If you asked 11 year old Pria what kind of super power she wanted to have, I would have told you that I wanted to manipulate time: to make the yucky experiences (dentist checkups, immigration queues) fly by in the blink of an eye, and coax the joyous ones (meeting an old friend, a good coffee) to last forever — or at least feel like it.
Katonah yoga speaks directly to this notion of manipulating time to work in your favour. Pulling from Taoist philosophy, Katonah takes on a slightly different perspective from more culturally popular eight limbed path from Hindu traditions. In the context of time, Katonah plays with the breathe to either speed time up or slow it down — because by manipulating the breath, we manipulate the way that we experience the world. Often this comes in the form of doing cat-cows, inhaling as you round and exhaling as you extend. When instructed to do twenty more, someone who is hypnotised by the movement may choose to elongate the inhalations and exhalations, whereas someone who want’s nothing more but to be done with the movement may choose to speed the breathe up to then bring the finish line closer.
I haven’t yet figured out to manipulate time in this way in other contexts (I’m unsure about what my dentist would say if I started panting during my checkup), but I’m willing to play.
In another vein, Rick Reuben (author of The Creative Act, a book I’m sure you’ve seen on display at a bookshop), speaks to time in a much more respectable manner. Patience is his toy of choice, and he refers to it as a critical component in the act of creativity. Like an omelette without eggs, true creative greatness cannot be born without patience.
The thought stuck to me like gum on the bottom of my shoe. Many people who know me would describe me as a very slow person. This is true in some cases but not all. As a woman of extremes, I fluctuate between moving at a snails pace or at 2.5 speed. Take for example eating a meal. Curating the perfect bite is a task that I take quite seriously. Hence why a meal is a marathon for me,(multiply by three if I’m in company). You can imagine the horror when I experienced my first thirty minute lunch break.
With spring on the rise, I want to harness this energy of taking time into my own hands, just to see if and how it will change my experience with the world.
The three circumstances that I’ve programmed myself to rush are as follows:
Using the restroom — at home or in public. I’m always in and out. Especially at restaurants because I have a fear that my food will arrive while I’m gone and become cold
Crossing the pedestrian walkways — granted some of the lights in Berlin are horrendously inefficient, but waiting for a light makes me twitch
Friendly meetings (informal) — I blame Los Angeles for this one. Over there, on time means half an hour later than the agreed upon time. This doesn’t fly in Germany, nor is it the kind of person that I want to be anymore.
The next few weeks, I’m committed to shifting down a couple gears to see what, if anything comes up.
Consider this an invitation for you to take inventory of the moments, situations, circumstances when you find yourself rushing. Perhaps together we can turn the dial down, and see how life is like on the slower side of things.
See you on the other side ;)
x
P