Part 2

The following five lessons contain special insights into the invisible pressure-filled states that cause human beings to run themselves ragged. The more clearly we can see that it’s impossible to reach a place of rest by rushing to get there, the sooner we’ll arrive at the true solutions that allow us to relax, slow down, and realize the relaxed pace of an inwardly liberated life. Study each of these lessons separately, but see them as telling one story whose happy ending goes something like this: You not only find the courage you need to step out of the rush, but you also awaken to a whole new order of yourself that gets everything done without you doing yourself in!

1. Anyone who rushes through life always finishes last! This is a truth unseen by the masses, but evident to those weary of going nowhere fast. You race as you do to escape the unhappiness you feel being where you are, running towards what you imagine will free you from that dissatisfaction. But such races are always lost before they begin because you can’t outrun yourself!
2. Patience is a great virtue whose cost is paid by becoming painfully conscious of what our impatience does to others.
3. Allowing the rushed state of another person to push you into an anxious state of mind is like letting the horse you’re about to ride convince you to wear the saddle!
4. Rushing through life lends the one who habitually hurries the feeling of being “important,” but loans such as these come at the high cost of always having to justify one’s unkindness — like when we have to convince ourselves that our impatience with others is a necessary evil along the way to that “greater good” towards which we think we run.
5. The most important thing to remember whenever you find yourself in a mad rush is that what you are really trying to get to is a quiet mind… a peaceable state of self reached only by realizing there is no place more empowering for you to be than in the present moment.