Life

Let’s Be Slow

Perhaps I am was an anxious person. Feeling easily overwhelmed. Feeling like there were too many things I need to take care of – work, kids, parents, friends, chores, my health. My dream.

It’s a sick cycle and the same routine everyday, of things to do, places to go and people to meet. Me feeling sick about them already tells that, not all of them sparks joy to me. And so, why do I keep doing them?

How about you?

Do you have so many things in your life? What’s the first thing to flash when you jump out of bed everyday? Are you excited for the day, or do you just grab your phone to scroll down social media for half an hour and already feel better to continue your day – your fast life as it is.

The fast life is all around us – fast food, fast cars, fast conversations, fast families, fast holidays. We may be living great lives but we aren’t ‘there’ for them. We don’t take the time to linger over food, over friends, over our family etc. We are not savouring our life and are starving of the real connection to our life. (Slow Movement)

So ask yourself, do I have the time to be present and feel every moment and effort to live, every day?

Slow living

Slow living is a lifestyle with mindful approach. To feel life and its meaning. To be grateful and happy about life and everything it has to offer.

Depending on your current lifestyle, there must be some factors that anchor your time i.e. your attitude, commitments and planning method – maybe you have too many goals to achieve in a day and not all of them are equally important to you. Maybe, you’re just overloading yourself with unnecessary things.

Understand your current fast life pattern

As for me, I’ve noticed that my time is faster due to my relationship with my phone – I lose real connection with my surroundings, my family and friends. It sounds silly that a 30-year-old grown-up woman like me is overly attached with her phone but it’s true. So, I start to unplug it more around the things that matter to me. In the morning, with my kids, with my loved one, and in the train ride home. I notice that I have better relationships with those I’m willing to switch my phone off for. A better and real connection.

Being too obsessed over productivity also stripped my life away. The perfectionism. I wanted to publish a blog post daily, write in my journal, and craft more poetry. I struggled to keep my house clean all the time while trying to home school my kids and prepare a homecook meal that they love every night. I wanted to be better at the office and keep all my friends loving me. I wanted to be the smartest, prettiest, and healthiest ugh. A’ishah baby, you can’t have them all.

The Four Burners Theory says that, in order to be successful you have to cut off one of your burners. And in order to be really successful you have to cut off two. (James Clear)

In the end, it’s just common sense. An Instagram post or a Youtube video of a celebrity who doesn’t know me cannot be more important than my kids. My friends’ tweets cannot be more important than the blog post I need to finish. A random story book cannot be important than mouths to feed in this house, I better cook. Sometimes, a blog post cannot be important than enough sleep.

Know your priority

I know you already know your priorities (A’ishah, seriously?) But we easily lose focus.

It would be contradicted if I ask you to cut down on productivity to slow down your life and do less. It’s not that. It’s about knowing your priorities and live according to them. It’s about walking the talk and focusing over fewer but meaningful things.

Always question yourself. For example, if you say your family is important, why do you spend more time with writing (and work) to be left with less (and fast) time to spend with your family. And if you say your health is important, why do you watch Netflix and not go exercising, just to be worried about your health all the time.

It’s actually quite simple theoretically. Don’t do things you don’t want to do and go do things that you really want. Focus and stay present. Unplug. Live in the moment. Enjoy your life. Live slowly.

Let’s be slow.

In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. (Abraham Lincoln)