Once, before we were in this pandemic context, I rushed into a pharmacy. I couldn’t find the item I needed and I was agitated because I had a scheduled appointment. Suddenly I hear a kind voice asking, “Can I help?” and more than a pleasant vocal record, I came across a pair of extremely expressive eyes, which had the same kind speech and conveyed the sincere desire to help in whatever was needed. In 2 minutes, I had the product in my hands.
The same attendant went to the cashier to speed up payments and avoid queues. Coincidentally, he ended up helping me once more and commented: “I realized you were in a hurry, I hope I could help”.
I smiled, thanked him and the next moment I was on my way to my appointment. The feeling of being in a hurry was gone, but the look from minutes before stuck with me. It’s because? Because I didn’t realize myself in the situation or what I was transmitting around me (for me it was a “normal” agitation, but for the surroundings it was a super rush! lol).
It took an external and kind look to sink in and, at the same time, make one think: “Living in this state of hurry or urgency, leads me to what? It only connects me to an automatic reality and doesn’t allow me to see myself, since the focus is external, always running to achieve… And in the end, achieving what exactly?
And if I don’t see myself or don’t understand myself, how can I perceive the other? How do I connect with myself, so I can connect with others?”. The questions were “hammering” for a while, without ready answers, until the rush with great boldness and without knocking on the door, entered and took over the space again, leading to the “famous” automatic mode.
Months later, the questions came back and in a very intense way! and who brought them was not a kind look, it was an extremely delicate context. The space is the same from morning to night. Time is the same, but the rush continues! And where does she come from?
From a pattern, habit, “old” way, which now no longer serves. Before our eyes, the day that passes in an instant, “forces” us to look at ourselves, all the time, and perceive the presence of anxiety, frustration, anger, sadness, melancholy, which were dressed in hurry in other “carnivals” and took us to automatic mode.
But we also have the opportunity to realize or awaken to our excellent and hitherto dormant side. We discover how obstinate, resilient, creative, good people, fun we are and learn to celebrate with passion, each everyday achievement, each intuitive reinvention, which previously went unnoticed.
The pandemic situation took us out of automatic mode and put us in “inside the box, in front of the mirror” mode, so that we can see ourselves, perceive ourselves, welcome ourselves, heal ourselves, so that it is more fluid, but sincere and more take the encounter and perception with the other.
It is not easy to change a habit, an attitude, a posture, a thought, which is often present for so many years, but it is possible. With days of great goodwill and welcome, with other days of anger and demand, we are going on this non-linear path in the quest to alleviate situations and understand more others. I invite you to look at yourself with great affection and self-compassion and, with that, take the first step towards becoming the best version of yourself. Bóra?