Rushing thoughts and anxious feelings are invisible to you because each time they begin to race, you start to run with them. And after so many years of being carried along in this psychic slipstream, you’ve come to believe that either you are these surging inner currents, or that their power is yours. Neither case is true. You are not these waves of thought any more than a cresting tide is the entire ocean.
Now here’s the solution in exercise form that will help you to slow down your life.
Beginning this very moment, intentionally separate yourself from any rushing inner condition by voluntarily stepping out of it. How can this be done? Purposefully slow yourself down by acting to consciously reduce your usual speed.
One practice I find particularly profitable, at home and in business, is to always pause a few seconds before I answer someone’s question. This special conscious pause for self-awakening is invaluable because, as the old saying goes, “Only fools rush in!” Whatever the occasion may be, choose the time and place to slow down, and then practice stepping out of the rush.
Here’s the secret behind how this unique exercise delivers new self-command. Slowing down helps you become aware of yourself in a new and higher way by creating contrast between your usual speed through life and your now selectively slower one.
This enhanced self-awareness empowers you to step out of the rush of your own surging thoughts and feelings by making you conscious of their flooding presence within you as being something that doesn’t belong to you.
Once this is clear, then you can choose your own direction in life. Step out of the rush by slowing down. Do it Now.
This article is excerpted from Design Your Destiny (pages 48-50).
About the Author: Guy Finley, Bi-Weekly Mentor, is the best-selling author of more than 40 books and audio albums on self-realization. He is the founder and director of Life of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit center for spiritual discovery located in southern Oregon where he gives talks four times each week. For more information visit www.guyfinley.org, and sign up to receive a free helpful weekly newsletter and other gifts.
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