“Those who are slow to know suppose that slowness is the essence of knowledge”
-Friedrich Nietzsche
It seems we have forgotten the wisdom of Nietzsche…
We all want it right now… or better yet, five minutes ago.
What about the process?
Screw the process! I want my results… right now!
This is a pervasive attitude in America… people seem to think
If you have to wait… it’s too late!
This attitude contributes immensely to the manic intensity of activity… most of which is concerned with living up to images that advertisers place in our consciousness… things that have nothing to do with our deeper sense of Self and happiness. In addition, it makes relaxation/rest/recovery time almost impossible.
But what does this have to do with this Online Free Self Hypnosis series?
The field of hypnosis has caught the same disease. There are a variety of products out there for inducing trances in record time…. and they are selling. Hypnotists want to send their subjects deep into trance in less than a second, and self hypnotists want to have even more immediate control over their own trance states.
Slow it down guys!
Real results never come through the attempt to make it happen as fast as possible…
Real results happen through becoming…
When you intend to become the skill, goal, energy, idea, etc… and let go of speediness as an end in itself… you will not only get profound results… you will also get them much faster than you would have otherwise.
Most people won’t appreciate this practice. Taking your time appears to be a dying art.
Advertisers/marketers know this better than anyone… A quick way to up sales for virtually anything is to simply add one of the following words to a product name or description: rapid, quick, fast, instant, immediately, now (I plead guilty… I’ve done this too )
Why?
Because we are obsessed with having results without committing to the process. Avoiding the commitment to the process usually guarantees mediocre results!
On the other hand, people who set up an iron-clad commitment to the process up front (no matter how long it takes), usually start seeing results surprisingly fast (sometimes instantly).
Learning to slow down is priceless!
Why Does the Tortoise Beat the Hare?
In Aesop’s Fables, the tortoise remains slow, steady, and on course, while the over-confident hare takes a nap.
This is definitely one possibility… people have been fooled into thinking that speed for the sake of speed is a good thing… so it is easy to think that you are ‘way ahead’ because you ‘do so much’.
I see several other possibilities:
- Just accepting the simple fact that you don’t need to try to do something every single second of the day can already help you begin to relax yourself. The tortoise is essentially at peace. He directs his energy and moves forward diligently. There is no frenetic counter movement. There is no resistance. The result is relaxed, peaceful, and focused forward momentum.
- Taking it another step and appreciating the value of taking your time to do something… Can you imagine the consciousness of the tortoise? Can you imagine doing something you love and slowing every little piece of it down and deeply intensifying every bit of satisfaction?
- Another way to build peacefulness very quickly is to let go of the outcome. Relax around any concern for ‘how this will turn out’. For the tortoise, speed really isn’t important. Even if he didn’t ‘win the race’, it would be of little consequence. His course is clear without attachment to victory or loss.
How can we practice Slow Self Hypnosis?
Just start adding the following tips into your practice of self hypnosis and/or meditation:
- Make sure you give yourself plenty of time
- Let go of any concern for ‘how long will all of this take’… the trance, the results, the letting go itself… for get about ‘how long’… when you step out of concern for time, you recognize that all eternity is right now
- Allow everything to move at a slower pace
- Slow down your breathing
- Slow down your speech (talk to yourself incredibly slowly… this alone can create a profound state of peace and relaxation)
- Even imagine that you can slow down the rate at which you process sensory signals… imagine that images are flowing through your eyes into your mind more slowly… pretend as if all sounds around and inside you slow down… notice how the sensations in your body start to arise at a snail’s pace… liesurely… gently…
- Begin to notice how everything moves from simply slowing down, to greater and greater places of silence and stillness…
You can even use this with the countdown exercise I covered in the last posts… begin the countdown slowly and peacefully… and imagine that you are counting with such presence and peacefulness… that it doesn’t matter if you ever get to ’1′ or not.
What does it all come down to?
Again, willingness comes up. Are you willing to take all the time you need? Are you willing to go at a snail’s pace to make sure you really get it?
Are you willing to let go of attachment to results, and learn to love what you do?
Let’s finish with another quote:
“Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.”
-Henry Van Dyke
Love what you do…
and/or
Do what you love!
When you do… time becomes meaningless… and the peaceful state of Self Hypnosis becomes a subtle backdrop to all of life!
keep smiling,
Benjamin
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