That's a quote from Lao Tzu.
It has come to my attention recently that I am in way too much of a hurry.
As a person, I naturally operate at a high frequency. I'm always moving around and doing things and planning things and organizing things.
This is not in and of itself a bad trait.
I actually take a lot of pride in my organizational skill set.
As of late, however, I have come to notice some things about myself.
I have been very easily agitated.
I have not been sleeping well.
I have stressed myself out almost daily over things that aren't really that important in the long run.
So the first thing I did was complain to my mom.
She says I need to slow down.
I attempt to be more calm, but I end up stressing that I can't not stress.
I know, it's a little ridiculous. What can I say? I'm kind of high strung.
So I think to myself...."Self, how does one go about slowing down?"
So I did the most obvious thing you can do when you are searching for info: I googled it.
It just so happens that the very first site that came up was a home run. It is called ZenHabits, by Leo Babauta.
It took me through a list of 10 things that you can practice to slow down and enjoy life more.
I was intrigued, so I kept reading. The next article was about doing less, and getting more out of what you are doing.
About 8 different times during my reading, words literally jumped off the page at me.
For example:
#6 on the Do-Less list: Do less planning and worrying and future thinking [it might as well have said AMANDA afterwards].
or #3: Do Less managing.
or #5 Do Less complaining and criticizing.
[ok so pretty much all the numbers.]
I highly encourage all of you to read both articles, because even though a lot of it is stuff we have heard in some way, shape, or form before, you never know how something may strike you differently at a different juncture in your life.
I don't want to be agitated and stressed.
I really like sleeping.
So I am going to make a conscious effort to slow my roll.
And we'll see what happens.
This Lao guy has some gems..."Do nothing to disturb the spontaneous flow of things."
It has come to my attention recently that I am in way too much of a hurry.
As a person, I naturally operate at a high frequency. I'm always moving around and doing things and planning things and organizing things.
This is not in and of itself a bad trait.
I actually take a lot of pride in my organizational skill set.
As of late, however, I have come to notice some things about myself.
I have been very easily agitated.
I have not been sleeping well.
I have stressed myself out almost daily over things that aren't really that important in the long run.
So the first thing I did was complain to my mom.
She says I need to slow down.
I attempt to be more calm, but I end up stressing that I can't not stress.
I know, it's a little ridiculous. What can I say? I'm kind of high strung.
So I think to myself...."Self, how does one go about slowing down?"
So I did the most obvious thing you can do when you are searching for info: I googled it.
It just so happens that the very first site that came up was a home run. It is called ZenHabits, by Leo Babauta.
It took me through a list of 10 things that you can practice to slow down and enjoy life more.
I was intrigued, so I kept reading. The next article was about doing less, and getting more out of what you are doing.
About 8 different times during my reading, words literally jumped off the page at me.
For example:
#6 on the Do-Less list: Do less planning and worrying and future thinking [it might as well have said AMANDA afterwards].
or #3: Do Less managing.
or #5 Do Less complaining and criticizing.
[ok so pretty much all the numbers.]
I highly encourage all of you to read both articles, because even though a lot of it is stuff we have heard in some way, shape, or form before, you never know how something may strike you differently at a different juncture in your life.
I don't want to be agitated and stressed.
I really like sleeping.
So I am going to make a conscious effort to slow my roll.
And we'll see what happens.
This Lao guy has some gems..."Do nothing to disturb the spontaneous flow of things."
Love this post. It's so relevant to our demographic since we just exited a very proactive time of our lives. Definitely a big believer in "taking it eaaasssyyyy" as Granddaddy use to say, and I found that I've mellowed out a lot more in the last year and I'm ultimately happier because of it. I get more done because I'm not so worried about what/where I need to do/think/go next.
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