“A long time ago, an explorer entered the most inhospitable territories of Africa accompanied only by his bearers. Everyone had a machete to make their way through the thick vegetation. They had one goal in mind: to advance rapidly at any price.
If they encountered a river, they crossed it in the shortest possible time. If it was a hill, they would slice their pace so as not to waste even a minute. However, suddenly the porters stopped abruptly. The explorer was surprised that they had only walked a few hours. So he asked them:
- Why did you stop? Are you tired already? We only walked a few hours.
One of the bearers looked at him and said:
- No sir, we're not tired. We have simply advanced too fast and that is why we have left our souls behind. Now we have to wait until it reaches us again. "
This African tale speaks to us of the need to tune in to ourselves and be patient, not to allow the haste with which we live to separate us from our "I". It also speaks of the need to give ourselves the time necessary for our emotional wounds to heal, without compromising our rhythm.
Give yourself time to let your wounds heal
Sometimes life hits us hard, tests us with situations that exceed our resources. In these cases, a wound that is difficult to heal remains in our soul. All traumas, even the smallest or childhood trauma, leave traces in the brain. And these traces are different depending on the type of trauma we have suffered.
If instead of taking time to reflect and wait for the wound to heal, we go back to living intensely, only to forget what happened, we run the risk of separating ourselves from our essence. On a neurological level, this means that the imprint remains latent and affects our behavior, even if we are not always aware of it.
Thus, when we are injured, it is necessary to wait a prudent time to allow our psychological resources to reorganize. Situations that take us to the limit normally require an inner change and we can only emerge strengthened if we learn the lesson, to do this it is essential that we look inside ourselves, not outside.
In fact, it has been shown that for people suffering from post-traumatic stress to recover, new neurons need to grow in their brains. In theory, this neurogenesis would allow broken or malfunctioning circuits to be "repaired".
Thus, when we live a situation that has left deep emotional scars, it is advisable to stop along the way, as the bearers of the story, and wait patiently for our "soul" to reach us.
Each wound heals at its own pace, changing it will not allow us to heal faster, on the contrary, it increases the risk that the wound will reopen at the slightest setback, and in this case we will be more vulnerable. Take the time to retrieve the broken pieces and put them back in their place.
Don't let haste separate you from your "me"
There is no need to suffer an emotional wound to look within ourselves. Sometimes the disconnection is caused by the daily rush, because we are involved in projects that consume a lot of our time and we run from one commitment to another, without dedicating a minute to ourselves. Seneca said that: "Those who run in a maze are confused by their own speed."
When we are immersed in this lifestyle we let the current carry us and we run the risk of living with the autopilot always on, separating ourselves from our true desires and needs. Therefore, it is not surprising that many people who have pursued a goal with determination do not recognize themselves when they reach the end of the path. They do not realize that it is not as important to achieve that goal as it is to realize the person they have become while pursuing it.
Therefore, it is essential that you tune into yourself every day, taking a few minutes to ask yourself if you are going in the right direction, if you have understood your mistakes, if you keep in mind your needs ... This moment of connection is important because it will allow you to reconsider what you really want, so as not to let yourself be influenced by automatisms or just follow the dreams of others.
Remember we are here to discover and follow our own path. We cannot find happiness by following the path of others, so we will only get lost.
