The Epidemic of Speed: Why It's Time to Slow Down and Experience Life

I have to thank my client for this post due to something AWESOME that she said. And YOU can thank her for this informative post with some "rant-like features" from 'Coach D' 😂...

[In all seriousness, I am SO PASSIONATE to try my absolute best to HELP people SLOW down in life for the sake of their health and wellbeing. And I plan to keep trying harder and harder.]

This is another post about ALLOWING ourselves to SLOW THE $%^# DOWN!! We HAVE EVERY ABILITY to GET OUT OF OUR OWN WAY, SLOW DOWN and EXPERIENCE LIFE. And it's more NECESSARY with every passing day in North American society. It truly is an EPIDEMIC in my opinion.

Here are some common habits people are doing, that CREATE "busy-ness" and "load" in our daily lives...

🫣 Planning EVERY bit of free time with SOMETHING (good or bad)

🫣 Saying "YES" to nearly everything (good or bad)

🫣 Putting our children into TOO MANY sports/activities, so that not only are the kids NOT able to have FREE time to be kids, but the whole family is CONSTANTLY on the go

🫣 Working TOO long and TOO late most days

🫣 Working on our weekends / days off / vacations

🫣 Doom-scrolling social media in our "down time" (this physically may feel like you're relaxing, but mentally, emotionally and spiritually your physiology is NOT)

🫣 Being a slave to EVERY notification that pops up on your phone (no matter what you're doing, who you're with or where you are) - taking you out of the PRESENT constantly

🫣 Sacrificing sleep (quality and quantity) in favour of other things

🫣 Constantly pushing yourself to do MORE

.... This list truly is endless. Any of these sound familiar?

"Get to your point Coach!"

You're right! Sorry.

My client has been working with some breathing exercises as part of her days for the past nearly 2-weeks as of writing this. She's found a really nice rhythm so far with where, how and when she puts them into her days and she's using these breathing exercises as a tool for various reasons throughout her days as well.

She shared some words with me that immediately had me writing them down and conjuring up this post! She said to me (in regards to these breathing exercises);

"It gives me a chance to 'debrief' after a busy day"

OMG I friggin' love that!!!! That is a powerful way of putting it in my opinion.

Genius!! 🙏🥰

Think about it; How many of us actually CONCIOUSLY CHOOSE to SLOW DOWN enough to even do this?? We go through EVERY DAY cramming everything we possibly can into every free moment... and then we do the same thing the very next day. Over and over. For weeks, months and sadly years.

Think about this; How often do you hear, say or think; "How is it [insert month] already?"

My experience working with people every day for over two decades: CONSTANTLY. And WAY more often now than in the past. Why?? Because we're barely taking these little moments to "debrief" (as my client puts it), let alone longer periods of time to SLOW THINGS DOWN.

Ever notice?

If you're lucky enough to go camping or have a cottage, do you ever notice that when you do these things / go to these places, time seems to expand? The days sometimes feel like they go on so long (in a good way). It's because we're not SCHEDULING, PLANNING and putting TIME CONSTRAINTS on our days. We're just BEING and LIVING in the moment.

I experience this CONSTANTLY at our cottage or when we go backcountry camping...

• "To do lists" are more "Want to do's"

• I'm not rushing to get things done by a particular time

• I'm not concerned about "what's next"

• I do things by FEEL vs time (eg: If I'm chopping and stacking wood and my body is getting tired, time to do something else)

• The days typically are a flow of "work" (or doing) and rest

• I'm looking at EVERYTHING but a screen

• My "distractions" are from the REAL WORLD, not the "digital world" (eg: wildlife, plants, shorelines, sunsets, campfires etc)

• We play games and socialize with each other

• Very few things are FORCED. There's a feeling of flow to whatever it is I CHOOSE to do / get done on any given day

Remember back when most of us reading this were young?

For most of us reading this post, when we were young, the flow of our days I described previously WAS THE NORM. We didn't even have to think about it. It just WAS that way. I'm writing this to remind us all that it STILL CAN BE that way. In our present times however, we have to put more concious thought into making it so, that's all.

I'm not saying EVERY DAY is going to have all of those elements I just listed to make your SLOW LIVING become a reality. The point I'm trying to make is that for MOST of us, we're doing almost NONE of these things in most of our days, which is causing us to feel DRAINED and WEIGHED DOWN most days, while seemingly "speeding up" time.

It first has to start with a CHOICE. One that YOU decide you are going to practice most days. It won't be PERFECT and it won't be EVERY day. For most of us if we practiced SLOWING DOWN even a day or two a week we would feel a positive shift overall!

Second, think SMALL. Camping and cottaging isn't possible every day. So we need to CREATE small ways to SLOW DOWN, even just for SMALL chunks of time throughout our days. My client's breathing exercises are nice example. We all carry our breath with us EVERYWHERE AT ALL TIMES. This means, we NEVER have a reason NOT to SLOW DOWN and BREATHE, right? We can do it anytime, anywhere.

Here's a few IDEAS to get you thinking of how YOU can CHOOSE SLOW and sprinkle it throughout your days...

☮ Breathing exercises

☮ Mindfulness practice and/or meditation

☮ Taking a 5min walk

☮ Allow your child to participate in ONE activity/sport per season

☮ Taking a 5min break from work

☮ Write and/or create (draw, paint, colour, sculpt...)

☮ Just sit and do nothing for a couple minutes

☮ If you say YES to one thing, say NO to another (even something good)

☮ For a particular stretch of your day (be it an hour or a few hours) schedule NOTHING

☮ Have tech free time

☮ Read a book

☮ Chat with a friend or family member (in person or on the phone) undistracted

☮ Have NO to-do list ONE day per week

☮ Be unavailable for 30min (or more)

.... Once again, we have an endless list of possibilities

Lastly, understand you don't "have to choose" anything in particular. There are so many ways to live more PRESENT and to SLOW DOWN in your days, it's important to understand that you CAN do certain practices (such as those listed above), but you absolutely don't "have to". You may CHOOSE something else that suits YOU better. It's the OUTCOME that's important. The SLOWING DOWN!

An easy example of what I mean is meditation. Does it have positive health benefits? 100%. Does everyone "have to meditate"? Absolutely NOT. But you CAN if you WANT to.

Part of SLOWING DOWN is GETTING OUT OF OUR OWN WAY. Discovering a way of living that both speaks to us and works for us. In order to CREATE this we have to be HONEST with ourselves. You may say how you're living "works for you" ~ yet you constantly think and say negative things about your lifestyle. That means it's NOT working for you. When the negatives are at the forefront of your thoughts and conversations, a shift is needed.

Let's revisit my clients words:

"It gives me a chance to 'debrief' after a busy day"

Now let's say you just read the list above and are brushing it all off for various reasons. Then think HARD about these words from my client; Could you / would you ALLOW yourself a few minutes (or more) each day, to just "debrief"? Just sit, walk or lie down UNDISTRACTED with JUST YOUR THOUGHTS... and just BE. Could you do that?

The sad reality is MOST people DON'T, which is why MOST people STRUGGLE with even the thought of NOT DOING SOMETHING.

👉This is why our health numbers are heading in the WRONG direction...

👉This is why so many of us are NOT LIVING, we're simply going through the motions on "autopilot" day after day

👉 This is why we can't seem to figure out why time is passing us by month after month, year after year

If you want to FEEL better inside and out;

SLOW THE $$%^ DOWN!