Saving Time Versus Save Money
Last week I was doing my weekly grocery shopping. I was rushing around the produce aisles when I noticed a man with his young daughter (4?) and she was pushing one of those small carts made for children.
What struck me about this man is he was the antithesis to my “get it in the cart and get it done” attitude. He was taking time – no enjoying time with his daughter as he said calmly, “OK, now we need broccoli. Can you find the broccoli?” The little girl proudly stopped her cart in front of the vegetable and said, “Here it is, Daddy.” “Good job. That’s perfect. Now we need to find the corn…” and so on they went. Needless to say, I was a little jealous of his ability to truly find meaning and purpose in the normally tedious (for me anyway) task of getting the groceries. And I was superbly impressed with his ability to teach his daughter about grocery shopping in a way that was fun for her and made her feel like she was an important contribution to the family food gathering process.
How often do we rush our lives away so that we can have more time for something more enjoyable? Or is it that we rush just to be done with the task that we have deemed to be unenjoyable? Observing this man with his child made me slow down and think about how I was feeling about what I was doing. And guess what? I wasn’t feeling great. So I smiled and decided to make this shopping trip on my own a pleasant, wonderful experience. And I did. And it took no more time than my usual rushed self. The only difference was the way I felt about the whole experience.
It has been my experience that rushing does not, in fact, create more time, but it does tend to create more mistakes – mistakes which take a whole lot more time to correct (like an extra trip to the grocery store because you forgot you were out of ketchup.) Rushing also does not create more joy. Normally, it creates a feeling of frustration and stress that is so very detrimental to one’s well-being and to the well-being of those around you.
So this month take time to chill, relax, take it easy, veg. And when you’re working, take time to enjoy, savor, smile, and take pride in the wonderful, purposeful job that you are doing. As you slow down, so does everything around you, even the workload. Give it a try – I dare you!!!
PS – If you’re having trouble slowing down, then take a bath with my new Yemanya bath salts. Each bag contains a meditation visualization to follow that will pull you right into the present moment and seemingly make time stand still. Yes, a shameless plug! I just decided to take time to do that. LOL ?
Happy Summer everyone. Don’t rush it away.
