“Are we nearly there?” Alice managed to pant out at last. “Nearly there!” the Queen repeated.
“Why, we passed it ten minutes ago! Faster!” And they ran on for a time in silence,
with the wind whistling in Alice’s ears, and almost blowing her hair off her head, she fancied.
“Now! Now!” cried the Queen. “Faster! Faster!” — Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Jake, my youngest grandson who is nearly 6 years old, is in the process of overcoming a speech impediment. It has been a long and frustrating journey for the little guy.
He actually began speaking early. His first word was “mommy” at 8 months. He began preschool when he was barely 2, an age when many toddlers are increasing their vocabulary and learning to put phrases and/or sentences together. Soon he was chattering away like the other children except that most of it sounded like his own unique language and, therefore, was unintelligible.
That’s quite a dilemma for anyone — especially when you know what you’re saying but can’t understand why other people don’t. One night, around the time my daughter was seeking speech therapy for Jake, I had a dream about him.
In the dream he was walking across a field of grass, talking to me as clear as day. Then he began running. As he picked up speed, his words kept pace, slurring together and toppling over one another. I knew in an instant that this fiery, active and incredibly enthusiastic little boy simply needed to slow down — a monumental task for a 3- to 4-year-old.
In fact, “slowing down” is a monumental task for adults. We run, like Jake, at the speed of lightening, sometimes out of joy, more often out of ego, fear and addictive habit. The messages of wisdom from within go unheard as we’re off and running to take care of important things.
I recently watched an enlightening TED talk given by Jill Bolte Taylor, a neuroscientist. She shares her experience of having a stroke and how it left her with a clearer understanding of the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Her presentation also shows us why we need to slow down. Her stroke was caused by a blood clot the size of a golf ball that was pushing on her language centers on the left side of her brain.
The left side of the brain, according to Taylor, is about the past and future. It thinks linearly and methodically as it categorizes and organizes information — all the bits and pieces down to fine details. She refers to it as “calculating intelligence” that thinks in language. It distinguishes each person as a solid individual — separate from the energy flow, separate from each other. It is the side that reminds you to pay the bills, take the dog out, cook spaghetti for dinner. She lost that portion of her brain the morning of her stroke.
She describes the right hemisphere of the brain as being all about the present moment. It thinks in pictures. Information comes through in the form of energy, streaming through our sensory system and creates an “enormous collage” of what this present moment looks like, smells like, tastes like, what it feels and what it sounds like.
It showed her that we are energy-beings connected to one another through consciousness. In this space she was totally disconnected from the mind chatter that connects us to the external world. Stress had evaporated. Perfect peace engulfed her.
Her stroke had caused her to move from the frantic rush of left brain activity into her right brain described as “a sea of silent euphoria.” This is the side we strive to tap into through meditation, which slows us down, helping us to explore the nature of who we are. Through this side we discover our common bond with humanity.
That is so cool. However, the majority of us operate with the scale heavily tipped into the left hemisphere. We recognize that our stress levels are off the chart and that it’s pure madness to keep up our abusive pace, yet we don’t “have time” to slow down.
Have you ever rushed to a yoga or meditation class and left absolutely renewed only to lose it when your walk in your house to the sound of kids fighting and your favorite shoe chewed to bits by the dog?
How do you hold on to the good feelings? You choose to slow down. You practice gratitude, which will turn around nearly any negative emotion and help you to calm down. You own the fact that your natural state of being is peaceful and harmonious, which is reflected in a balanced state of mind and body.
Life doesn’t have to be run at the speed of lightening and lived from a blurred string of “to-do lists.” You don’t need to have a crisis to slow you down. Simply get rid of the voice in your head that shouts, “Now! Now! Faster! Faster!”
— Susan Ann Darley is a consultant and creativity coach for corporations and individuals. Click here for more information, or contact her at susan@mindsetmanagement.net or 805.845.3036. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are her own.