Slowing down seems wrong
Slowing down somehow seems wrong. Well, doesn’t it? Doing less seems even more subversive. Folk wisdom tells us that haste makes waste. So what do we do? We try to cram every moment with activity, because we see time as a commodity to be used up. I am guilty of cramming.
What is time? Saint Augustine said that he knew what time was, so long as no one asked him. What a wag!
I’ve been asked to write a piece for another blog on, “How to Slow Down.” Now this piece is supposed to be practical: never my strong suit. If you would like to chime in with your suggestions, please do.
If you’re like me, you try to do just one more task before leaving for an appointment. I call this time greed. So my first tip, is going to be leave early.
Praxis
It’s one thing for me to spout this piece of advice, but quite another to put it into action. Politeness is a casualty of speed. I think consideration and politeness are worthy virtues. It’s hard to be patient and considerate of others when you are worried about what other people are going to think of your showing up late.
Not everyone worries about showing up late. I used to work for a large healthcare company and managed, by some fluke, to get a promotion. The fellow who took my job started out doing a fair days work. But after a while he came in later and later, and left earlier and earlier. His excuses became harder to believe. In the end, he was calling to say that he couldn’t come in that day because he couldn’t find his keys, or his shoelaces were tied together. Well something like that.
The Black Swan
But most of us do worry about being late. When we rush, all sorts of bad things happen. We have no “wiggle room,” as a friend of mine is wont to say. We need to think about the Black Swan. The Black Swan is the title of a new book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable). Black swans are unlikely events that you just never thought about. OK, an earthquake is a good reason for showing up late. But there are a myriad of smaller contingencies.
A chance to slow down
Leaving early is likely to allow us to slow down. We could even commit a few acts of random kindness. How about not trying to run pedestrians down in the crosswalk? How about stopping and letting other motorists go first. How about just considering that the red light means stop? How about enjoying the ride?
How about The Smoker
I’ve always envied smokers’ regular smoke breaks; back when I used to smoke I enjoyed the sheer lift-me-out break in the daily routine it provided. Sure it might be to have a yack with the other smokers (smokers are always better informed), but it also forces you to take stock and look around you. It’s a little drug-addled meditation. Now since smokers have rights, so should the non-smokers: I suggest nipping out every hour or so and just standing outside or walking around the building or just giving yourself 5-10 minutes of me-time. Look-around-time.
Or, for the non-druggist: The Meditator.
Nothing slows down your feeling and perception of time like regular meditation. Especially after doing a meditation retreat: two days can seem like calm, unhurried eternities. It also makes you a lot more gentle and mindful. When driving back into town you can pinpoint the exact moment the feeling of rush and hurry and traffic and restless bollocks takes over again (if you let it). I guess being Slow is mostly about controlling your time, and if your weekends feel too rushed, try the above. Or negotiating a 4 day week, or a four day weekend, or…
rino
Rino (Informed loitering),
Thank you. The non-smoking/fresh air/outside slow break is inspired!
I am with you on the meditation. My wife has been doing it every day for three decades. But I am still in the it’s a good idea phase. Slow may be meditation of sorts. I know what it’s like to be still and observe. It may be less about controlling days and more about being present. I like the break idea very much because maybe we can’t always be still and present. Or can we?
At one time I thought being a priest was a good job, but later I learned that they don’t get six days a week off. You live and learn.
Yours in slowness
I think an amazing way to slow down is to bake bread from scratch. I am fairly new at it, but on the days I do it, I have to slow my day down to take in this one major activity.
As you know the bread does most of the preparing itself, you just set it up. But while the dough is rising it is time to sit, have tea and do a few things. Then focus on the bread, the kneading, the slap on the counter and the meditation it creates.
I am never far from the kitchen on bread baking days and not likely to race downtown or run around doing errands. You see, I might miss that beautiful moment when the dough is just right to create marvellous bread.
Sure I can buy good bread and it isn’t even that much money, but my time is well spent in creating something as simple and nutritious as my own bread.
If you really want to slow down, really, get rid of your car. Even though you may have to walk hurriedly to work (if you haven’t taken seriously the advice to “leave early,”) your overall life will slow down. And, you’ll find you spend less money - if you have to carry your groceries on your back, you’ll see why. If you have to spend your day off doing errands, you will simplify your life pretty quick and save those treks for things you really like to do. You will begin to appreciate and use what you’ve got as there will be no zipping out to the big box stores to look around for “inspiration.”
Hiya,
All of the above feel to me as great slow-downers. However, the one thing I find that has the greatest power to slow time itself down is breathing and paying attention to it. Of course, this is pretty much like meditation, but it does not have to be done quite as “seriously” or in special settings. Anytime, anywhere, breathe and be conscious of it, and time slows down… talk about relativity
Yours slowly.
I love the fact that you showed that slowing down does not have to mean being lazy. I think most of the time it is the people who in a rush are the lazy ones. It is usually a lack of planning on their part that forced them to rush in order not to be late. Of course I emphazise usually as this is not always the case. Sometimes there are meetings that run late and the next appointment is within minutes.
I want to add that I love this site. It is with true understanding of what slowing down means that a person can begin to have a much happier life.
One thing I did is increase the amount of writing I do. One manifestation of this is letter writing. Its so much more intimate to spend a few minutes hand writing a note or card to someone you want to keep in touch with. I copy all my correspondance and keep it in a file. Some day I will put them all in a scrapbook. Additionally I spend time on my breaks at work writing a journal. Admittedly, as an artist & introvert I am well suited to these meditative activities. However I think writing more often even if it is one day per week can help slow you down.
I like Deb’s suggestion about baking, and it can even be extended to cooking in general. I cook a big Sunday meal whether its brunch or dinner, and refrain from using any prepared ingredients (ok, I don’t grind my own flour!). If you do a big casserole like lasagne you have meals for days.
For me….slowing down is an approach I have to take at the beginning of each event. Like taking a deep breath before I race to an appointment that I know I will be 5 min. late for and reminding myself that I will get there when I get there. Life does not fall apart if you are late…In fact, when I slow down, I am more patient and pleasant to myself, and others. I really think it is an “intention” that must be set ~ I will go slow, I will savor this moment, I will be present now! Sometimes as I find myself taking it easy through one event…I feel a vortex of energy speeding around me (like a giant toilet bowl flush …spinning and spinning downward). I of course, avoid jumping in…and like to think I am sitting in the still water to the side. Then I think can there really be energy currents that are unconsciously spinning us faster and faster. If some of us commit to slowing it down can we change the path? I think so!
Tea. Not just the drinking of it, but the whole ritual involved with making it properly. Choosing the tea. Warming the pot. Letting it brew. Not rushing it. Then dunking biscuits in, letting them soak up just enough tea to get them to the point just before they drop off and sink to the bottom, but lifting and eating just before they can. Try doing that and fiddling with your Blackberry at the same time.
Step out of time in a busy place - a shopping mall, for example. Just stand to one side, and be still. The people move around you, as if you’re in a stop-motion video that aims to show a day’s weather in one minute. And the faster they rush, the stiller you feel.
And feel the delicious illicit rush of the stolen slow moment. You’re meant to be at work. But you’re not. You’re sitting in the sun watching the dew sparkle on a spider’s web. You’re meant to be engaged in some very important activity. But instead you’re watching monkey tennis on an obscure cable channel because you happened to come across it and well, how could you turn away. You’re meant to be reading that Very Important Report but instead you are sinking into your favourite novel. It’s about contrast. The busier you should be, the sweeter the stolen slow moment. And also, you realise that the world doesn’t end. Things get done. But you’re still had that sweet moment.
also, have a look at The Idler’s forum: lots of advice under ‘Practical Idling’.
http://www.idler.co.uk/forum/index.php
To the comment about tea I’d like to add the warm idle pleasure of a cigar. 40 minutes of unadulterated time…
rino slowreview.com
As Christopher’s meditating wife, I notice how my most creative ideas pop up when I’m sitting quietly. I like to sit in the morning when my brain is fresh. It’s as though I’m walking to the ocean of stillness and relaxation, and finding beautiful stones and shells along the way. I used to fight these thoughts as “distractions,” but now I accept them gratefully as one of the gifts of slow.
I very much appreciate everyone’s input. Please feel free to comment on anything in the future (or the past).
There is a lot to consider here. Deb, your Zen like bread baking process reminded me of when I was in primary school in England. I think you call that grade school. I was about four or five. We had a crocus suspended in the neck of a bottle. We noticed how it grew roots down to find the water. It was a slow process, but we noticed the change. I only just remembered that because of your post. Thank you.
Grace, humping groceries on your back seems a chore. But who said slowing down was easy? We do it sometimes but now Trader Joe’s is opening up down the hill (with an emphasis on down) we will be walking down and carrying back up and up and up the hill.
Thank you for your comment, tchellina, on breathing. I am going to mention it and the value of checking in with the body. I love Ken Robinson’s comment, “We are educated from the neck up.” He also made the comment that we think of our bodies as vehicles to carry our heads around.
Roy, indeed slow is not lazy. Just try riding a bicycle very slowly, or doing yoga very slowly, you soon find out that faster is easier. But your point about lack of planning hits the nail on the head. I remember a sign in a taxi, “Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.”
Special K, nice to hear from you again. Yes, you do have to slow down to write. I am so glad I found writing. There is nothing wrong with being an introvert and artist.
Leslee, I think that maybe you can’t be pleasant or patient with others unless you can be with yourself. It’s sort of like charity begins at home.
Francis, you said that word tea. Oh! that magic brew! Now you have me all excited. But ritual is an art isn’t it? It is anti-efficient. It’s designed to slow you down. This is a very valuable notion. Maybe ritual was the first language, rather like mime?
Lynnette, you are a role mode, wonderful at catching my typos, and a great laugh.
Thank you all.
Smashing stuff!
Haven’t been able to comment on this, yet another enlightening piece here on “Slow Down Now,” due to being offline for the past week. Have you noticed how “offline” sounds a bit like “Flâneur”? No particular reason for mentioning this, just thought I would.
(if you are unaware of the meaning of “Flâneur,” please consult the article on such in that wonderful source of everything you could possibly want to know about everything, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fl%C3%A2neur … or just accept my word for it, that it basically means “one who strolls”)
Anyway, better late than never, as “they” (who?) say…
My personal take on the matter can be summarised in three points, which I shall present on a PowerPoint presentation, downloadable from… only joking!
… The three points are thus…
1. Just Slow Down… seems obvious, but slow down in everything you do. Everything! Well, almost. Slow down your breathing, your tea drinking, you walking, your driving, your reading, your speaking… Be aware… of your body, your stress levels, your surroundings… Drink in life, slowly and deliberately, all its experiences, all its sensations… If you are slower, you will notice more, you will be less likely to cause accidents, to make mistakes, to be stressed, to rile yourself and others… Slowing down means doing things properly… It means not filling your life with pointless, faffy annoyances. And personally, I find that if I have spent a substantial amount of time living life at a slower, dreamier state, it is often followed by a burst of clarity, of super-speedy efficiency! Slow down to get more done…
2. Be polite! This has been mentioned above, but I don’t think it can be over-stressed. Be courteous and pleasant to others. Raise smiles not frowns. Be kind. Help others to be slow and to see the benefits of slow. Through you actions, spread the message of slow!
3. Realise that there is very little in life that matters as much as you think it does. Being late doesn’t matter. Taking longer to get somewhere doesn’t matter. Even if it does, what’s the point in getting all wound up about something you can’t avoid? Keep your hand off the horn. Smile at the seething crowds who are preventing you from getting to your meeting in time. See delays and queues and hold-ups as opportunities… to think random thoughts, to write, to read a couple of pages of your novel, to say hello to a stranger. Be not the victim of pointless worry!
Well that’s it, I’ve said my piece.
Quite an inspiring read with a lot of insight on slowing down, great!
I believe that doing a task with your full attention and without hurry or time pressure, will provide better quality and let’s you enjoy your work more. It is what the Buddhists call ‘mindfulness’ and the psychologists ‘flow’ that brings up the best in you and blocks out distraction. Also, minutes can seem hours and on other occasions, hours seem to fly by as seconds, while productivity sky-rockets. The ability to be fully engaged and concentrated can be trained by meditation.
How do I use practice this in my own life? For instance when I tidy up the kitchen, I follow my breath and deliberately do everything half-speed. I clean up as if it will be the only thing I will be doing all evening (let go of the time pressure). I try to keep my attention to the present moment and not think of what I will be doing after the kitchen is finished. The result? I enjoy the task a lot, release stress, and I am always surprised how soon I am finished! (Often, I am a bit disappointed that I am finished already.)
My adagium is: slower is quicker. Doing a task will 100% attention (by slowing down) gives you more focus. When you are done, you think: ’so soon?’ and the mindfulness is healing, so your energy is not drained.
Hi Slow Dan,
Thank you. I spent some time learning French so I am familiar with flâneur. However, my French has fallen into disuse. It is the language they speak in heaven apparently. Thanks for the link.
I agree with point one. However, pointlessness and faffiness are, in my book, noble aspirations. Music has no other point but to be itself. And I say the same for me. I am a pointless individual. But I am in agreement with you on annoyances. Frankly, they annoy me. I could do with less of them.
Your words are wise indeed about those rhythms of clarity, and dreaminess. This is very interesting stuff that doesn’t get much air time. It’s serious stuff, and fundamental to creativity.
I want to pause here to thank you again for reminding me about Jerome K. Jerome. I am reading American Wives from the library. My copy was last taken out in the 1930’s. I feel I am handling a religious icon. I am saving up to purchase a copy of Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow. I may just cut into my massage budget and spring for it.
I am absolutely in agreement about politeness, although it doesn’t come to all of us naturally. It takes training. Politeness is fun. The trick I find is to not be too attached (as you make in your third point) to being appreciated for it. That pal of mine, Marcus Aurelius, said that you have to expect boors to be boorish.
I feel I make friends when driving(albeit short lived). I let my fellow drivers in, or wave them across intersections. I get a positive response about half the time. No one has waved a gun at me yet for doing it, and for that I am thankful.
Your third point is a mark of maturity and slowness. Because of this you don’t have to fill out the application form to the International Institute of Not Doing Much. In fact, you have been elected to represent UK interests of slow.
May the Art of Tea flourish.
Ton,
Thanks for the kitchen tip. I shall see if my wife agrees. She points out that the time I put the dishes in the sink and the time I actually wash them could be quicker. I have your solid experience to point to. I expect it is the Dutch way and therefore to be emulated.
I very much appreciate all these comments. All of them are helpful.
“…elected to represent UK interests of slow…” - ?!!
The privilege! The accolade! The most lofty of honours!
I think I’ll have to have a lie down…
Better still, I think I’ll have a sleep………
…
…
…
That’s better… where was I?
Oh yes…
Thank you, Christopher, for your appreciation of my appreciation of your appreciation of slow!
Indeed, pointlessness and faffiness (when not attached to “annoyances”) are noble aspirations… although one could perhaps argue that when one elevates pointlessness to the status of an “aspiration,” then it acquires a point? Well anyway…
Glad you are enjoying Jerome. I was unfamiliar with his work before “Idle Thoughts,” but I shall definitely be seeking further publications henceforth. May I suggest, however, that instead of “saving up” for it, you seek to acquire it from a second hand shop or, better still, your local library? For Thrift, my friend, is the brother of Slow! (I would offer to send you my copy, but I’m afraid I’ve already promised it to a comrade in slow (a French lady)).
May you continue to not have a gun waved at you…
Dan
Dan,
Huge Laurie read Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow on Radio 4. I listened to it on the Web last year. You may also enjoy The Chronicles of Clovis by Saki. Auberon Waugh in the introduction to my copy says, “his rage and indignation against humanity had not yet conquered the simple desire to please.”
Having a lie down is the appropriate response to induction into the IINDM. Good point for pointing out that pointlessness has a point. Thrift is the handmaiden(brother, concubine) to slow. That is contribution to the slow canon. Thank you.