Go slow to go fast
While helping my niece with her math problems, I noticed a pattern where she made more mistakes when she hurried to solve the problems. She argued that she wouldn’t be able to complete her exam and hence would lose marks. She failed to see that in her hurry to solve problems, she was making mistakes, redoing things again, and losing more time and marks. Chasing time is a vicious loop. More time is lost when we are not paying attention and doing things in a hurry. Slowing down and paying attention makes things move faster in the right direction.
“Slowing down is sometimes the best way to speed up.” – Mike Vance, Motivational speaker
Phantom limb
We are more effective in helping someone when we start by getting into their reality rather than expecting them to get out of theirs. Phantom Limb Syndrome is when amputated patients experience sensations, whether painful or otherwise, in a limb that does not exist. It typically has a chronic course and is often resistant to treatment. Dr. V.S. Ramachandran, an eminent neuroscientist, attempted an unconventional treatment modality where he used a mirror box for such patients to get a visual impression that their phantom limb was moving by making them move their good limb in front of the mirror box and it eventually relieved the patient of their pain. He did not try convincing the patient of their reality instead worked along with the reality of what the patient experienced.
“Empathy begins with understanding life from another person’s perspective. Nobody has an objective experience of reality. It’s all through our own individual prisms.” – Sterling K. Brown, Actor
Learning fearlessness
Fearlessness helps in faster learning. I witnessed a 3-year-old jump into the swimming pool straight into the arms of the coach. It was evident that the kid loved swimming. His mother added that he does not know how to swim yet he is fearless, and hence he will learn fast. As children, fearlessness aided in our fast learning. However, as we grow up, our learning slows down. We adapt our fears to new situations by using our big gifts of memory and imagination. We hesitate, slow down, and allow the well-rehearsed fight, flight, and freeze responses to take over. The only way to be fearless is to stop ignoring fear and confront it with our awareness. What we rehearse over time gets strengthened in our subconsciousness
“Nobody can give you fearlessness. Even if the Buddha were sitting right here next to you, he couldn’t give it to you. You have to practice it and realize it yourself.” – Thich Nhat Hanh, Spiritual leader