Slowing down. On purpose.

The days are long. The years are short. So they say.

It feels counterintuitive, to slow down, when the to-do list feels so very long and the hours feel so very few.

But. What might slowing down offer you?

• The space to see what is necessary, and what can wait.

• The chance to prioritise effectively.

• The opportunity to switch off the stress response.

• The time to act rather than react.

• The chance to feel more in control of what needs your attention.

• A moment to care less, and care more about what matters, at the same time.

In addition to the NOTICING techniques shared earlier this month, here are some ways to slow down to find the mental space and perspective to tend to your needs.

Along the way, the to-do list might not seem so enormous or urgent after all.

1. Slow Down With Intentional Pauses

Daily pauses don’t need to be long to be effective.

Support for this idea comes from research with students. It turns out that when teachers pause after asking a question and after receiving a response, it improves students' use of language and logic (Rowe, 1986).

This suggests that if we too give ourselves a bit more time to think through the questions we encounter in life, we can likely come up with better answers. Pausing, instead of rushing along, can help our brains work better. 

Create moments in your day that allow you to pause: to create space, to enable deeper thinking, to choose your next steps.

Watch the TED Talk ‘Slow Down to Go Faster - The Power of Pause’ with Ralph Simone for more insights - also in this month’s resource list.

2. Slow Down by Finding a Quiet Space

One thing that often gets compromised as a parent is our need for privacy. Our bodies, our spaces, our beds, our loo breaks – often they accommodate our little people.

And even if we find some privacy, we might compromise the quietness of that space by bringing our phone in (more on that in a moment…). Our minds are full, even if our space is quiet.

Try to find a quiet space, both mental and physical, that allows you to recharge and recalibrate.

3. Slow Down by Spending Less Time on Your Phone

We often feel frazzled and need a break from our busy day, so what do we do? We pick up our phones. We're scrolling through social media, the news, or shopping websites. But all these activities do is make our heads even fuller as we consume huge amounts of information in a tiny amount of time. That's the opposite of slowing down.

To start, it would do us some good to spend less time on our phones. But interestingly, it also matters a lot how we spend the time on our phones. Are we stimulating our brain with information or anger? Or are we using our phones to relax and recuperate?

Try limiting your phone use to certain times of the day or designate certain activities (listening to music or your meditation app) to certain times of the day. Control your phone so it doesn’t control you. 

4. Slow Down by Doing Something Outside

Getting outdoors may just be one of the best ways to slow down. More specifically, research has shown that wilderness trips help us to slow down. In one study, participants wrote about how wilderness trips led to ‘no time-consciousness’. After undergoing a wilderness trip, participants reported wanting to slow down, consume less, and simplify. They said they felt this way at least in part because they now had a better sense of what really matters (Talbot & Kaplan, 1986).

Indeed, slowing down seems to help us better understand what really matters; and discovering what really matters leads us to want to slow down more. By jumpstarting this process with the support of nature, we can ease our foot off the accelerator of our lives and begin to enjoy the moment a bit more.

Do something outside. Whatever the weather.

5. Slow Down by Practicing Savouring

By bringing some awareness to the activities and moments that bring us joy and happiness, when we savour our experiences, we reinforce the neural pathways that make that memory and those feelings more accessible.

Savouring requires a slower pace – a mindfulness and presence to remember to do it. When we move at pace, so too do we minimise the importance of recognising our positive emotion – sometimes letting it pass through our fingertips entirely as we move quickly on the to the next thing…

Practice noticing and recalling which moments provide you with happiness and joy. However contrived it might feel the begin with, building this new habit could change your life.

6. Slowing down your thoughts

Journaling, or morning pages, is a good way to notice what your thoughts are. Even a good old to-do list can help collect thoughts in one place – to be able to scrutinise them.

We might also go for a run or take a cold shower (Mourot et al., 2008) — two techniques that can help our brains switch gears and get unstuck.

Find an opportunity to ‘watch the watcher’ (as Eckhart Tolle describes it) - meaning, create some self awareness, a reset to the present moment, and the ability to ‘see yourself’.

7. Slow down by breathing slowly.

Breathing slowly activates the parasympathetic nervous system, our rest and digest system. This system is the counterbalance to the sympathetic nervous system, our fight or flight system. So by activating the parasympathetic nervous system, we help our body slow down so that it can engage in restful processes like sleep and digestion. 

Take some slow, deep breaths to slow our bodies and minds down.

How will you slow down?

1. Set a small achievable habit

2. Commit to your goal in writing

3. Be prepared to be bad at your goal and give yourself permission to go off-track sometimes.

4. Celebrate when you return to your habits.

Source: https://www.berkeleywellbeing.com/slow-down.html