Imagine this:
You naturally wake up one morning and have a few minutes to lay in bed. You rise slowly and do a little bit of stretching to wake up your body. You float to your coffee machine and watch it brew. Taking your warm mug out to the porch, you sit to enjoy the morning air. You observe the stillness. With nothing planned for the day, there is no rush. Perhaps you will enjoy each moment of this day with full presence.
Doesn’t that scenario sound nice and rare?
It’s September, and the semester is in full swing. If you’re like me, I find myself with the drive to mark assignments off of my to-do list while trying to cram extracurriculars into my schedule. In the meantime, I’ll listen to podcasts on the way to class, music in the shower, and I’ll select the perfect YouTube video to listen to while I do my dishes. I’ll eat my dinner quickly while scrolling through social media. And during my work day and time in class, I’ll catch myself thinking about what I’ll do in the evening or over the weekend.
This summer, I had an unordinary situation where I left my job and didn’t have any classes over Summer break. I was in a period of having nothing much to do. All of the things I imagined doing if given the free time suddenly seemed like an overwhelming list to choose from. Not knowing what to do with myself honestly felt awkward. Gradually, I challenged myself to settle into this feeling, curious to see where all my free time could lead me. I surrendered to it and started to live slowly.
My life really did seem to slow its pace when I started living minute by minute, rather than constantly focusing on what’s next. I did enjoy sleeping in and getting out of bed on my time. I would take my time with my morning coffee. I did sit outside and just appreciate how slow things felt. I just allowed my time to be filled with what I felt like doing in the moment. The choices I made in how to spend my days felt aligned with a feeling of presence. I recognize that I was really blessed with this opportunity, even if for a short time.
Now that I am back at work and taking classes again, I’m missing that brief period. Too much is going on, not only in our complex personal lives, but also in the world. With all that we experience and take in daily, it’s not always easy to find moments of stillness in our fast-paced realities. I want to make it an intention to seek these opportunities out. To me, this looks like enjoying a meal in silence or in conversation with a loved one. This looks like walking around my neighborhood aimlessly. This looks like doing my dishes without music playing and observing my own thoughts. This looks like taking a pause to check in with myself.
Although these moments of slowness are realistically not always available, I wonder what life could be like if I made the intention to incorporate them into my busy days. Perhaps finding a balance between living in the world and living simply can make it all go slower.