Flow With Slow

My dad always used to say, “slow down” to me. He probably said that more than any other thing, except for “I love you, Stevey-boy”. I never really took any notice and carried on zooming at the speed of light all the way till now and have no intention of ever doing otherwise. I love it. However what I’ve learned to do, and which enables me to achieve a prodigious amount every day, as well as enjoy my life to the full, is to slow me down internally. This comes from the yin-yang tai chi theory. If you want to push someone up in the air, push them down first, then they’ll rebel and all but jump once you push them upwards. So to slow yourself down, speed yourself up first.

See yourself running in your head as fast as you can, like a maniacal long-distance sprinter. Then slow it down as if slowing down a film.

See yourself smash through the victory barrier in slow-motion.

Then take three slow-ish breaths and carry on as you were (but slower).

To continue in this vein and take it to the next level, see yourself now, standing at the foot of your favorite mountain. If you don’t have a favorite mountain, invent one.

Main thing is it needs to be very high, its peak way up above the tree-line.

Now see yourself running at it like a crazy person. Speed yourself up beyond plausible levels and start running up that mountain. Keep running, faster and faster until you can actually feel it in your upper chest as adrenalin. Now suddenly as if without warning even to yourself, slow the movie right down, so you’re still running up that mountain to the peak faster than a speeding bullet, yet the whole thing has slowed right down.

Now it’s more like the bionic woman or man.

Feel the adrenalin settle and spread and transform into a deeper, softer yet more potent energy altogether.

Take three properly slow breaths, not just slow-ish ones and carry on as you were except in slo-mo.

Next, I know you’re busy so won’t take up much of your time. In fact this is so simple you can do it with your eyes closed.

So (after reading this), close your eyes for one nanosecond and see yourself spinning like a spinning top at the speed of light. As you do, see the whole universe speeding at the speed of light around you.

Now allow the universe to do that (you couldn’t stop it anyway), yet decelerate your own spin until you’re turning only very slowly, then not even turning at all.

Glimpse yourself perfectly still in the midst of the spin, open your eyes and return to the everyday state.

Within moments you’ll feel a profound sense of presence within and around you and everything will settle into a more manageable pace.

Here's another, tai chi is best done very, very slowly, in order to appreciate the movement of chi through the channels and for your mind to grasp the wonder of the Tao as you turn your body this way or that. However I never managed to slow it down that much until I stumbled across the fast form, while living in New Mexico. Once I’d learned its ridiculously rapid moves, I noticed my normal tai chi slowed right down of itself. It’s that yin-yang effect.

Picture this.

You’re standing in a low horse stance, feet quite a distance apart, knees bent deeply, your thighs feeling the strain but loving it, your whole body slightly trembling from it and it’s making you feel fully alive. Now see yourself throwing punches into the air in front of you, so rapidly you can hardly see your fists shooting to and fro in front of you, so fast it’s a blur.

Now slow the movie down enough to see that at a slower tempo huge streams of chi are visible coming off your fists as they project into the air in front of you.

In real time the action is supersonic, yet you’ve managed to slow the movie down enough to be able to appreciate the huge personal power you’re radiating.

It’s a metaphor but the visualizing actually changes your energy flow, which in turn changes the way you’re thinking, which in turn changes the way you act, and all within about ten minutes from now.

Next, picture yourself swimming way out in the middle of the ocean, hundreds, even thousands of miles away from the nearest shore.

The waves are choppy, the swell is strong, you’re not sure how you got here but you’re totally sure you have to swim as fast and hard as you can to get to shore as rapidly as possible.

See yourself swimming like a dolphin on amphetamine, swimming so fast through the ocean swell you become a blur.

Now zoom right out, so you can see the shore way off in the distance and you down below swimming rapidly and suddenly slow the movie down.

Then with the action now all in slo-mo, see yourself nonetheless reach the shore in a quarter of the time – see it in slow-mo and see yourself arrive on dry land almost instantaneously now.

Then return to the dry land of the everyday world as well and carry on as you were, except a tad more slowly.

When I have a lot to write I always notice a tendency in my belly to want to rush. But I’ve learned through observation over the years that I invariably accomplish many more miles of text when I approach the keyboard slowly and allow myself to cherish the physical experience. Then the result seems to take care of itself. Love what you’re doing, and you do it miraculously much better.

But you can’t love what you’re doing if you’re rushing through it so fast you don’t notice you’re doing it.

Hence, again based on that old yin-yang mechanism mentioned in the previous methods above, see yourself with all your upcoming tasks, responsibilities, duties, proposed/desired pleasure/leisure activities spread out in a line in front of you.

Now see yourself rush at them like a person possessed and frenetically, frantically do each thing at super-speed. Then all of a sudden, slow the movie right down and notice that in slow motion, your actions have the greatest subtlety, grace and elegance and magic is streaming from your fingertips making everything you touch sort itself out and turn to gold before your very eyes.

See yourself at the other side looking happier with yourself than you’ve ever looked and return to the everyday state, ready to flow with the slow of the day and like be congruent with the Way.

Next, on slowing down in the midst of the burgeoning rush, again this is so easy you could do it with eyes closed, which I do in fact strongly suggest, once you’ve read this instruction.

Visualize yourself standing in the desert. It’s a huge flat place a bit like the Atacama desert in Peru. Everywhere is barren and bleak but way, way up ahead of you is a sparkling city of gold, shining tauntingly in the distance.

This city represents everything you want to manifest and make happen in your life. It symbolizes the reward for all your hard work so far.

See yourself running at it, each step strangely carrying you many meters at a time. See yourself accelerate to such an implausible speed you become nothing but a blur.

Now zoom out and from high in the sky, slow the whole movie down. Then drop back into yourself running along, feel the thrill in your body and notice that the more the movie has been slowed down, the farther each step is taking you, until you all but arrive in the golden city instantaneously.

Spend a moment or two luxuriating in the glow of fulfilling your potential and return to the everyday state, ready and raring to get on with the day, flowing with the slow.

The few occasions in my life I’ve been called upon to use my martial arts, mostly to break up fights between others, I’ve noticed a curious effect. On entering and engaging, everything spontaneously slows down. The action is exactly as it would be but the movie has been taken down to a slow pace. This affords you time to make your moves, which though to the naked eye would be as fast as required to neutralize the opponent’s attack, to you are all happening as slowly as if you were learning them in class.

Then as soon as you disengage, the effect stops and time continues in its normal way.

The same thing happens in all extreme situations. The subconscious alters its perception of time’s passage, yet the body performs the requisite moves as fast as necessary.

That’s what we’re doing here using these time-stretch techniques.

Doing so you’ll be able to accomplish far more today using far less effort.

See all the things you have to get done placed all around you in a circle.

Now see yourself spinning like a whirling dervish and see the circle of tasks spinning with you.

Now keep the circle spinning but suddenly see yourself stop totally still in the middle of it.

Keep seeing yourself standing perfectly still with the circle spinning rapidly around you and as you do, notice that each of the tasks is completing itself, as if by magic.

As each task completes itself, see it drop off the circle until there’s no circle left and just you standing still.

Use this technique properly and you have the keys to miracles in your hands, dearest Member.

May it serve you well and you wring a multitude of miracles today and tonight.