Speed-Living
What’s the rush? There’s nothing wrong with speed-reading, or speed-walking, or speed-dating for that matter, (where you meet someone for breakfast and break up at brunch.) But everything is getting kind of speedy, so it’s more important than ever to occasionally stop, wake up, slow down, become aware, then go in a direction of your choosing.
F.M. Alexander, developer of the Alexander Technique also remarked about the ever-increasing speed of the world, and that was in the early 1900’s, and the fastest device he owned was the iPhone 1.
F.M. Alexander also said we forget to remember (important things like becoming aware), while Stephen Bachelor says we forget to remember to remember.
Savor The Moment
Stephen Bachelor is the writer of a great book called “Buddhism Without Beliefs”, one of those books where you might read one sentence and think about it for hours.
The author was making a comparison between becoming adept at creating a pot on a pottery wheel to “becoming adept at configuring ourselves from the spinning clay of our existence.”
That idea resonated with me, but instead of putting the book down for a moment to reflect, I kept reading because I wanted to “finish the chapter.” It’s ironic because the book deals with awareness and being in the moment. I was rushing towards the book’s end; Book end-gaining, book-end gaining.
Space is the Place
But why? It could be school habits from years ago, it could be good old end-gaining, but either way it’s a habit. This time instead of rushing ahead I stopped, woke up, and put the book down. I decided to stay with the concept of the spinning wheel for a while longer. I bookended the ideas of awareness and end-gaining and picked Batchelor’s paperback book back up later.
Get Woke
End-gaining is like being pulled down a track with well-worn grooves. We are falling into the path of least resistance, not always the best choice–not a choice at all.
When we wake up we can choose to stop rushing inevitably forward towards.
The End.
Mark Josefsberg–Alexander Technique NYC
(917) 709-4648
Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net–Retro Clock by Suriya Kankliang
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