Slow Down
The other morning I was leaving the studio with about eight different things on my mind. I felt rushed even though I didn’t need to. I pulled up to the stop sign and pulled out in front of a car. I was distracted and not paying attention. And just to clarify, I was not on my cell phone. The other driver was not happy but reacted in a way that diverted an accident. I immediately felt horrible. I almost caused a car accident and could have hurt another person in the process. I was lucky, lucky the car slowed down and lucky no one got physically hurt…emotionally is a different story. As I drove home, feeling sick to my stomach, I was also thankful that I was still driving home. Being distracted and rushing to get somewhere almost cost me a lot more time, an undetermined amount of time depending on the severity of the accident. Slowing everything down might have take another two minutes, but in the scheme of things, that’s nothing.
As I was trying to calm my nerves I reminded myself to be very thankful that things didn’t turn out worse. But I also started to think what I could gain from this incident. As the day worn on, I realized that I need to slow down. And I don’t just mean when I am driving a car. Yes, I am an impatient driver, yes I get frustrated with slow cars, and yes I hate a lot of the four-way stops in town. Driving aside, it was a jolt to think about how much I rush most things. I need to slow down not only the physical moments but also my mentality. I am always multitasking, trying to accomplish as much as I can, only so I can add more to my days. I need to spend more time being present in the moment and less time trying to solve my life’s problems. The same qualities that help me with productivity are also causing mindlessness.
Unfortunately, it isn’t just me. Most of us are distracted. We are often distracted by grocery lists and to-do lists. We are distracted by phone calls and appointments. We are distracted by parenting and relationships. Most of the time I am a combination of them all. I am overwhelmed with this whole life stuff, trying to balance kids, work, organization, friendships and everything else that demands my time. I am taking this opportunity to just slow all of it down. Spend a few extra minutes focusing on the moment I am living. Spend a few extra minutes breathing in the fresh air. Spend a few extra minutes keeping my mind on task. Driving is where I am practicing but it is something I need to work on in every aspect.
In my classes, we regularly talk about how injuries usually happen when we are doing stupid shit. We are mindlessly doing something that we have done hundreds of times and we start to get mentally distracted. Our minds wander far away from the moment and we become vulnerable to mistakes. Our bodies forget something small and our minds aren’t there to remind them what to do. Sometimes we don’t pay attention to a little ache or discomfort because we are concerned with other things. Maybe we had a fight with our spouse the night before, maybe we had a stressful day at work. These distractions can cause us to ignore the pain or forget the proper movement. When an injury does happen, its usually pretty preventable. And when our life gets put on hold for an hour or a day or a month, we realize that it is those little distractions that start to add up.
The same applies for nutrition. When our minds start to wander we don’t always realize how much we have eaten. We don’t pay attention to what we are eating. And worst, sometimes we don’t even enjoy what we are eating. Most of us are probably victims of mindless eating. You know, those times we sit down in front of the tv or a screen and just start snacking, not really noticing how many handfuls we’ve eaten. There are many times we get distracted or even rushed during meal time. We feel like we have too much going on to sit down and enjoy every bite. It is easy to start slowly heading down the path of mindless eating. It can take a lot of work to sit and eat for ten or twenty minutes.
How often are we distracted, just busying ourselves through out our day, barely taking time to evaluate how we are doing? This is my Public Service Announcement, Slow Down. Enjoy the moments we get. Take time to enjoy a meal with a friend. Take the time to let the car pass. Take the time to be present for your family. Because I am pretty sure that most of us would agree, if we were given the choice, we would choose to slow down.