How to live slow. Life moves with a pace, don't rush it.
What does it mean to live life in the slow lane? So often, culture finds purpose in filling our days with pointless and unfulfilling objectives. Humanity has always had an identity struggle; people are quicker to place identity in achievements rather than things that matter. This struggle of humanity has often led to a subconscious need to hurry through life. We fill our life with meaningless objectives and place our identity in the speed in which we accomplish.
The problem with this philosophy is the pace in which we live drastically impacts our ability to experience this life for its deep meaning. True happiness and contentment doesn’t come through our achievements or busy schedules, but through the simple things. Living slow can teach us how to be aware of the simple things. There are three primary ways humans can practice living slow to experience true joy from the simplicity of life.
Embrace Your Purpose – This is a concept that can often be scary to people. The truth is whether you are a teenager just trying to pass chemistry or pushing 50 and begging retirement to come ASAP, we all need purpose. So often in life we try to seek purpose as always a day, week, or year into the future. We believe that if we can just make it through where we’re at right now we can find purpose in what’s to come. It’s an illusion. Tomorrow never actually comes and were constantly left unsatisfied with the purpose we don’t have. Changing our perspective to seek purpose in today can lead to a less stressed, disappointed, and rushed mentality. Rather than praying for tomorrow to come sooner, embrace the purpose that today offers. What are you made for? What are you capable of? Where can you make a difference...today?
Eliminate Distractions – The reason we feel so rushed as a society is because we are constantly inviting small and big things to fill up whatever time we have. Whether its big schedule items that we can never say no to, or the 5 minutes we check our phone when we wake up or go to bed. All of these things may be used as tools, but often become distractions. Whether we like to admit it or not, 90% of our small moments are used for meaningless purposes. When we learn how to take control of our small moments, our big ones follow suit.
Go Outside – Nature is the most grounding experience for a human. By surrounding ourselves in nature, not only are we receiving necessary elements for our health like oxygen and vitamin D, but we are by principle surrounding ourselves in something much bigger than us. Moments like this often provide so much perspective to our lives as we are reminded that the world doesn’t spin around our busyness and achievements. Rather, life moves with a pace, and we don’t want to miss it. Take advantages of the moments to be outdoors in our natural habitat, we won’t regret it.
This is the life we live. We have so much opportunity and freedom presented to us every day, and we get to choose. How do you want to spend your days? You are in control of choosing the direction and pace you want for your life.
At the end of it all, what will you look back on feeling proud of? Will it be thousands of little moments your rushed from meeting to meeting? Or the discipline you learned early on to be truly satisfied in every moment?
That’s where I want to be. Living slow, because I don’t want to miss a second.