The value of slowing down.
Who would consider there to be a value in slowing down?
We are daily tasked with doing more and more, be it in schools, universities, work, projects and the list goes on. When it comes to me, I often also eat and drink very fast, it's as if I am in a constant haste. We are always taught and reiterated that we have to move fast, things don't wait for you and the early bird catches the worm. Yes, while this may be true for some things, it is also the opposite and counterproductive and self-destroying when it comes to other things.
If I constantly speed inside myself, racing through and with my thoughts, emotions and feelings - I will soon find that I burn out rather quickly. Small things become huge issues blown out of proportion inside my mind.
Self-cultivation, self-growth and self-creation take time. I have to slow down, move at a pace inside and outside that produces visible change and I have to test things out to determine my pace in these things. Then I fine-tune until I see visible changes from the applications I am deploying and living in myself and in my life.
Fruit grows, some faster, some slower - they take time - they naturally grow at a pace determined by a whole set of complex algorithms, rules, regulations and principles that mother nature herself knows based on what is best. Sure, we can inject artificial stuff into the growth process and manipulate the rate and pace of growth but then that is not the natural pace and movement that is established by asking and living what is best for both the fruit, nature, animals and the rest of the intricate and complex system that is part of the fruit's growth.
Next time you are stressed, anxious, frightened, overwhelmed - observe yourself: What tends to happen usually? We end up hasting and moving even faster inside ourselves because those very emotional states are speedy in nature as well, our thoughts rush.
Flag that pattern inside you where you exist in an emotional or feeling state where you rush inside yourself or in what you do and then deliberately make a choice to stop and take a slow breath in and out and from there deliberately slow yourself down inside yourself. It will require initial effort and you will need to push yourself to continue to slow down, you are after all challenging a pattern and program inside yourself that has developed maybe for several years throughout your life. The fascinating thing is that even if our daily lives and tasks require us to speed and rush and move fast, we still maintain a separate ability to slow down the space of our internal experiences and movements. We focus on breathing. Breathing is actually a really cool multifunctional tool right at our disposal and always was. We can use it to slow down internally by being more aware of the pace of our in- and out-breaths.
Take the next step and explore the words 'slowing down' within you and your day-to-day life.
Slowing down is a wonderful gem to be more productive in everything we do. Sounds contradictory, but investigate it and live it in yourself and in your life and figure it out first hand. After all, you won't know how that apple tastes if you only theorize about it and never actually take a bite and taste it.
Thank you and Steem-On :)