1 Slow down: Slow down just a little bit, please. Breathe, enjoy what is in front of you.
2 Stay present: The past does not exist, and the future can be created in the present.
3 Set your own pace: Consciously set the pace for your own life—one moment at a time. After all, we can live only one life, and that is ours!
Let’s face it. We can’t always live the way we want. After all, huge chunks of our life are shaped by external forces, people or events. As sure as the earth is round, something or the other is going to get in our path and we will have to face it. However, the universe does give us some leeway sometimes—it give us the freedom to choose the pace at which we respond to external factors. Sure, a hundred things may rush at us, screaming for immediate attention, but we can, and must, say, ‘No! Await your turn!’ It’s in our control. We must understand what we can deal with first, and then, in a systematic and calm way, we can move on to the others—one by one.
During the COVID-19 lockdowns in March 2020, I felt a moment of panic. There was so much to be done. My townhouse was on the market. Every bedroom was filled with stuff from twenty-five years of life in this house. There was no one coming in to help. The real estate broker was not showing the house as much as I wanted her to, and the pandemic was a deterrent.
At the same time, I was renovating a house in the country. It was March 2020 and at that moment my friends would not visit me. I felt alone and overwhelmed. One evening, I went for a walk with Meryl Starr, my beautiful neighbour whom I did not know too well but always felt a kindred friendship with. We walked in Central Park and took pictures of the cherry blossoms in full bloom. I came home still a bit breathless and very stressed. I called my friends, Jaswant Lalwani and Javier Plaza, and they asked me to just relax and pace myself.
‘All will be fine,’ they said. I was still stressed. Next, I called my yoga teacher. She immediately had me prepare for a bell meditation. I lit some candles, dimmed the lights in my bedroom, and we started the bell and breathing meditation session together over the phone. After an hour and a half, I finally felt more centred again. I fell asleep by 9.30 p.m.
The next morning I felt clear and decisive. I packed a bag and drove up to the country. I decided that I was going to pace myself and not try to resolve all the things in my life all at once. It worked. Step by step, every day I paced myself; I handled things one thing at a time, calmly and peacefully, and it was a good lesson. Step by step—as Rome was not built in a day. The saying had never rung more true to me!
(Excerpts from 3 TIPS: The Essentials for Peace, Joy and Success by Meera Gandhi)
