One thing I have come to realize  is that behind all that rushing is fear.  Not an obvious fear, but fear, nonetheless.  We  become driven by the myth that there is some destination point, some arrival point that we must hurry up and get to. We  rush through our lives because we are afraid that we may ‘miss out’, ‘arrive too late’, or not get to that magical destination point.  Having rushed all my life, I can tell you there is no such thing as a destination point.  We never ‘arrive’; there will always be a further destination point that our mind will trick us into believing exists just up ahead.  At some point we begin to realize that it’s all about the process, the present process, and that the  journey is never-ending.

In reality, our very rushing causes us to miss out on the essences that we most want in life.  Life is a feeling experience, and we can only feel in the now moment.  The feeling experiences that we want out of life can only be experienced in the present.  Yet somehow, our mind has tricked us into believing it’s all ‘up ahead’.  We get so focused on that future destination point that we miss completely the life that is happening in front of our eyes.  If we stop for a moment, we may see that at least some of what we most want is already here, hiding in some small corner of the present moment, waiting for us to water it with our attention so that it can grow bigger.

It’s not easy to take your foot off fourth gear if you’re a rush-aholic. You have to re-configure your priorities.  What really are you here to achieve?  What’s the fear that’s driving you? It takes a lot of  soul-searching, clarity and discipline to give up all that hurrying toward future-based fantasies and that mythical, magical arrival point.  Whatever causes you to stop rushing, be grateful for it. Sometimes, your worn out, exhausted body may be the one to put on the brakes.  You’re forced to stop. You can no longer rush. You’ll find yourself  in a strange environment; you’ll even experience culture shock.  Such is what it is like for a rush-aholic to finally arrive in the present.

The present moment–aahh, could this be the arrival point you were always seeking?  As you move toward becoming a recovering rush-aholic, you’ll find the future will begin to drop away. Don’t be alarmed… no, you are not dying.  There is something up ahead, but you no longer try to live there.  You can take your time.  You understand that you can feel only in the present, so what’s the rush?

We have a deep-rooted belief that if we let go of judgment, society will fall apart. But just what are we holding together?  Perhaps the fabric of society that our judgments hold together is the most toxic part of a society. What would happen if we loosened the grip of judgment in our lives? What might a society look like if over half the judgments we indulge in were scrapped away?

For starters, we’d be giving ourselves and each other a lot more freedom and a lot more space. We’d stop butting into everyone’s lives. We’d stop judging other people’s life styles, their affairs, their actions, their choices. We’d learn the difference between being interested in what others are doing, and judging what others are doing. We’d learn the difference between laws that are truly necessary in a society, and fear-based judgments disguised as laws, that in fact inhibit the evolution of a society and shackle parts of the human experience. Many of our fears masquerading as laws turn into a crime what we find discomforting–or else what we find profitable, such as the criminalization of  drugs.

The freedom and space we give to others to live their lives as they wish equates equally to the freedom and space we give to ourselves to live our lives as we choose. With less judgment and the peering eyes of those around us, we’d experience a human journey that contains more ease, more alignment with our evolutionary purpose, more authenticity, and we’d have greater energy available to focus and direct toward useful and satisfying life experiments.  We’d understand that the human journey is just that:  a journey, always in process and always an experiment, and for the most part, completely beyond human judgment.

Why is this so? Spirit guide Spotted Eagle points out that we are all ancient spiritual energies. This ancient energy that is you and I is individuated and differentiated. It has been personally “us” for a long time, and we each are unique according to the different dimensions we have chosen to experience with our spiritual energy. Since we know that energy is neither created nor destroyed, it is an understatement to say our journeys have been long. We have been journeying and experimenting and evolving our energy for billions of years and beyond. Our human lifetime is a small, quick flicker in the total scheme of who we are. We do not know what any soul or spiritual energy may be working on in this particular lifetime, so it is hubris for us to attempt to judge any human life. Instead of judging, it is more accurate to understand that everyone, without exception, is on a sacred  journey of evolution.

When we begin to understand that there is a much bigger picture at work, we can more easily extend to each human being who has chosen to experience this quite difficult earth plane, a large amount of respect and honor. We can give them a wide berth to journey as they are called, knowing that no matter what their circumstances, or how they appear, there is more going on than meets the human eye. When we look at others, we can know that they are incredibly powerful to choose and change and evolve their journey at every moment. (For an insightful blog on extending compassion to others instead of judgment or pity, visit channel Jennie Marlow’s blog on Compassion).

Judging is a peculiarly human thing to do–it does not exist in any other dimension. We will drop our judgments the minute we drop our physical body. But while we are here, we can learn from our judgments and keep them under supervision.  Judgment unsupervised entangles our spirit and leaves us living lives trapped by the conditioning of society. Examining our own judgments will give us clues as to what that conditioning is, how it works, and the assumptions upon which we and our society run. Which assumptions are we ready to change?  How do we wish to evolve ourselves and our society? When we drop our end of the judgment rope, we are learning to be responsible with our energy, and we free ourselves to move in creative and productive directions that truly enhance our lives and bring us joy.