Life on the slow down

Paul Dallaghan Have you noticed ……. people are suddenly taking their time? How interconnected we are. And how interdependent. It cannot be avoided …… It may come as no surprise for me to say that the current situation is giving us all the opportunity to just slow down, take time, find space. Is that happening for you? Or do you undermine this opportunity by worrying about different outcomes, outcomes that no one could figure out now and are beyond any individual’s to even government’s control?

So, in the midst of this have a listen to that great master of song, Irishman Glen Hansard with Czech Marketa Irglova, singing under the name of The Swell Season, a beautiful song “The Moon” where the words “….. if we don’t slow down, slow down ….” arise repeatedly. Apple music

Staying on the music theme, consider the lines of The Rolling Stones’ classic song “you can’t always get what you want” as we learn “you’ll find some time you get what you need”.

Well we all NEED some time to pause, reflect, slow down and learn not to worry when it is upon us. Rather allow it and accept. Even the most recent science studies getting at the effect of Covid-19 are acknowledging the change in our behavior (1).

My own experience 25 years ago was to learn this lesson and embrace a path of inner awareness. It does not take you away from the world. Rather it helps you manage the world better and have a greater understanding. In so doing you gain inner peace, clarity and strength.

So you can keep up old patterns embellished with worries and looking online for the myriad of courses, classes, workshops etc on offer. Or take time and practice what you have learnt, fix it in a routine for you now. That is where the power really is, no matter how many courses you end up doing.

To help keep the following quote in mind by the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who was affectionately quoted in the recent feelgood fantastic movie Jo Jo Rabbit (put that on your isolation watch list and smile, laugh and cry)

Let everything happen to you
Beauty and terror
Just keep going
No feeling is final

(1)CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy. “New Yorkers and Coronavirus — Support for school closures, while most feel not at risk: Most people changing their behavior because of Coronavirus.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 16 March 2020.