Ongrowing’s January 16th letter | Previous issue: Returning home
Hi lovely people,
After quite an eventful and hectic first week of 2022, I actively chose to focus on grounding down and tuning inwards. For me, this meant practicing morning meditation, bathing in sunlight, reflecting and journaling, and reading soul-nourishing books. I picked up The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer and was reminded of the importance of being present. In today’s pandemic times where we’re obliged to be hyper-aware, I feel that it’s even more urgent for us to not get carried away into the whirlwind of tomorrows’ change and uncertainty, and instead, stay rooted in our being.
“Imagine if you were so fully present during each experience of life that it was touching you to the depth of your being. Every moment would be a stimulating, moving experience because you would be completely open, and life would be flowing right through you.”
Today’s Story
If you pause for a second and look around, many objects you see now probably didn’t exist a hundred or even tens of years ago. Remember the original iPhone? Yeah, that didn’t exist until 15 years ago (I won’t even bring up the flip phones).
Our phones have gotten faster just like many other technologies that have been recently developed. We leaped from 2G to 5G networks (whatever they stand for or mean will never be fully understood by me). We went from taking weeks to mail a letter to sending tweets and texts in less than a second. And this speediness doesn’t just apply to how we communicate.
Speed seems to be the very essence of today’s society. We praise those who are speedy. You probably recognize Usain Bolt and his accolades, but do you know the slowest marathon runner in the world? There’s no Olympics for the slow and steady, just the fastest and strongest. As a society, we aspire to be highly productive and efficient, which sort of translates to doing things more quickly. Companies strive for hyper-growth and consumers want their groceries delivered pronto! That’s how Amazon became the behemoth that it is today. It’s no surprise that we all seem to be running out of time. All the time.
"Argh, I’m so busy”
“I would love to, but I really don’t have time”
I’ve caught myself saying the above on many occasions. Accompanying these statements are often feelings of overwhelmed and the need to “catch up”. I thought that these emotions would only emerge when I was in school and at work. But the “I don’t have time” mindset actually shows up in many ways such as:
Always optimizing and doing things the most efficient ways
Over-planning to fit the most in your day
Feeling restless and agitated
Endless scrolling on social media
Shaking legs to release tension and energy
Just the other day, I caught myself rushing when I was making a cup of my morning coffee. I had no immediate plans — nowhere to be and nothing to do. But, like reflex, I was darting around the kitchen, trying to grab all equipments and ingredients to assemble a cup of coffee as fast as possible. I was forced to stop when I dropped and spilled an entire bag of coffee beans. At that point, it finally dawned on me that there was absolutely no reason for me to hurry.
The Writing Prompt
What would your life look like if you slowed down?
Next time you catch yourself in a rush, be it working through an assignment or getting groceries, pause and ask yourself “Do I need be in such a hurry? What am I rushing for?” If your answer is something along the lines of no, slow down and I mean, really, sloooow down.
In 1986, Carlo Petrini protested against the opening of a McDonalds in Rome, Italy. The sign he held said, “We don’t want fast food! We want slow food!” The event started what many call as the slow food movement, and sparked more people to advocate for a cultural shift to slow down the pace of life (watch Carl Honoré’s insightful TED talk to learn more). These ideas have made me really sit down and think about the pace in which we’re living now.
I question what if we do have time, but we’re just trying to do too much?
I wonder what if slowing down means narrowing down to what matters to us and doing that well?
Let me know what you think.
Take it slow and easy,
Fair