Denormalize Haste

Haste makes waste, a timeless grandma-ism

I have come of age, because all my Grandma's sayings make sense to me now, prophesies that have bloomed into daily womanhood and motherhood reality. "Haste makes waste" matches Patanjali's timeless declaration that haste certainly impedes our development and cause us (and others) to suffer. Patanjali calls haste pramāda, and it falls into the category of sources of suffering: but it doesn’t have to. Without blaming ourselves, can we agree that we contribute to our own suffering, often, if not most of the time? It doesn’t have to be this way. New norms are the work of Yoga.

When haste becomes our norm, accidents happen. Yoga's unique perspective on hurrying holds that we have three instruments of action: kaya, vaca and manasa, body, voice and mind. Haste can be traced down to a kinetic energy, known as rajas, that fuels a certain set of behaviors. While necessary to some degree for much of our waking life, in excess at the wrong time, it’s destructive, to ourselves and those we come into contact with. Change the energy, change the behaviors.

For example, I wanted to vehemently blame someone else for falling off my own bed this week. It’s a high bed. Blinded by an annoyed state I was in, instead of just hanging my head off the bed for nasya application, I hastily flung half my body onto the bed, instead of all of it. And I readily backwards slid and tumbled off and crashed onto the floor onto my side, shoulder and hip first. Someone’s behaviors agitated me so much I temporarily forgot, just a half hour after my Yoga practice, who I was, at my calmest, clearest and most centered self. My slowed down, intentional Danielle had left the building (maybe she stayed in the car I had just started to warm up). A well known and familiar norm, getting aggravated by the irresponsible behaviors of another human, won the war, and a healthy, intact me was the casualty.

Patanjali presents haste as a potential source of suffering, and it got me. I was on schedule, but someone had slowed me down. I was steady, but someone had rocked my boat. Life, not a cut and dry, scripted chain of events, happened. My goal was to get to work early, and thwarting factors intervened. My steady post-practice state partially diminished, and then some more, and then further, until my state of mind was busted. And I allowed it all. Thwarting factors exist. I didn’t have to get entangled with them, but my cool went hot, so haste became an obstacle for me.

In a scenario where pramāda did not sabotage my peace, I would have managed available time with more ease and emotions with more awareness, remaining less disturbed. Instead of storming into my room to oil my nose hastily, I look carefully, lie on the bed, oil up and merrily go into the world with my sanity and body feeling well. State of mind determines whether obstacles that appear, such as haste, guides you or halts your goals.

Now to remember, next time someone’s rajas or tamas rains on my parade.