The Myth of Falling Behind

No you are NOT falling behind. In fact there is no such thing.

It’s a myth.

A mind story

A false belief

I’ve noticed that this is a big one running in the background for a lot of people. Especially if you are focused on a task, creating something, or in a group where others are doing the same thing, like a course.

This belief that somehow you are falling behind is mostly unconscious but it’s there, non-the-less, large and looming and affects our life, our business, our wellbeing.

When this is operating in the background there is a tendency to rush, stress out, feel like you need to push or force. You might feel inept or not good enough. There might be feelings of shame that somehow you can’t keep up and are falling behind.

And all those untruths that are running in the background are damaging our quality of life. Our sense of joy, play, creativity, relaxation, peace.

Of course we have real deadlines to meet too. But that’s not the issue. What I’m shining a light on is how we may let this hidden belief of falling behind affect us.

I wonder where it started.

Perhaps it's the institutionalization within society. School and homework deadlines to meet, studying a million subjects, on someone else's made up timetable. 

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. 

Whatever the root cause of this belief around falling behind, I invite you to see it for what it is and live a more enjoyable creative  life.

Questions you might ask yourself

• Am I really behind?
• Behind in what way?
• Am I comparing?
• Can I honor my own timing and flow?
• What does that look like?
• How would I feel without this belief?

The subtleties of this energy are incredible once you start to notice, explore, and question.

• It can be there with you on your yoga mat because you missed a month of  classes.
• It can sneak in when you take well deserved time off for yourself.
• It might appear when you plan your day in a way that takes up more energy than you have. And then …. You feel you’re falling behind.

We each have our individual timing and ways of being.

The Japanese word Oubaitori explains this so beautifully. 

(n) The japanese idea that people, like flowers, bloom in their own time and in their individual ways.

We can take that sense and that perspective into our lives and let go of those old feelings of falling behind.

The Power of NOW

Yes, it’s the title of a book by Eckhart Tolle

It’s powerful just reading those words.

And another book title that says it all

BE HERE NOW by Ram Das

There is only NOW.

Even if you think about the past or future, it is happening now.

And even saying there is only now is weird to say because it’s not really about time.

The idea that we could be falling behind is kind of comical in this context. 

But these words are pointing in the direction of questioning that underlying stress, rushing, and fear of falling behind.

See it for what it is.

Nothing.

A thought, a belief, a story.

When you leave the movie theater you know the show has ended.

Let it be that way for you now and leave behind the myth of falling behind.

The End