Pace Yourself or Pick Up the Pace?

When somebody says, "Pace yourself," what exactly does that mean? Is it the opposite of "Pick up the Pace" or are you saying the same thing?

In a physical sense, it could be walking the length of your stride. Or walking the ley lines of the earth and feeling its rhythms. Or being true to yourself. In The Artist's Way, Julia Cameron encourages writing morning pages, three 8 1/2" x 11" sheets of whatever is in your head, without editing. She claims writing with the hand (not typing, not taping) rights the story you tell about your experiences and life. Perhaps pacing yourself does the same.

Pick up the pace feels like an external incentive, somebody else saying to move faster, going too slow. Who determines what is too slow, anyway? For example, I am 5'3" and my husband is 6'3" so if we match our pace, one of us is either shortening or lengthening our walk to accommodate the other. So that's either an aggravation or a dance, depending on perspective.

This morning as I headed for the subway, I passed a school where the students were walking for health. There were over 100 of them, probably kindergarten to fourth grade from the size of the students. Two-by-two, they headed out into the streets of East Harlem, carrying signs saying "We walk for health," and "We eat healthy." As I passed, I heard one of the teachers say to a child, "Feel the strength of your muscles," and the child answered, "I can feel them. My muscles feel strong."

I started thinking about how fundamentally oblivious I am most of the time to how extraordinary the functioning of my body, of any body, really is. And of how poorly I take care of it in how I exercise and/or eat healthy (or don't) or listen to the pacing of and connection to my spirit (or not) in the physical realm, what many call the mind/body/spirit connection. Watching those children helped me realize that my busy life often obscures important truths and my rushing to pick up the pace damages the serenity I must seek to pace myself. Breathe and walk.