The Journey Starts...Where To and Why?
/Getting Started - A Trigger for Simpler, Slower Living?
So, here I am, sitting in a coffee shop, contemplating my very first blog post on slower living…well where else would one reasonably start? Perhaps I could have written this on the dining table at home - but then that could be difficult as there’s a pile of clothes that need folding. Did I mention that my approach to a simpler, slower living is in its infancy. A work in progress people…a work in progress.
In this first blog post I’m going to discuss the basics of my start and the big questions:
why?
what?
when?
how?
The Why?
Why am I starting this journey into a more considered and deliberate approach to life - an approach that seeks to apply a brake (if ever so slightly) on what seems to be the ever increasing pace of modern life?
The brake is the application of more conscious actions, actions that effectively slow the pace, actions that reinforce all that is good in life and either changes or discards all that isn’t essentially ‘good for the soul’, or perhaps my soul at least. It will no doubt be interesting to look back on these thoughts in one, two or five years…I wonder whether or how they will have changed?
I’ve stumbled into the “what”, lets get back to the question of “why”?
I don't think I’m particularly different to a significant and perhaps growing proportion of the community that sees the relentless pace and pressure of modern life and contemplates doing something about it. The relentless pace if not checked can run the risk of taking you on a journey you didn’t plan, with the result that you arrive at a destination miles from where you intended.
The sheer increase in the community of slower living folk is testament to the pace and the rationale approach to find a brake, to consciously and deliberately reintroduce choice into the equation. In a modern world choice of this sort can be complex, hard to conceive of, and challenging for friends and family to appreciate or fully comprehend.
We are not alone on this journey to conscious slowing down and, incredibly, I think many of us are finding our way towards that community quite independently of its actual existence. We are each faced with different dimensions or presentations of pace and each have a different approach to why and how we may seek to intervene - but at the heart we probably have a broadly consistent raison d’être. For me its bringing my ‘self’ back into the equation in a far stronger manner - the chance to say no, the opportunity to say yes…no and yes to what I need to feed my soul and my reason for being here.
I didn’t know a slower life community existed but, like many, I had this compelling feeling that the pace of life was growing unnecessarily and in the process was impeding the prospect of truly living what I would say is a meaningful life. I started out thinking this through and, low and behold, after a while dabbled on the internet - anyone else out there with these thoughts and what are they doing about it? Apparently there are a quite a number…I was amazed and comforted to find so many like minded views - ordinary people seeing that something was askew and needed to be addressed to bring a little more balance. This reinforced that I was not having some mid-life melt down and was about to put my family in peril - good news on the whole. No far from a mid-life crisis, I was more on the cusp of finding a new community of like-minded people who were working from within their own individual circumstance to change their lives and slow the pace, perhaps to understand where they most wanted the winding road to take them.
Small numbers in the broader scheme of things, but I have this feeling that it starts at the personal level and grows outward like a tree spreading its roots and branches and seeds across the forest floor. If enough enough like-minded people take personal action, then perhaps it may impact on other parts of the public conscious - could it be a trigger for change, however small.. OK I’m getting ahead of myself - its a character trait - I can’t help it…Let’s start small and at the beginning.
I’m no different than others in identifying the stimuli for this feeling about the pace of life and its impact - a feeling that even with the many good and noble advances modern society has provided to enrich and protect us - I simply can’t restrain the notion that the balance is perhaps tipping and we are losing something fundamental to who we are meant to be as a society.
I feel that we perhaps have blindly followed certain paths, enjoying the views, but not knowing where it leads. The pace of technology is but one example, so many real and wonderful benefits - but the balance is perhaps tipping us the other way - we are plugged in all the time, particularly to our work or social media. Both have the ability to interrupt our time with friends and family as never before, engagement is affected…and so on. But there again, it also provides the ability to connect to people you would never meet or to rebuild relationships long lost or diminished due to the tyranny of distance. Its a two-edged sword. I guess I feel that one edge is a little blunted right now.
My pace at work is never-ending - like others I have introduced all manner of techniques to manage my time and how I work (to my benefit and that of the people I’ve worked with), but the pace increases…and my family can tend to suffer…and I certainly do.
The pace of technological change is relentless and increasing. Upgrade this and upgrade that. Quite early on, I found myself questioning why are we doing this, is the next upgrade necessary - the relentless nature of the next and brighter, shinier, quicker version of anything just didn’t make sense - this push for everything to be quicker, faster (but to what end ultimately). This tied with the level of “redundancy” (some of it built in) of perfectly acceptable, functional tech - simply puzzled me - being neither good for the environment, the soul or the wallet.
a collection of things, each shinier and speedier than the last, and the whole keeping up with the Joneses’ of the western ideology,
fast food (no, not the traditional fast food restaurants, but sitting at your desk during lunchtime and not remembering what you’d eaten, or having dinner in front of the TV - I found that I was doing these two mindlessly…rather than enjoying the moment and the food),
the pace of school for my kids. It seems so at odds with childhood at times…at least the childhood I recall.
even in sports the need for things to be consumed quicker and faster is raising its head with a push for abbreviated or shorter games. It can’t hold our attention, so we abbreviate and throw in more extraneous stimuli (fireworks, music, lights, dancing, infield competitions) to maintain our attention. In reality it diverts our attention and mindfulness from the central purpose of the sport.
The What?
What will I do to slow my life to put the brake on and pursue things which are truly worthwhile and good for the soul?
OK so I could quit my job - now that would slow my life. But, let’s be honest, there are some hazards here, so let’s start small. I have three kids, a mortgage, and so on. I think I will start at the other end with some smaller changes and work up towards the big questions - including the mortgage…
My initial focus was going to be on:
My emotional self
My physical self
My environment
I’m going to start with a stocktake of each of these and see what is causing me most grief or clouding my days with actions and thoughts I don’t need or precluding actions or thoughts I do need. Which of these are hampering my sense of connection to me, my body, my family and the good and wholesome in life.
The When?
Right Here, Right Now! Yes I’m going to start now…well I’ve already started really. Often we have an idea for change in our life - whether it be a change of career, starting at the gym and exercising, the new diet, slowing your life and so on - but we postpone it to tomorrow. We wait for the perfect weather or state of mind. We want to start this new journey or change to occur on the best footing possible. We fear that anything other than the best conditions will increase the likelihood of failure. Unfortunately, we often don’t start, the conditions aren’t right, my mind is too cluttered, I’ve got too much on. Or we catch sight of how incredibly significant the journey looks - we consider it daunting, we consider our personal foibles and envision the likely failure.
Well, guess what, I’m not fully prepared for this journey. But I know that change needs to happen. I’m absolutely positive I will stumble and fall on numerous occasions, I will gather a broad collection of cuts and braises (figuratively one hopes). So what. This is an exercise in living - nobody is grading me, success and failure are personal. The Journey Is Personal! I’m just going to get on with it.
The Big Question…How?
What is my first step? On reflection I’ve already made it. I have consciously recognised there are changes that need to occur - I need to slow my living, be more conscious and deliberate in what I do and don’t do. This, in itself, is a massive leap forward.
You know what, I’m also excited, truly gut wrenchingly excited by this. I’m excited by what will change, by what I will learn about myself, where this road will take us as a family. Hold on to your hats…I’m even excited about the prospect of failing at things!
In a practical sense or more mundane sense of what what - and I will talk more about this in future posts - I also started with a closet clean out. Now, lets be honest, I’m a died in the wool hoarder from way back. You would be startled, perhaps even concerned, by what I have kept hold of. I took to my closet over the course of an afternoon. I didn’t finish it all - there are other cupboards to be done, there are other steps to be taken in taking the step to drop clothes at the charity shop…I will do it…but my god do I feel better for cleaning out my closet and organising things. My mornings are different, so much better. I already feel lighter somehow…its a start.
Now for tomorrow…and the next day!!
