Musings | Slowing Down
“The great benefit of slowing down is reclaiming the time and tranquility to make meaningful connections with people, with culture, with nature, and with our own bodies and minds.”
In his Ted Talk, In Praise of Slow, Carl Honoré notes that often the world appears stuck in fast forward. On more than one occasion, you can likely recall a reference to someone needing or experiencing a wake-up call to alert them to the fact that they may be hurrying through life instead of enjoying it. I suppose it is safe to say that our collective wake-up call has arrived, courtesy of Covid-19. Helpful? Perhaps. Needed? Probably. However, instead of a gradual deceleration and a choice, we experienced a very abrupt and unintended stop. A stop so sudden it produced whiplash – our world stopped, but our minds continued in fast forward. Now, as our minds are catching up to our reality, we find ourselves in a world that not only looks quite different than the one we are accustomed to, but also a world whose pace has been dialed way, way, way back. The change in speed is both good for us and possibly stress-inducing. For perspective on both, see the notes below.
“You Cannot Hustle if You Are Dead” (Andrew Thomas, Inc.com)
Fair enough. This would be hard to do. While perhaps overstated, the point is clear. To build the life we want and to progress toward accomplishments personally and professionally, we need to be able to take life in and then do what we need to do. Slowing down is the antidote to hustling or living in fast forward. When we take a slower approach, we can better engage with the people around us, take care of ourselves and get clear on what is essential. When we slow down, we, among other things, turn off our phones, we take in the moment, we savour our food, and we pause. We take the time to think and absorb what is going on around us before we react. When we slow down, we breathe. When we are moving at high speed and hustling our way through our days, we limit our ability to build the life we want and lose our ability to listen to what we need. When we slow down at the right moments, we do everything better. Slowing down is very good for us. The challenge is, we have unlearned how to be slow, and the stop sign sat at for the last year came out of nowhere, forcing us from 100km/h to 0km/h in almost no time at all.
“Slowing Down is Hard Because We Have Unlearned How to Unplug and Sit Still” (Laila Zouaki, Medium.com)
“Our culture implies that doing things at a more relaxed or slower pace is synonymous with being lazy, with being a slacker or simply giving up” (Carl Honoré). The implication being that if we slow down, we will be less successful, that we are less driven. Speed is fun; we think it makes us look good. Everyone is moving fast; we should move fast too, lest we get left behind. It is hard to buck cultural trends, plus when we slow down, we are (gulp) face to face with ourselves, and we may feel unsure of our next move. Moving at high speed provides us with a way to avoid confronting ourselves with more meaningful and profound questions. If we constantly focus on the next thing on our to-do list or the newest social media post, we do not have to ask ourselves how we are doing or deal with the fact that we may be struggling. The sudden slowdown upon us and the resulting time with ourselves (or others) can be disturbing or disorienting. When we slow down, or for many, now that we have, we may find ourselves with extra quiet time with little to do, leaving us feeling puzzled, bewildered, frightened, and maybe a bit anxious. This is normal; we have unlearned how to be still, unplug, and be quiet as a society. Slowing down is more challenging than going fast, but often the things we must work at the most turn out to be the best thing for us in the long run.
Opportunity Knocks . . . Slowly
If the slower pace of your life is causing you angst, take solace in the fact that you are not alone. Slowing down is both hard for all of us and good for all of us. An article at Inc.com notes that when we slow down, we gain greater clarity in our direction, take the time to care for ourselves, become more aware of and better at managing our emotions, and make better decisions.
Indeed, there are moments when speed is necessary - at times, we have all safely driven above the speed limit. However, if we learn to delineate the moments we need speed from the moments where we need to be slow, we can learn to embrace slow and reteach ourselves about the power of unplugging and being still. This lesson will not only serve us well in the short term but will support our sustained success and well-being for years to come.