I possess countless experience of the saying, “Haste is handiwork of devil.” Engineered with significant dearth of patience, I am mostly a blunder in waiting. I am always chasing the finish line. With such impatient natural build, the existence of sloth speed is a curiosity for me.
Imagining myself to be living the patience and slowness of a sloth will be an amazing experience for me. The worry of being a fast mover is that I never am able to experience the progress and the path. Chasing everything to finish line can give us many accomplishments. However, we end up missing the journey.
When we are being in haste always, stress takes a toll on us. When everything becomes a target, we do not get the chance of enjoying anything. Haste keeps us impatient, and we get agitated easily. In such a state of mind, our decision making is weak.
There is a saying in Hindi, “sahaj pake so meetha hoye”, meaning work done slowly is more fruitful.
Sloths are embodiment of patience, mindfulness and living in the moment. In the world where “hurry” is new style, sloths teach us to allow things to settle. Allow the details to seep in and understand insights in better way.
Sloths also signify the idea of contentment. They are never in hurry to prove and win the race. They love their own speed and are comfortable in their skin. Most of us choose to run, because others around us are running. If we can have the nerves as patient as sloth, we can be more aligned with our inner selves.
Good decision making requires a thorough analysis of the situation. The thorough analysis requires us to be steady and patient in our research. Problem solving does not only mean finding the solution, but it is more of finding the steady solution.
Patience allows us to stay afloat in the middle of storm. When life pushes us in many directions, hurried reaction can lead to disasters. A thoughtful and mindful analysis can help in much better ways. It can help to struggle and survive better.
But patient is a hard nut to crack. Especially if you are naturally not built that way, you got to put a lot of hard work and perseverance to build that up. Getting a chance to directly inherit from the natural master of it, the sloth can be a great thing.
Meanwhile the perseverance to improve bit by bit on the path of patience continues.
