In case you haven’t already picked up on it, I love learning. I especially love learning about Life and how to live it with more purpose, fun, and flavor. And, even more than that, I LOVE sharing what I learn with ALL OF YOU so you can catch a spark or two that will help light up your own life experiences.
This post is another of these transmissions for you. Another Experiment in Bliss, if you will. This experiment is rooted in the act of SLOWING DOWN.
It’s somewhat of a radical idea in these days of immediacy and speed. With so much of life advancing at a breakneck pace, it can feel counterintuitive to want to slow down. Isn’t this what FOMO is all about? We fear we might miss out on something important if we don’t keep up with everything and everyone else around us?
The irony is that moving so fast, expanding so rapidly, ad infinitum actually slows our progress. To speed up our progress, our personal expansion and evolution, we have to take time to process all we are experiencing. Ergo, we must slow down our being to speed up our growing.
I’m not suggesting we all become cave-dwelling luddites who meditate all day long. But I am declaring that actively slowing down the pace of our lives is imperative to living fully in bliss.
What are some ways we can do this?
Well, meditation actually is a helpful tool, but it doesn’t have to be done all day long to have benefit. One or two sessions of conscious practice a day (around 20 minutes a go is great) can be a total game changer in upping the quality of your life. It allows you to create space in your day to slow your mind, your breath, your heart rate, and to really open your awareness to the present moment.
Dedicating time in your schedule for exploring things that light you up is a wonderful way to slow down and reset yourself from a calendar full of obligations and responsibilities. When was the last time you allowed yourself to get lost in the bliss of following your curiosity down the rabbit hole just to see where it lead? It’s a wonderful gift and a fun way to slow your roll. Read a book. Make some art. Dance. Look at something you find beautiful. Hang out in Nature. Make love. Whatever fans the flames of your curiosity, desire, and passion will do the trick nicely.
Unplug. Disconnect from ALL your devices for a set amount of time every day. And I’m not just talking about while you sleep at night. I’m talking about planning specific waking times to interact in the world without the aid of a screen. This could be during mealtimes, or during happy hour. Maybe you unplug after work for some present and engaged family interaction. Or maybe your magick time is during your morning or evening ritual. Taking time to truly engage in the world in a present, tactile way without feeling like you must document, share, or filter your experience can be a gorgeous blessing in this day and age, and is a great way to slow down.
Get more and better sleep. This seems obvious, and we’ve all heard it a thousand times before. Sleep is important to living a good life. Yes, got it. But when we’re all constantly on the go, go, go, moving so fast through life, trying to do soooo much, we often start skimping on sleep. I hear people all the time saying things like, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead,” or “I don’t have time to sleep!” or “Sleep is a luxury that I just can’t afford right now.” But the body NEEDS sleep. It needs it to rejuvenate its energy stores so that we can continue to function at the high cortisol levels required to hustle through such a fast-paced life. So prioritizing sleep is a way to slow down that will help you to perform better during those super busy waking hours. Just do it. It’ll change your life, I swear.
This is not an exhaustive list, of course, but it’s a good place to start your own exploration of what it means to slow down your being to speed up your growing. Good luck on your journeys, blissmakers, and happy experimenting! xo