KNOWING WHEN TO STOP
We live in a time where everything is fast and hectic, every need must be met instantaneously. From the earliest days, children are exposed to the content that changes quickly, everything can be obtained or changed at the touch of a button. Children rush from school to sports training, from training to foreign language classes, so exhausted they can’t wait for the weekend, which is filled with matches or competitions.
It seems like we adults no longer even know to do one job at a time but are constantly occupied with more things simultaneously. We are becoming less patient; we find it difficult to do something slowly and calmly. We have household appliances that wash and dry laundry, knead bread, make coffee, vacuum the apartment on their own, and yet it appears that we never have enough time for everything…
The biggest problem of today’s man is that he is never in the moment he should be… And that means that he is not living the fullness of his life, but just surviving, vegetates. We either think about what is behind us, what we have done or forgotten to do, who told us what and how, or we rush towards what is yet to come, so we anxiously worry, plan and burden ourselves in advance.
Oh, how important it is for a man to know how to stop! Can you stop, dear reader?
Why are you rushing? Where are you constantly rushing to?
In that rush you lose yourself and you lose the meaning of your life out of sight. Then it’s as if every job, even the smallest one, seems extremely important and it’s as if everything will fail if you don’t do it. If you have not yet found time for your soul today, do so now. Sit quietly in a comfortable chair or armchair. Turn off the radio or TV and remove anything that distracts you from the outside. Retreat to some quiet corner of your apartment.
Calm your body. Sit up straight, put your hands calmly in your lap, it might help you if you close your eyes… Become aware of the following: – I have my body, my hands, my legs, my eyes, my ears, my mouth, my heart, my lungs, I am all that. What a perfectly established mechanism, my heart beats without my command, my lungs work so evenly and properly, the blood circulates through every vein of my body… Listen to your breathing. Listen to your heartbeat. My body makes me visible; it is my screen in this world. Stay like that for a few minutes…
Our thoughts are constantly rushing and flying somewhere. Our brain receives such an enormous amount of information every single moment. Try to calm your thoughts now. You can decide now – I reject every negative thought, I do not accept it. I am now opting for good, honest, and healthy thoughts. Stay like that for a few minutes…
When you calm your body, your thoughts, and emotions then the spirit comes to the fore. Then, deep in silence you discover the most precious parts of yourself – I am a person, I bear my name and surname, I know what family I came from and where I belong, I have my hometown and my homeland, my profession and occupation, I am not here by chance… Someone wanted me, I was someone’s wish. My Creator knows me. I am his thought and deed. Let your soul absorb those truths…
And then all that rush disappears, all the fatigue and weight is lifted off your shoulders. And ask yourself again, is it worth chasing this world headlong? Is it worth gaining the whole world and yet losing yourself? The only place to “run” every day is in the Father’s embrace…
In the week ahead of us, I want you, to fight for that time and those precious moments of silence from which you will live…

Born in Zagreb. Married, mother of two children. By profession master of social work, employed at the Retirement Home in Zagreb. As a high school student, in 1998 she came to the Centre for Spiritual Help in Zagreb seeking help in dealing with her own existential fears. At the same time as going to hagiotherapy, she participates in seminars for new evangelization and since then she has been inextricably linked to the activities of the Community Prayer and Word and the Centre for Spiritual Help in Zagreb, where she has been a volunteer since 2000. She is currently working as a hagioassistant.