a result or an end point. What if it is not about getting somewhere, but only to remain in conscious presence, with our body and mind in union so the anxiousness has not place there. It is far less exhausting to live this way and the body can harmonise itself more readily.
     “I can now see that I need to begin to appreciate that what I do and what I bring is enough, for then and only then will the anxiousness and the need to prove myself resolve”.

258. I love the fullness I’m reading and receiving when one chooses to be with self while doing what needs to be done, or feel to do. There’s a tenderness, lightness, delicateness and joy when you move around in space.

     I’m also inspired by what you share around the relationship between drive and anxiousness. I’m quite often anxious, have felt that this disconnects me from me, but never really felt its connection with drive. It is quite obvious now that I read about it. For me it’s about allowing myself to feel what’s underneath the anxiousness. What am I anxious of? Why is it that I choose anxiousness over feeling me? Thank you dearly Rebecca!

259. I am everything before I do anything is a great thing to remember and keep with me throughout the day. Beautifully simple reflection thank you Rebecca.

260. Hear! Hear! Matilda, I agree, life is a lived wisdom from all our lives as age is no barrier!

261. Hear! Hear! Rebecca. I so relate to your journey of awakening and I can still get caught looking for that finish line.

262. ‘I realised that this drive and motion was playing out everywhere’ – It is my experience too, that when we start to truly pay attention to details in our day to day living, it heightens the awareness so it also brings attention to other areas where it is needed.

263. It is amazing to feel the difference between giving ourselves time and space compared to the rush and race we have all become accustomed to. Creating the space with each moment takes commitment and practice, but this is so well worth the effort!

264. Rebecca, I can relate to many of those behaviours born of my drive and momentum. It even makes me late because I am trying to fit too much into the time I’ve got. But ah the magic, when I drop into that timeless space where things flow harmoniously, and everything seems to get done effortlessly.

265. “I realised that it has been this anxiousness that is the force behind the drive I have in life”and that the drive and raciness “stops me reading what is going on.”
     Rebecca, this is empowering for once we see this we can then start to separate from the drive knowing that we are being catapulted into it from something that is not who we are. Once we feel that space it breaks the momentum and we can flow more with what is unfolding in the moment rather than project ourselves into the future from the fears of the past.

266. It’s really interesting what you’ve shared about how anxiousness was the overall force behind the raciness and drive you felt throughout the day – when we feel something, such as anxiousness or a lack of confidence, we sometimes develop a way of living that totally masks/tries to hide it, in this case by powering through activities in the day without giving any time to stop and look at how we’re feeling or connect with people.

267. Rebecca, I love the practical nature of what you have written as it has exposed how much I live my life getting half a job done and then abandoning it for the next more interesting job (distraction). By doing this I’m kept firmly in the trap of doing and keeping myself away from surrendering to the being. A simple challenge would be to set myself the task of completing any one job before I start the next without finding something else to distract me with, I feel this is a huge key for me in the way I have been living my life and glaringly obvious only I didn’t want to see it.

268. Ariana, I love this. It highlights how ridiculous it is to focus on the drive to reach a momentary piece of cake so to speak and when we have had the cake we revert back to the drive so we can race to the end of our lives. The ironic thing is that by doing so we are pulling the end of our lives closer and closer to us as no doubt our bodies will eventually cave in and give over to illness and disease if we carry on this way.

269. Amazing blog Rebecca. You share true wisdom here. I have always struggled to feel what truly needs to be done, especially when I am tired and run down (which is when I am desperate to prioritise). I am intrigued by the idea of ‘introducing space’ for me this feels like just allowing myself to be aware of my body, the way I breathe and the way I move.

270. The illusion of the finish line is something that stood out when reading your blog this morning, that we can be driven to a goal, an ending, a finish – when in fact that never really exists. Yet as someone who has been very driven it certainly asks me to focus first on my relationship with myself as then the need to drive through life changes.

271. Rebecca thank you for writing this blog, living in this way is exhausting and a way of shutting people out. What you share about creating more space and having more space for people, letting them in, is indeed I feel
     a beautiful way to live, one that is very simple, joyful, fun and far less draining on the body.

272. It’s a gigantic issue this for so many of us. Definitely for me. But I too have found that the simplest way to deal with it is in the same way that you seem to be – by focussing on the small, everyday rhythms; getting dressed, preparing food, opening the car door….whatever…bringing a presence and steadiness to these small moments ripples that same presence through the rest of my day.

273. There is a simple few words at the beginning of your blog that leapt out at me – “I have been supported to see….” I just think that is so divine and so indicative of the incredible support and love that Universal Medicine offers its students. No imposition, no dogma, no telling, no judgement – just an invitation to take responsibility and see the truth.

274. It’s so interesting that when you dropped the drive your anxiousness became more apparent. I feel that it is anxiousness that drives my drive (so to speak!). I can see that I just need to observe the anxiousness rather than act on it and allow it to control me.

275. I didn’t realize that everybody around me and myself was in constant levels of raciness all of the time. There was more raciness and less raciness, but never the movement of stillness. That was until I met Serge Benhayon, when I was able to re-connect to the natural movement of stillness inside me.

276. ‘I have always been a very driven person. Some would see it as bubbly, excited or motivated, but recently I have been supported to see that actually it is an unnatural drive.’ I find it interesting how we champion drive, celebrating it but not looking too carefully how this drive comes at the expense of the body and where it comes from. Shutting down to how our bodies feel when we are in this momentum means we don’t connect to, or honour how we are really feeling.

     1. Great point michelle819 I have championed drive myself, feeling proud to meet some self created finish line regardless of the way I treated myself to get there. I always found there was a price to pay though, it is as though my body accumulates a debt of disregard and comes to collect payment at inopportune times. ‘Payment’ is often getting sick or being so exhausted that I can’t get out of bed. It took me a long time to be able to admit that there was cause and effect here but the more honest I get about the true price of drive the more I feel inspired to stop it.

277. Rebecca, this is really interesting, ‘I am connecting more with people because I am not so caught up in my inner race and so have more space to actually stop and meet them in the moment.’ I noticed recently when I was feeling very low and had not resolved a family issue and was very In my head overthinking things, that I was not able to connect with others, I could feel how I was so caught up in my own stuff that I felt very removed and found it difficult engaging with people, whereas usually I would loved to have engaged and connected with the people I saw.

278. Thank you Rebecca for such a clear and simple view of how anxiety plays out in our bodies and affects our lives. The line I was drawn to when reading this was ‘I can now see that I need to begin to appreciate that what I do and what I bring is enough, for then and only then will the anxiousness and the need to prove myself resolve’.

279. “For example, bringing a focus on my breathing, the way I open and close a door, the way I am sitting or walking. These things may seem simple, but they allow space to be with ‘me’ in what I am doing in that moment, whether it be catching the bus or eating my dinner.” And hence we can create a lot of space throughout our day, even when there is much to achieve. Thank you Rebecca for this timely reminder that taking a moment for our selves is this simple and when done, makes an ordinary working day feel so different.

280. It’s interesting how we use drive, anxiousness, nervous energy and the feeling of having to be constantly in motion in a race against time, to be out of sync with how we truely feel at any given moment in time. Many great points of honesty raised here Rebecca, and with the understanding of checking in with ourselves through our movements and breath to help regain consciousness presence in all that we do, these are precious gifts you have shared in this article.

281. Sometimes in the desire to get something right I can delay to the point that events overtake me and life gets complicated. Having such big expectations of myself means i also have these expectations of others and I am just setting myself up for disappointment. This of course also supports any anxiousness that is already in the body. Continuing to come back to the present moment and what is and appreciating that, allows for space to open up within and around me. “I can now see that I need to begin to appreciate that what I do and what I bring is enough”.

282. A race without a finish line is a journey to discovery. Without competition and drive, we can eliminate our motions that allow more space to become available.

283. Since first being introduced to the concept of ‘conscious presence’ by Serge Benhayon in around 2007, and then a while later embracing the modality of Esoteric Yoga, I’ve learnt much about all that you’ve shared here Rebecca. The realisations of the extent my body has been run on nervous energy continue to unfold in my life – there is no end to deepening the connection and presence we can have with ourselves in all that we ‘go about’ in our day.
     The most amazing thing, is that I am today, capable of ‘doing’ far more in a day, than I was when running on the nervous energy and drive of the past – go figure… Only through such personal experience, have I been able to ‘get it’, that the drive and push the majority of our world runs on, is actually not the ‘correct’ fuel for a committed, productive and engaged life – it has actually run the majority of our population into levels of fatigue and exhaustion that merely APPEAR TO BE sustainable under the veils of caffeine, sugar, alcohol, and the various ways we keep ourselves propped up. As for the long term impacts on our bodies, clearly we are not doing so well…

284. As you’ve so brilliantly shared Rebecca, bringing such awarenesses to our lives may indeed ‘seem simple’ – but having done so myself for several years now (and still learning…!), it becomes more apparent every day that we have neglected the ‘simple’ elements of all that true presence with ourselves brings, and instead opted for a way of living that is not only disconnected, but punishing to our bodies and the tender beings that we are by virtue of the disconnection. This stuff deserves to be ‘101’ for us all in our education and the living of our lives. Thank goodness that Serge Benhayon has once again brought it to the fore.

285. A big one for me Rebecca is being so racy that I cannot read a situation and then under the raciness anxiety is created as there is never enough time. I am working on having more stop moments to feel these feelings so I can read them with more clarity!

286. To discover that anxiousness is the driving force of keeping yourself busy and in ‘drive’ is great, because in addressing the anxiousness, one naturally addresses the behaviour habits associated with it, and this is healing the root cause for good.

287. Often I have started one job only to find that I start on something else without finishing the first! A great reminder to finish one job before starting another! Thank you Rebecca.

288. It truly is a gift to ourselves and everyone involved when we do something from a willing and open body that is fully aligned to the purpose and moves in a way that supports that in full.

289. “I am connecting more with people because I am not so caught up in my inner race and so have more space to actually stop and meet them in the moment.” How beautiful to realise that this is possible, and that you are taking steps to change it Rebecca. When we are willing to take responsibility for our lives and to look at what we can change, however simple the changes may be, it is indeed remarkable what can happen as a result.

290. A fabulous blog Rebecca, I particularly found this line helpful “an anxiousness based on not feeling enough or being good enough, and so having to drive to prove myself and to get recognition.” Beleiving these things about ourselves is a very painful way to live, hence anxiousness comes with these kinds of beliefs. I can also still see the same playing out for me Rebecca, great to have the insight today from your blog.

291. ‘The way I would be so easily scared by someone walking up behind me’ had me wondering, what does this mean? That we are constantly on the alert or so distracted by our thoughts we are not aware of the person coming close? Possibly both. Staying present enables us to feel what’s going on around us and is a far better protection that being in that nervous, anxious state of mind.

292. ‘I am now working on catching when this drive creeps into my day and instead of staying in it, stopping to bring myself back to focus on me and what I am doing right now.’ The simplicity of this really helped me today as I caught myself going into doing and drive and what I noticed by changing my movements is that I felt more stillness throughout my day.

293. When I am not in the race, push and get things done mode, and I allow space, things happen that I could not have even imagined but I am the one that has to stop and allow that to happen. I have to create space and not get carried away. This is something that I have been experimenting with and the results have been awesome. It also has a lot to do with letting go of control. As part of my rushing is all part of trying to control rather than allowing and surrendering to the what is.

294. Love your experiments Rebecca, I find my breath so telling of the quality of energy I am in or have been in. It is the most revealing form of communication.

295. The further I go into drive and nervous energy the further it takes me away from connecting to others. It is like a self-sabotaging tactic that I have cultivated very well over the years to keep people at arms length and/or protect myself from being hurt by others, and of course, there is always the possibility that I deliberately create racy-ness in my body so that I don’t have to read the situation or feel what is truly going on. This I am a master at, but like you Rebecca I am realising the games that I play with myself to stop me connecting to my true self and letting people in, who after all, are not the enemy, they are people just like me who are looking for love and to be met, but are all probably playing the game too.

296. Such a familiar picture you paint Rebecca, all the little ways that raciness keeps us from feeling what is there to be felt. Thanks for the reminder to shut the fridge door with all of me. Just one little thing I know I’ve been skipping yet as to this moment haven’t stopped to feel why this is – what am I avoiding feeling? I’m pretty sure it is because I don’t want to be responsible for my motivation behind my visits to the fridge by there could be other messages just waiting to be asked and considered.

297. When we discover drive and motion in one area of our lives, it is then easy to see how it filtrates into all areas of our lives. To work with clearing this particular pattern, all parts must be addressed, because any area that the energy is left to fester, will keep pulling us back into the motion and drive.

298. This is a great point for me to take on to complete things and in that create space and stop the racy drive that I find so easy to be in. But it is all a ruse to avoid the innate power we all have when we are connected to the divinity around us all.

299. “stopping to bring myself back to focus on me and what I am doing right now.” I love to do this as well through feeling my body. I find relaxing my pelvis floor muscles also one that is very supportive as well as not ‘locking’ my knees when I am standing somewhere.

300. I have been working on my drive and nervous energy for years now and my life has changed quite a few times when I noticed another way I used these tools and, over time, stopped using drive or nervous energy in more and more situations. Each change allowed me to have more energy during the day as drive and nervous energy are quite exhausting.

301. Drivenness, which squeezes out space for anything but the momentum of hurtling forward, definitely does prevent connection with ourselves and with others and everything around us. For me it was a railroad track to nowhere, fast.

302. A beautiful honest and so relatable sharing Rebecca, thank you. I have always suffered from anxiousness and the sharing of this offers so much reflection and space to appreciate myself others and all I am simply being me.The anxiousness can dissolve with this and be seen for what it is and how it stops one feeling and reading what is there to see also.

303. I can really relate to this blog. I can feel that incessant itch to keep moving and doing in me also to avoid just being, because if I’m honest to just be me seems like a bit of a come down. Ouch! So there is an underlying lack of self acceptance or disconnection from ourselves that is so unnecessary and could be driving many of the human behaviours we dislike and find difficult to change.

304. When we busy and distract ourselves with our own inner race, we not only miss out on connecting with people but also with nature and all the miracles that happen around us everyday. In other words, we miss out on the magic of life, and get stuck on a very linear and shallow path/way of living.

305. What I’ve come to know for myself is how a drive comes from an emotion. There’s something to achieve, someone to please, an ideal to be worked towards, etc. But whatever I’m doing, it’s not me doing it. There’s always a heavyness involved. Acknowleding this is crucially important, everytime it happens. Working dedicated is something I’ve always done, but most of the time not connected with me so I missed out on my own joy, playfullness and lightness. Which isn’t to be judged, but is to be acknowledged, be felt and understood. A life from purpose, rather than drive, how lovely, light and joyful that would be.

306. ’I discovered when I am caught up in the drive, there is no space for me to stop and actually feel what is going on with me, or with other people.’ Indeed, and there is equally no space to feel your own loveliness and the fact that you are already all you need to be, and that there is no place you need to get to, in order to be ’good enough’.

307. Ah, the introduction of more space into our lives!. Creating space within ourselves is like the best gift we can give ourselves. It deeply supports us to remain tender not only with ourselves but also with others.

308. I used to pride myself on multi-tasking, doing lots of jobs at the same time in a great rush, and juggling many balls in the air simultaneously made me feel very competent. But this understanding that it is driven by anxiety shows it is very inefficient and harmful to us over a period of time. When we bring the focus back to ourselves, our bodies and our breath, the quality of everything we are comes to everything we do in a rhythm with the body and feels very different. I love the way this helps our connection to others by connecting to ourselves.

     1. I agree Gill, I was and am still working on not measuring my life as successful by the number of items I ticked off my list, or how quickly I got things done. What is a truly successful life is not one based on what I did, but on my connection to myself – how much of me was there in my day

     2. Awesome gillrandall – Your comment supported me to feel that I have held a belief that multitasking helps me get more done but I can feel this is absolutely not true. When I do make ‘headway’ on something without presence there is always a price to pay, the biggest one being that joy is impossible to feel when I am not aware of what I am feeling.

309. Creating more space to be present and feel what is there to be felt in each moment is something I will take away to my own life – I know that previously I have let things build up in order to create tension and a challenge which keep some away from what is truly being called for in that moment.

310. It is so interesting how we use various behaviours to mask our true feelings. Whether this be anxiety, not feeling enough or lacking self worth, we develop behaviours that cover up these imperfections which results in it being difficult to address the underlying cause as it is hidden behind a behaviour and this behaviour can often be seen as a positive. It is only when we look deeply at what is happening that we can identify and address the root cause.

311. The space required to spend the small amount of time to meet anyone has always been available for us to use, and these small moments have a ripple effect.

312. I can relate to this a lot Rebecca – the thing is that it takes honesty to allow this awareness because there are so many things we can use to not feel that we are tired and would benefit from stopping feeling what is going on. When I’m tired I turn to sugary things and they work for the moment but I can also feel that they are a substitute for the energy I normally have when I have a proper and healthy rhythm in life.

313. I can so so relate Rebecca, anxiousness has played out in my life in many differing ways, becoming aware of this and the ways in which I can try to hide it is part of the true healing. Your article is a fantastic reminder to stay present and be aware of those moments we allow the energy of drive to take over from the natural flow and magic of life.

     1. You raise a good point – I never realised how much I tried to hide anxiousness or cover up when I felt unsure of myself until I began to address the drive – now I can tell from my laugh and hand gestures that I am not at ease.

     2. Yes, it is quite surprising how easy it is to have a low level of anxiety as an undercurrent in our lives.

314. Rebecca, this is great, so simple and true, ‘I can now see that I need to begin to appreciate that what I do and what I bring is enough’, I can feel how it is usual in life for us to not appreciate who we are and what we bring, I see so many amazing people, all of who have their unique beauty and all of who have amazing, unique qualities, but rarely do people realise and appreciate who they are and what they bring.

315. Rebecca you have really supported me to become more aware of those moments when I have moved on to the next job without fully completing the one I am doing. Thank you, a great reminder to stay present with my body and task in hand and a superb opportunity to bring my very mercurial mind back to its real job, being in tune with me and my body.

316. ‘A race with no finish line’ sums it up completely. It seems so many of us are racing in and through life with no ‘end’ in sight. The perpetual motion and chasing our tails seems to be the way we have made our norm. From your sharing creating more space has been transformative.

317. An absolute Gift, thanks for sharing Rebecca. It makes a lot of sense and I know from observing my own action as well, there is often an underlying anxiousness in what I’m doing and its coming from “am I feeling enough” – loved your examples about clearing the plates and walking away from dinner, and doing what may seem ‘right’ – Its amazing what could unfold if we gave ourselves more space to be us, and not live in constant worry about how we appear to the outside.

     1. The example of the plates…that’s me, already busy with the next thing. Indeed the dinner is a great opportunity to allow ourselves more space to deepen the moment e.g.the situation/connection. It is a practice to read / feel into each moment what is needed whether is is keep sitting or taking the plates and observe when I go into drive.

318. Great title, A race with no finish line and it could be said no winners either. Even after all I have learnt over the years about coming back to my breath and staying present with what I am doing I still go into rush mode at work when I have a lot to do, even though I know the benefits of creating space by remaining with myself so this blog is a great little reminder.

319. A recent experience, anxiousness seeped into my body just before a change of shift at work- I needed to sort out a few things before hand-over and began to feel racy inside. I misplaced keys and a couple of other items and the washing machine developed a fault. My response was to deliberately slow down. Instead of taking the lift, I walked from fourth to ground floor, touching stair rails tenderly as I did. By the time I made the return trip, I felt different and when I walked into the apartment, sensed where missing items were, walked to them and hey presto!. A few minutes later help was at hand to fix the washing machine. I regained my sense of self, simply because, I chose to pause, slow now, breath differently and walk.

320. Great observations Rebecca. Such simple actions that can support such profound changes.

321. I too am noticing the more present I am with what ever I am doing, the more space opens up for me to get done what ever is needed. The irony of it is that, when we take the time to connect and bring more awareness to our every movement, then we do not run out of time,as we create space.

322. To my experience the anxiousness is from not being connected with my inner most and when I am in that state of being of course my body will go into stress, as I then move in a way that is not supportive and in rhythm with where my body is. My body belongs to that grander order, to the universe and I now understand that when I am living in disconnection with this I live in a self created world that does not belong to that grander whole and because of that is putting stress in my body and is causing my body to suffer the ailments and disease we all commonly now in our nowadays societies.

323. ‘I discovered when I am caught up in the drive, there is no space for me to stop and actually feel what is going on with me, or with other people. Being in this raciness stops me reading what is going on in situations and being able to bring my all to it’ This was my discovery also Rebecca, and I choose the raciness as a way to hide and as a way to fit in, and because this world did not deserve all I had to bring…… ouch.

324. An awesome blog Rebecca, simple and clear with so many pieces of gold nuggets to ponder on and reflect on. I relate to much you share here especially about introducing more space and how that supports me to be able to feel what is needed in each moment….. and this is becoming stronger the more presence and trust I bring.

325. The world is crumbling under the burden of stress, pressure, competitiveness, conflict and the many ill ways that we pursue the illusion of security yet in this pursuit we are creating the very thing we are seeking protection from. What if we could bring back the truth that every young child knows innately as do we when we truly stop and create the space to observe, understand and reconnect to the oneness that we are all from.

326. A huge thank you to you too Rebecca for sharing so honestly the sabotage and ways we keep ourselves away from the truth of who we are.

327. To have discovered this at your age Rebecca is awesome. It’s taken me many, many years and adding a few life times to that, to see this is how I have been living each day. It’s a constant observation I have on myself, checking in and feeling if I’m racy and if so what is it I don’t want to feel.

328. It is easy to dislike a certain behaviour, or pattern we have been in; however, when we look at why we have been needing and using it to serve us in some way – we can easily let go of the things that have seemingly owned us for years.

329. This is a fantastic read Rebecca, there’s so much in this blog that is relevant to the way we can find ourselves living our day, thank you for sharing… It is quite something to recognise…”I would often be halfway through closing it and already be turning to do the next thing…” as this is the bottom of the “U-turn” in beginning to change the movements and momentum we can be in. Even though on the surface it may appear ‘normal’, the physiology in our body (nervous system) is constantly ‘On’ when moving or rushing in this way which can over time wear the body out as seen in fatigue and exhaustion. A well worth “U-turn” for our health and for the body!

330. Super post Rebecca, much to comment on and very well broken down as to what’s behind anxiousness – that affects everyone in their life to some degree…there isn’t one person i meet in my job of recruiting who doesn’t present this quality irrespective of top education, a great cv, accomplishment or work experiences. The issue is that the anxiousness does indeed as you share too, get hidden by the drive and busyness to make it seem and appear to the person [and those around them] that they are ‘anxious free’ and thereby ‘coping’ ‘being successful in life’, and yet when a ‘stop’ moment comes in, like loss of a job, awaiting to hear on a second interview/securing another job, or undergoing major illness etc., anxiety comes bubbling to the surface. It’s not anything new or ‘developed’ [as a person might think] but something already festering away underneath and that’s not being dealt with – the whip, sting and addiction of recognition…is so completely exhausting. All because we think we’re not good enough, and need to do/be better. Unfortunately because it’s so embedded it takes a while to get rid of such a thick thorn as i’m learning myself; never has appreciation been so self-encouraged.

331. Being called bubbly and applauded for it can be quite a trap; it is interesting to note how much value society puts on characteristics that are in truth deeply revealing of inner turmoil and palpable raciness.

332. ‘I have always been a very driven person. Some would see it as bubbly, excited or motivated…’ Interesting how you say that Rebecca. It’s very true that bubbliness, excitement and motivation can be considered to be so positive but when you feel into these states, in yourself or in others, the anxiety becomes starkly apparent. Furthermore, it is ultimately exhausting to be in that racy place yourself, or be around others who rarely draw breath. It’s like “Stop already!”. An interesting one to investigate.

333. I recall similar, highly anxious dreams – mine were either about my final high school exams (years down the track!) or related to my time working as a chef, never being able to deal with all the orders coming in or getting a big function out properly (I had these intensely for decades). And yes, at their root was the desire to be recognised for what I do rather than who I am. Drive, ambition, call it what you will – either way, I eventually learnt (also through Universal Medicine) that this was not only a false measure of my worth but am extremely debilitating way to live, resulting in adrenal exhaustion and a subsequent endocrine condition (in my case). The body tells all.

334. A great reminder thanks Rebecca, that if there’s no ‘space’ inside us, we don’t read what is truly going on. This means we are far more likely to be in constant reaction to what’s happening around us, however subtly that might be occurring.

335. It is a great start of the conversation looking at what we could be in effect hiding beneath the cloak of busy-ness, drive and being racy. This prompts me to consider all the other repeated patterns of reacting to situations. At times I get upset, at times I get critical with myself, at times I get angry. Are these also a smoke screen for what is really going on that I do not want to face? This blog opens up a whole new way of taking responsibility for the way we respond to life.

336. Your last point on the list Rebecca about focussing on anything other than the moment is so true. I clocked that recently where I was in a moment where I lost focus and thoughts drifted, and I remembered how I have done this in so many situations and it really stuck how it was such a waste of my potential. As it means I am never really giving the quality to what I am doing at the time I drift away, over and over again. And it made me stop and just give all I had to what I was doing, and when that happens life is so simple, not ahead or behind the game, just being and living and letting life unfold.

337. What a great thing to be aware of so early on in life, I have spent my life on the go without giving myself space or stopping to feel the anxiousness I run on to get things done. A great reminder that we are everything before we make a move or say anything.

338. Rebecca, this is great to read, ‘I need to begin to appreciate that what I do and what I bring is enough, for then and only then will the anxiousness and the need to prove myself resolve.’ I have found that the more I accept and appreciate myself the more settled and at ease i feel in my body.

339. The opening pace of this blog reflects how many of us have lived (and still do at times) and offers a great reflection on the futility of anxiousness and drive. I’m aware how drive can be fuelled by an inner restlessness and its the inner that must be stilled before we can be present with ourselves in each movement and not constantly racing ahead.

340. This is a great blog Rebecca – its a race we can continue for 19 years, 44 years or a whole lifetime. Something for us all to deeply ponder on, and a lovely reminder that it is the small moments in life that create all the space and connection that are so vital to a rich and connected way of living.

341. Rebecca I can very much relate to drive – from the moment I get up, straight after my last mouthful of dinner I’m cleaning the plates, this relates to an anxiousness from childhood, of someone shouting a lot if the kitchen wasn’t clean straight away. But I don’t have to choose that for myself or live it anymore. It’s also very exhausting to live in drive, for me it is a precise choice I go to stop me reading everything and from that evolving. I also question if it’s a game I play – yes – to stay small and not live in my power and authority. When I have my period this is very very different, my body instantly becomes still, I come out of my head and there is little to no motion or drive. Everything is very simple and clear. So if I can live like this then, then it is there for me to live easily all the time. It’s a matter of choice.

342. Rebecca this is simply a brilliant article to read for me at the moment, as a person that has also been very driven all my life I can really appreciate what you are saying about allowing more space. It will also help the cupboards in my home as they will be closed and not left ajar as i move onto the next thing too quickly.

343. It’s true Rebecca, stepping off the treadmill of self driven existence, offers us so much more. We begin to feel our own bodies and everyone else’s. And this is pure gold, ‘What I am beginning to find is that by introducing more space, I am more able to feel what is needed in each moment’

344. ‘I am everything before I do anything’ A beautiful reminder that we don’t have to do anything or go anywhere but just allow ourselves to appreciate all that we already are and by looking at the underlying causes of our distracting behaviours we become reacquainted with who we truly are.

345. Yes beautiful Rebecca, it is easy to say ‘I am everything before I do anything’ but the livingness of that, is another thing. Thanks for sharing the way you’ve gone about it… very relatable and supportive for those who are caught up running themselves in a similar manner.

346. Rebecca this blog is so wonderful and easy to connect to. So many of the practical examples ring true in my life and many of the lives around me. The world is missing out on all of us that get so caught up in being driven to achieve or meet unrealistic demands and whilst we allow these expectations to govern us, they will continue. The anxiety levels we all fight to keep are bay are increasing. I loved your comment – ‘ ..who have always presented that I am everything before I do anything’ – this is truly beautiful. Thank you.

347. For most of my life I lived in constant motion and to ensure this motion, I would never fully complete anything; there was always one small bit that needed to be finished. It was always about the journey and never the destination. The wake of my life was littered with unfinished everything, which included taking responsibility for myself! I no longer do deadlines. An old restaurant I worked at in my teens and this was on their menu ‘quality takes time… our service is fast no matter how long it takes’. When we make our self, important first, everything else just flows.

348. Yes Rebecca anxiety is a very common theme and I’m sure many can relate to your article, thanks for the expression your tips are awesome

349. Incredible changes you have made Rebecca and from what you’ve shared you inspire us all. I can totally relate to the raciness I sometimes choose but it certainly doesn’t have to be this way. I notice with going into raciness how this disconnects me from myself and also others. Choosing to be present and connected to what I am doing, the way I move supports me hugely in every way. These small choices impact on us a lot more than we allow ourselves to acknowledge.

350. Great blog Rebecca, there are many points I can relate to personally. For the obvious enthusiasm on the surface isn’t always how we would naturally behave if an underlying drive wasn’t present.

     I think that idea is gold.

351. Beautifully expressed Rebecca. I love how your piece gently takes the reader by the hand and invites them to explore the layers of wisdom you present.

352. ‘I am everything before I do anything’ that is such a great way to see and live life Rebecca. I understand the drive you speak of, as I have my own version of it, which I’m still unpicking each day – I find there is an underlying angst or a feeling of having to keep moving just in case I get caught out, which is anxiousness in face. And what you share here is super supportive, in that if I let go of those coping mechanisms then I can more readily address the underlying root without their interference.

353. The title of this blog alone makes me feel exhausted Rebecca! We are the ultimate of nature’s miracles as human beings and I have never seen any aspect of nature in a rush. It can be fierce and have devastating effects but in essence it has rhythm and cycles that we forget are also occurring with us. The drive and tension that is caused is so anti rhythm and I love how you have clocked this. I’m inspired by you today Rebecca!

Comments are closed.