We came to Spain to slow down the march of Time, but as they say, Time stands still for no man. To the point, I attended my 2nd, non-family-related 60th birthday party this month. Long gone are the 18th, 21st, weddings, christenings and divorce parties, now its 50th and 60th and funerals. What is even worse…I am enjoying them. Pete’s 60th at Café Ayer was a great night with lots of chatting, laughing and dancing. Having fun with friends that I haven’t seen for ages, in some cases over two years!
Where does the time go? Having discussed this with friends staying at Westby’s hotel over the summer, we decided that the secret to slowing your life is to keep your life varied. Do something out of the ordinary at least once a year and maybe try radically altering your lifestyle every five years. Now I am not advocating divorce (although I have been tempted on several occasions), but shaking up your relationship and taking it to another level can’t be a bad thing. Maybe changing your job or introducing a couple of hobbies or learning a skill, sets a new challenge. People enjoy routine but it is during that time that time gets lost.
Maybe time goes faster as we get older, because we get less spontaneous and look for routine and security rather than changing things. In my life-coaching sessions, I regularly push my clients to look for the next stage, that bit extra that makes life special. Set goals to aim for and achieve. Good health is just a temporary gift to be enjoyed to the full, but we have the mindset that we will be physically and mentally fit forever. Make the most of life today.
In American baseball the batsmen at the highest level are taught to focus on the ball. Pretty obvious you might think, or it’s going to hurt. However they think about the every detail of the bowler, the ball, its flight and the way it dips and curves in the air. They concentrate on nothing else. They visualize the ball presenting itself perfectly for them to hit it for a home run. Even more impressive, when you consider that the ball is travelling at 160km/hour. In fact, it takes them longer to swing the bat than it takes the ball to travel the 18.3m – in as little time as half a second from the pitchers hand to the bat. Now that’s impressive!
This is achieved by heightening just his visual sense. Can you imagine how we could slow life down if we tuned all our senses to such a degree? How much we could achieve? How much time we would have to do things and how you could enhance your enjoyment of life? Are we really aware enough of the smell of the sea or the sound of the waves, the colours of the flowers and the warmth of the winter sun on our face?
However, once you have tuned up your senses and taken a look at your environment you may well notice Life’s less welcome gifts. Maybe the sound of your husband snoring, the site of yourself first thing in the morning, how bad the dog smells, the extra role of fat around your husband’s waist when you give him a hug or how bland your cooking actually tastes. These negatives aside, Life will be fuller, richer and certainly a lot slower…so enjoy.
For women this obviously means making a long list of jobs that need to be done around the house for their partners to get on with. And for a man this means important appointments in the bar avoiding the list waiting at home.