Break Up with Busy: Reclaim Your Time
Slowing down in a fast-moving world opens space for presence, grace, and soul nourishment. Explore how to reclaim time and embrace what truly matters.
The relentless pace of modern life often feels overwhelming, yet learning to slow down opens the door to presence, grace, and what truly matters.
This is the final message in the series It's About Time: Reclaiming Sanity, Serenity, And Spirit in a Fast-Moving World. This series has been my opportunity to think about time.
The Endless Chase for Time
It feels like time is speeding up, that there is less of it in a day, along with more to do and greater pressure to accomplish more. As I talked with others about this, I found I'm not alone. There is a shared experience of time accelerating, a sense of overwhelm, too much to do, and not enough time for what is truly important.
It seems we could have more time if we learned to be more efficient, disciplined, focused, or committed. We look for ways to find and have more time. It's an old story.
"What will I do with the time I have?"
—Oliver Burkeman
The Fable of the Tortoise: A Lesson on Time
One day, all the animals called a meeting to figure out how to deal with humans. One by one, they came forward with their complaints that humans stole from them. Cow spoke first and said they take my milk. Next, Sheep said, they take my milk and my wool. Snake declared they take my skin. Elephant noted they take my tusks. Goose said they take our feathers. On it went until Old Tortoise slowly stepped into the center of the circle. He said humans most want what I have, and they cannot get it. The other animals asked what is that? He replied, time. They want more time.
Shifting Focus: Quality Over Quantity
How do we get more time? Here is the most powerful answer I know to that question: We don't.
How can I get more time? That's a question that sets us up for frustration and burnout. It is not the best question we can ask. That one is: What will I do with the time I have?
The Cost of Distraction
Author Oliver Burkeman, in his book 4000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, writes:
This strange moment in history, when time feels so unmoored, might in fact provide the ideal opportunity to reconsider our relationship with it…Productivity is a trap. Becoming more efficient just makes you more rushed, and trying to clear the decks simply makes them fill up again faster… The day will never arrive when you have finally everything under control—when the flood of emails has been contained; when your to-do lists have stopped getting longer; when you're meeting all your obligations at work and in your home life…and when the fully optimized person you've become can turn, at long last, to the things life is really supposed to be about. Let's start by admitting defeat: none of this is ever going to happen. But you know what? That's excellent news.
He skillfully addresses our challenges with time and how not a small part of that comes from the social conditions we are dealing with. He writes: None of us can single-handedly overthrow a society dedicated to limitless productivity, distraction, and speed. But right here, right now, you can stop buying into the delusion that any of that is ever going to bring satisfaction.
Breaking the Treadmill of Busyness: A Call to Reflect on What Really Matters
To get off the treadmill, we must recognize that we are on it; to break up with being busy we must understand the futility of it.
The first helpful observation is acknowledging that time—our number of days on this earth—is limited. An honest look at time can free us from seeing life as a series of tasks to be done that, once accomplished, will allow us to do what is most important.
Remember Mary Oliver's poignant poem, The Summer Day, where she invites us all to stop and ask? Here's a portion of it.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
That's fine for a famous poet! She has time to lie down the in grass. But, me—let's be realistic!
We are stunned by the last line, but the earlier one has set us up. What else should I have done? What else in your life would you do? What can we do?
Break Up with Busy
Feeling overwhelmed? Discover Kriya Yoga's teachings on breaking up with busyness and reclaiming your peace.
The Power of Attention
Pay attention.
Pay attention to what is life-giving and soul-nourishing. Do whatever we do in that way. Work in that way, relax in that way.
The Invitation of Grace
Notice how Life supports us when we are open to it, believe it will, invite it, and make space for it.
Stay curious about life, the soul, your mind, and your place in the universe. Notice how life is responsive to your thoughts and beliefs. Notice how mysterious and healing appearances of grace continuously invite us to pay attention and be present in the embrace of divine Love. Invite us to live fully now. God has already given us everything. The kingdom is here. Pay attention.
I want to tell a story about how an elephant appeared in my neighborhood yesterday. But first, a teaching from my guru, Roy Eugene Davis (from his book Absolute Knowledge):
Behind the outer appearances of the physical realm are invisible forces that regulate the processes of life. Learn to be aware of them. Invite them to be supportive of you and they will be supportive in accord with your receptivity to your highest good. Know and feel that you are fulfilled. [Now, not later, not when this or that is done] Thoughts and feelings of unworthiness tend to attract corresponding events. As an immortal, spiritual being, choose to be spiritually conscious, happy, healthy, and successful in all of your meaningful endeavors.
When thoughts and feelings of being too busy occupy our mind and heart, we attract more of the same. No matter where we are or what we are doing, we are never too busy to pray, think about God, or simply pay attention. Whenever we do, we break up with busy.
The Elephant in the Room: A Symbol of Awareness
Yesterday morning, I read a story about a wildlife conservation project that brought 100 elephants to reside on the streets of New York for 6 weeks. The elephants are life-sized sculptures modeled from actual living herds in the Nilgiri hills in South India. Indigenous people from the area make them out of the Lantana camara shrub, the second most invasive species in the world, which has taken over 40% of the forests in India and is toxic to both humans and elephants.
Invasive and toxic, it was taking over. Like busy takes over our lives. But inspiration turned it into sculptural masterpieces that generate positivity, hope, and funds for conservation.
After I read the article, I took our dog Nimisha out for her morning walk. I was still thinking about the article, the elephants, the conservation work, and how amazing it would be to see those sculptures when I came to the end of the block and prepared to cross the street. Then this happened. Nimisha and I had to stop and wait for an elephant to go by. Not a living elephant walking down a street in Santa Cruz, but a life-sized sculpture of one. This one, oddly enough, was a tandem bike with two riders encased within the outline of a life-sized elephant. I can't explain it. It was probably on its way to the holiday parade downtown. But still.
I can't explain the beauty and mystery of this life, but I can pay attention. We can all pay attention. It only takes a moment and the willingness to notice some grace-filled meetings.
If you ever hear yourself say, I am too busy, take a moment and ask: What else would you have me do?
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