Slow down now blog

I appreciate being healthy. I feel for so many people that don’t have my luck. And I think health is largely luck. Isn’t good health the most precious of gifts? I think so, and the last thing I want to do is moan and groan about something a trivial as a cough. I’ve got one. This is day seventeen. Not that I’m counting. All right, I am counting.

A doctor friend of mine would brook no moaning about trivial diseases. If your arm wasn’t hanging off or you weren’t a candidate for the emergency room, in his opinion, you were a hypochondriac. I used to play squash with this fellow. His wife told me of coming upon him in the bathroom. She thought he was shaving. That was until she realize he was calmly sewing up a squash-inflicted gash across his eyebrow.

Squash is one of those games that insurance companies don’t really like you playing. I was hit in the head with the ball during a game. It hurt. Good players hit the ball with their racket. But soon I felt better. That was until about 2 a.m. when I woke up with a raging headache on one side of my head. My doctor friend (who, by the way, had hit me with the ball) did come and look at me. He rather nonchalantly thought I had a migraine headache or a brain tumor. Frankly, this scared the willies out of me.

It so happened I recovered and felt no other side effects. Now some people I know may believe that this event is the reason for my general lack of intelligence and inability to maintain a suitable standard of kitchen hygiene. It’s always wise to have something to point to as evidence during a marital discussion. I have since abandoned gladiatorial squash for slightly safer badminton. For a fellow in his mid-fifties, this makes sense. Well, some sense.

I’ve heard it said that, for us in the West, illness is our meditation. Nothing else can slow some of us down and it’s those workaholics that need to slow down most. Many of us only slow down enough to stare at the ceiling from a hospital bed. This is surely workaholic slowing down. I say, slow down now, before it’s too late.

Thank you to the superbly intelligent and kind person who just bought a slowdownnow.org t-shirt. May your slowness increase.

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Patric from Le Slow Mot (the slow word) is organizing a second Slow Winter event for December 21st. The event promises to be zany. They encourage costume and wacky demonstration boards. Clearly, the idea is to have fun.

… we will gather outside for a majestic slow……celebration. A slow-expert will guide us while we will be all doing slow movements, chanting together and parading joyfully. The event will be finalized by the group of Mario Babin who gives “Free Hugs” to who ever want one [sic]. Everyone is welcomed, even those who only wish to observe.

You can contact Patric at http://lents.ca/english.htm

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Here is a short interview by Dawn Anfuso, a Southern California business writer, Slow down now to become productive.

How has slowing down helped you at work?

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My newest blog is about Zen, badminton, and concentration. www.zenbadminton.com. It’s really another take on slow.

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You go to the doctor’s office he scribbles you a prescription and shows you the door. On the way out he says, “And what was your problem?” I exaggerate. It’s not really like that. But you never hear of a doctor ordering you to take it easy for a few months for no other reason than you’ve been overdoing it.

This seemed to happen all the time in early twentieth-century novels. Doctors were always prescribing a few months rest and relaxation (R & R) for their patients.

But according to a Reuters article last week (we don’t like to rush things on this blog, last week’s news is quite current enough) Taiwan’s hot springs businesses are petitioning government to pay for therapeutic immersion through health insurance.

I feel a whole lot better every time I relax in a hot spring. Will Taiwan’s government soak up the idea? We shall find out soon as, next week, discussions are being held with the Republic of China Hot Springs Tourism Association. Now that sounds like an august body that does a good job of ruminating. I hope they will be holding their meeting in the hot tub. Once you’ve had a good soak you see the world in a more friendly way. Taiwan has 500 hot springs.

Here in California we have a number of geothermal hot springs, so I hope our government is watching the outcome with interest. Well, one can always hope.

Here is the article.

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Aging Today, a bi-monthly newspaper from the American Society on Aging, has an article on brain-health. According to the articles’ author, Paul David Nussbaum, animals exposed to overly stressful environments show slower brain development, and recent research suggests the same is true for us humans.

Of course, slow is not a good thing when it comes to brain development.

Mr. Nussbaum wisely urges us to slow down. He suggests meditation, prayer, and relaxation are the sort of spiritual practices that promote health and help us slow down.

Businesses suffer from speed and overly ambitious projects too. In an article on falling quality standards at Toyota in this week’s Economist, problems may be addressed by slowing production plans. At some point there is a trade off between speed, resources, and quality. Toyota’s problem is that there are not enough qualified engineering inspectors. Slowing down to produce a higher-quality product is a remarkable concept. Who would have thought it possible!

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Here is a post from my ExerciseSlow site. Before starting the 18 slow movements of Shibashi qigong (Chi-Kung) I do a few of these warming and loosening exercises. Those of us who are well into middle age need to keep flexible and maintain our balance. (By the way, you don’t need to wear pants that are three sizes too big.)

[If the video below is not working, you can see it here.]

Please be careful when starting these exercises. Find some flat ground, at least flatter than I have in the video. It is important not to overdo it. For example, the leg-swinging exercises require a fair amount of balance. Start by doing each exercise well within your capability. I don’t believe in no pain no gain. Gentle and easy is the way to go. There is no competition here and you can do a little as you feel you want to. But it is through time and regular practice that one feels the benefit.The slower you do these exercises, the more demanding they can be. Go gently, go easy.

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