Pace/Peace of Mind — Day 193

'Pace of mind' and 'peace of mind' are different by only one letter, and they are deeply related to one another. The whole practice of mindfulness involves heading towards peace of mind. The first step on that journey is sitting in your human awareness, so that you can see clearly and make conscious decisions. This month, we're looking at what it's like to be aware.

One of the qualities of being aware is the pace of things in and from that perspective. The experience of awareness itself is stillness (this gets clearer over time). This innate stillness has the effect of balancing out, which is to say, slowing down/enriching everything else. Internally, your thinking, emotions and body get more spacious as you detach, objectify and contain them. Externally, you'll start to notice more variety of pace. Since we're all stuck in fast, at first this often looks like noticing more slow (nature has a lot to offer here: clouds, animals chillin...).

The biggest opportunity cost of our bias towards fast is that we unconsciously and constantly move away from our innate peace of mind. (This can lead to the 'funny' situation of getting stressed about not doing calm right!)

PRACTICE

Be aware.

Notice your breath.

Notice yourself noticing your breath.

Pay attention to the different pace of things around you – the thoughts in your head, the people around you, what's on your screen, the clouds.

Spend a moment (collecting riches!) in something slower.