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How the smart pilgrim deals with
impatience
When the pilgrimage
begins the distance of the daily stages is clearly set out. At first,
travelling is difficult and exhausting, in a word, an ordeal. Gradually,
however, the pilgrim adapts to the daily routine and travelling becomes
easier. At about the halfway mark, sometimes earlier, sometimes later, the
pilgrim reaches cruising speed and the energy available to her is fully used
up. However, as
she gets closer to her goal she produces an over supply of energy. More
precisely stated she has slimmed down (or concentrated more) so that she
travels faster, often begins to run, thereby reaching the end of the daily
stage earlier and earlier. However, held back by the routine of the stages
laid down at the beginning of her pilgrimage, she becomes impatient. Frustrated
at not being able to go quicker, the pilgrim begins to show the affects of
manic depression. The high speed (hence ‘high’) with which she starts her
daily journey in the morning brings her quickly to the (secondary) goal of
the day still on a high. Since she cannot go on, she sits about idling (i.e.
she is as it were ‘marking’ time or
place, thereby losing sight of her goal), thus rapidly degrading her energy
in frustration. The result is an energy low, experienced as depression,
unhappiness or disorientation. The closer she gets to her goal, the greater
will be her highs and lows. During such
periods of frustration it is important that she does not lose her nerve. She
must learn to control her rate of progress so that she does not reach her
goal prematurely. Premature arrival at the goal of a pilgrimage often ends in
disaster since the pilgrim is not yet ready and therefore cannot cope with
the overwhelming affects of arrival. The smart
pilgrim avoids the depressing end of the shortened (due to her increased
speed) travelling day by diverting her surplus energy into a secondary goal,
preferably one that is not aligned with her goal but does not obstruct it
(for instance, into R&R). In this way she can reduce her oversupply of
energy in a controlled manner and not be hyper at noon and hypo at dusk. |