If you want to feel groovy in your everyday life, slow down! That’s the message from Simon & Garfunkel’s song “59th Street Bridge Song”.
Do you feel like everyday, you are in the rush, you have so much to do with so little time? Often, we feel that 24 hours are not enough. One of my coaching clients told me , she feels greedy to want to do so many things in a day , ended up nothing get done but filled with disappointments.
Do you feel like the time is not just flying but it’s even moving faster than the year before. Certainly, many of us feel this every year. Even though in 2020. the world seems to come to an unprecedented stop due to Covid pandemic, 2020 has moved too fast.. As I'm writing, Christmas is just around the corner. Chop-chop 2021 will be here! Isn’t it?
Do you also feel that in a hurry, you just want to get things done so you just ‘simply’ do it for the sake of completing it to meet deadline, requirement or make yourself feeling better? Here are personal scenarios if you could relate :
You have other important deadlines to meet for your work, but you can’t stand the dust that is accumulating in the house or workplace, so you just hastily clean the floor on the “obvious” surface that is dusty and told yourself, “this is just a temporary cleaning and I will do a thorough cleaning when I have more time”.
I was asked to reflect my learning on a course and provide feedback to the teacher. Because I just want to “ get it out of my way” I just speedily completed and submitted it. As I felt relieved with my accomplishment , I was asked to redo the entire reflection assignment . Consequently, it took more time than if I were to do it slowly from the beginning!
Only when we slow down, we could go deeper in each moment to truly see, and hear and reflect what is happening around us.
In her book “ A Year in Miracles”, Marianne Williamson wrote “ The way to gain power in this world that is moving too fast is to learn to slow down. The only way to to spread one’s influence wide is to learn to go deep. So, in order to go deep, you make sure you go slowly.
How do you slow now?
Be mindful , be at present and enjoy the moment whatever you do , wherever you are.
Simply, if you are having lunch with friends, focus on the food presented and the company you are with. Have a good conversation and be interested in their well being and not thinking what to have for dinner or where to go next for lunch, planning for future,.
Prioritisation
Focus on what’s important at the moment. Change how you see the situation, sometimes if things can wait and not urgent now, let them wait for the turn. Make a conscious choice
One at a time
I often ask my coaching clients, how do you eat an elephait?Break it into bite size,
multitasking may not be the best solution to slow down. Focus on one thing at a time.
Take a walk & Breathe
When you are feeling overwhelmed, stop whatever you are doing and take a walk & breathse Best is take a walk at the park , consciously breathing when you walk. . Not only it slow you down , your mind becomes peaceful and clear.
When things in the world continue to be troubling, we need not to join in the chaos . What are we willing to change gain our inner peace?
Slow down and be no worries like the snail.