Travelling at the Speed of Life

When we lived on the outskirts of Bristol I cycled to work most days along the busy A38. I noticed that when I first started out on my journey I would be travelling at a steady pace. But as the traffic speeded by I soon found myself trying to keep up. From this experience came one of my little aphorisms: "Don't get caught up in other people's rush hours."

 It's very easy to find oneself rushing to get somewhere or do something simply because other people are rushing too. Or it may we're anxious and our autonomic nervous system is using up its nervous energy faster than we need to. Another cause of hurrying is when trying to finish a job I really don't want to be doing. My mind isn't on the performance of the task in hand, but rather it's end. I'm not living in the now, but sometime in the future when I can be doing something more to my liking. The way we live is strongly influenced by the systemised society we live in. It's largely driven by expectations that are not healthy and indeed positively unnatural.

I guess that over thousands of years 'our kind' (as I like to call humanity), has become less and less aware of the natural world and our intimate relationship with it. That's pretty quick in geological time. No time at all in terms of evolution. That we are becoming less aware of our intimate connection with the whole of nature is become more clear by the day. In turn many of us are becoming less sensitive to our own natural connections. This leaves us vulnerable to the dictates of our systems, including medical systems. Without an inner sensitivity we may accept treatments and take medical advice that may or may not be appropriate. I've noticed among the doctors that that I've consulted over the last 15 years a variety of attitudes towards different aspects of treatment. Some are more sensitive than others. Some I trust more than others. Some I need to question more than others. And there are some I found it necessary to ignore altogether.

This is a situation which is partly learned through research and partly sensed. Because we are all so different we really have to discover our own path here, which is not easy. There is always a temptation that we want to analyse and rationalise things. We want to tie things down, making certain, have total confidence in our decisions, but that's not possible. Any honest doctor will admit that, sadly, the pressures of our overstretched and underfunded NHS often don't allow our medical teams enough time to fully consider the implication of the many decisions they are making.

But we can be the arbiters of our own decision-making – our own self-advocates. On several occasions I've put off making a decision until I have an opportunity to research the implications of what treatment is being offered. I know for certain that on one occasion I did rush into chemotherapy because I thought the situation was becoming urgent. That decision was a bad one because within a few weeks by never had been adversely affected and I was taken off the drug. Unfortunately I decided to accept that medication at at a lower dose but that turned out badly as well. Had I done my research and listen to my body I might have taken more time to sense-feel what my inner nature might have been able to tell me. Two years later and my oncologist's prediction of the degree of imminence was unfounded.

Our bodies decision-making doesn't operate in terms of linear space and time. For instance our bodies replace two million cells every second. Surely that must be faster than the speed of light! It's our brains, and in particular our thoughts and fears and anxieties that slow things down. So let's take time to travel at the speed of life and listen to the gentle conversation that we can have with our bodies.

"To know our nature is enlightenment.
To not know our nature is disastrous.
Knowing our nature, one is accepting
If you are accepting then you are merciful.
If you are merciful then you are noble.
If you are noble then you are like Heaven.
If you are like heaven then you follow the [Way of Nature].
If you follow the [the Way of Nature] then you are sustainable."

The Secret Tao: Uncovering the hidden history and meaning of Lao Tzu by D. W. Kreger