A Joyous Perspective on Slowing Down: Untethering your mind from the internal clock.

It's the end of an abbreviated week here at the Friday Night Thought Tale Hour with the Henderson's. A three day weekend either leaves you feeling jubilant at the prospect of a shorter work week, or stressed at the reality of fitting five days of responsibility into four. For me, a confessed workaholic as I relayed last week, the 2nd option usually fits. But a decision that I made as we returned from a trip on Sunday seemed to lighten the anxiety I would normally experience on a Tuesday masked as a Monday. And it all began as I lounged in the pool with my lovely little granddaughter and realized that as much as I would wish it, I could not stop time. I had been right here with her mother such a short time ago. How many of these moments had been lost or overshadowed by an urgency to get to the next demand? While it's true that "time marches on", did I really have to speed up the cadence?

Have you ever felt controlled by time?

This has been a lifelong challenge for me. Sometimes it can be difficult for me to truly immerse myself in the present because I can feel the grasp of imaginary strings, tethered to an invisible clock. It goes beyond respect for time and schedules. I'm talking about the space between the start and finish point. The ability to enjoy and envelop the experience in that span. Not thinking about what comes next. Not worried about the undone. Turning down the ticking noise fo the internal clock, and only hearing the beating of your heart - or the hearts of those around you.

I noticed recently, as I started doing yoga, that I always snapped from ease to anxiety at the end of a YouTube video class, getting up and rolling up my mat with an eye on my many clocks (I do have a lot of chiming clocks, ask anyone.) while the leader melted into bliss in their final relaxation pose. I looked up the meaning of the term 'full Shavasana', and it literally means a 'corpse pose'. Laying there like you are dead, completely at peace. Oh and, it's supposed to be the time when your body fully enjoys the energizing effects of the movements you just put it through. I started forcing myself to take a few minutes of a Shavasana at the end, closing my eyes to ignore the clocks. I have to say, I feel even more effects from yoga. This just doesn't make sense to a 'clocker' like me....

I have always believed that the successful are more efficient with time.

And efficient time management means multi-tasking like a pro. But I am realizing that being a good juggler isn't all that important when you are in those times that don't earn you a financial benefit of any kind. In fact, keeping all those balls in the air, figuratively, is stealing a little something from the moment. Sometimes, all you need to fit into the schedule is what you are doing, right now, and only right now. It's not to completely disregard the clock, but just liberating ourselves a bit by looking beyond our self-imposed restrictions.

Even if it only means lingering just a little longer than usual.

So this past Monday, while I still had a 'Joy's List' of things I wanted to
accomplish with my extra day, I took some time to put aside time. I would normally have exact amounts of time in my head for the precursors to the actual meat of my day.

I would have traditionally provided myself exactly a half hour to enjoy a cup of coffee, walk the dog, do some stretches and look at the garden.

Labor Day walk view

But this day, I decided to turn off the clock and putz around as long as I felt like it.

It turned into almost an hour and a half. It almost felt like time stopped, just because I stopped thinking about it. And it didn’t cause any great disruption to my day. If anything, it enhanced it, because that sense of freedom and ease permeated everything else I did. Kinda like the 'Shavasana' for yoga. So let's see... What am I learning here?

"An unhurried sense of time is in itself a form of wealth."(Bonnie Friedman)

Remember when we were kids, and we tried to do something difficult, like sign our names in cursive? The adults in our lives often told us to take our time. To remember that there was no rush, so we could just relax and focus on the task at hand. Those few extra moments produced a fine looking signature.

It didn't cost us anything, it actually added value. Isn’t enjoying our lives just as worthy of that relaxed attention? Full awareness but with a side of deliberation. Gathering the valuable little morsels of life's moments as we go from hour to hour, day by day.

Time will change me, but Bowie was right...

I really can't trace time, and I don't always have to let it control me. If I am the one who tied the knot on the line to the clock, then I certainly have the power to untether it. And now, I can see that I will be better for the release.

So tonight, we will share a little unhurriedness together as we sip a cocktail I call, "Asana Now!". It's intended to both relax and help us to refocus our thoughts on all that's truly important and most valuable in the life we are so fortunate to share. CHEERS, FRIENDS!

Joy's Asana Now! Cocktail**
2 oz. Grey Goose Le Poire Vodka
2 oz. fresh Pink grapefruit juice
1 oz. Campari
1 oz. Lillet
Grapefruit twist

Add vodka, grapefruit juice, Campari and Lillet into a cocktail shaker.  Add ice, and shake for about 30 seconds.  Strain and pour into a cocktail glasses, then serve with a grapefruit twist.

**Always drink responsibly. Never drive after drinking.