How can slowing down create momentum?
An invitation
There is a Zen Buddhist saying that goes a little something like this:
You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes a day unless you are too busy; then you should sit for an hour.
I love this saying for many reasons but here’s two:
Because it captures the joyfully ironic sense of humour of the universe in a way that I have come to experience it, daily;
Because it is true;
—if you want time to get stretchy, you have to get stretchy with time.
I’m not suggesting we kick off with a 20 minute daily meditation here by the way - quite the opposite in fact - I just want to acknowledge this delightfully bizarre phenomenon of time that in the writing of this previous post ‘In Perfect Time’, I remembered is no stranger to me. My only irrational explanation for this (I don’t see how there can be a rational one as it seems time operates beyond the realms of logic despite our desperate attempts to control it) is that in order to experience the true elasticity of time we have to take our time. A quantum paradox? Maybe. But it’s one I am anxious to explore with you further.
For years I have operated from a space where productivity was King, a sovereign state of doing, the kingdom’s motto a resounding “the only way out is through”. Sound familiar? Since rejecting that philosophy by force (mostly) or by virtue (more recently), I have come to recognise the overwhelmingly positive impact that slowing things down has had and continues to have on my life, and not only that, I have also discovered that slowing down contrary to basically every law of physics, creates momentum. Not the full throttle onslaught of opportunity, legs tangling, tripping over yourself kind of forward motion, more the steady thrum of something I’m going to call ‘sustainable living’.
Now, with everything that’s truly sustainable this of course comes with the caveat that this is a lifetime’s work in progress, and one you can expect to evolve and shape-shift enormously over time. Our goalposts and ambitions are constantly changing (and completely unique) so I’m always wary of being too dictatorial about these things. Also anything that claims to be the one solution to all our problems or that demands there is one right way, I think we would all do well to be wary of—I’ve said it a bunch of times before but it always bears repeating, trust your intuition.
I also realise that the idea of ‘sustainable living’ could sound incredibly boring to some people but after a lifetime in pursuit of the Capitalist ideal that busyness and burnout equate to success, I cannot overstate the subversive joy of actively choosing to walk rather than run, which I think also means getting to enjoy the journey along the way—this is a concept which I rationally understood (it being about the journey not the destination) but couldn’t truly embody until now. In reality, certainly for me personally, slow living thus far has made for a far more fulfilling human experience. And whilst currently living at the slowest pace I have maybe ever allowed myself to in my adult life, I also feel happier than ever. Again, not in a hit by lightning in-love kind of a way, but a far more powerful, long-term kind of a way; with a grounded sense of contentment. My mindset with regards success has radically altered, my priorities have changed and I am pursuing things, like this Substack, that I never would have before—I wouldn’t have had time to even consider it.
I think this is perhaps one of those moments that it’s useful to apply the 80/20 rule as well, where if you observe a particular way of living 80% of the time it’s enough to sustain you for the 20% of times that you don’t. I quite like this as a general rule because it’s flexible enough to allow for (perhaps) two of the most human characteristics of all time: to err, and to be a total raving hypocrite. Lol. But seriously, the flippancy with which we change our minds sometimes, or the fickleness with which we devote ourselves to one thing over another is a totally natural compulsion I believe, and so… let’s remove judgment and have at it shall we? Be changeable. Be flexible. These days at least I always try to tread lightly when implementing any kind of lifestyle change to discover precisely what it is that works for me. In this case, starting as slowly as I mean to go on…
‘I cannot overstate the subversive joy of actively choosing to walk rather than run, which I think also means getting to enjoy the journey along the way’
Over the past few weeks I have begun to put together a toolkit of all the ways that have supported me in shifting my behaviours to a far slower mindset and so far I have identified four key areas that have contributed to the changes I’ve made, as well as why I’ve made them. Below I’m going to share those Four Fundamentals with you along with examples and then… *drumroll please* I am going to give you one super simple task a week, every week, for the next four weeks to start exploring these in depth for yourself—and if this feels too slow for you, you heard the Zen Buddhists, take twelve weeks ;) I will be taking part in this alongside you so I look forward to swapping our observations as we go!