From technology to human beings, everything today is measured by speed and efficiency. We aim to accomplish more by doing two or three things at once. But naturally we end up getting distracted. This distraction often comes at a price. Ouch!
John Freeman, editor of Granta and author of the forthcoming book, The Tyranny of E-mail, writes, “We will die, that much is certain; and everyone we have ever loved will die, too, sometimes – heartbreakingly – before us… Busyness numbs the pain of this awareness, but it can never totally submerge it. Given that our days are limited, our hours precious, we have to decide what we want to do, what we want to say, what and who we care about, and how we want to allocate our time to these things within the limits that do not and cannot change. In short, we need to slow down.”
Slow down right here and right now and give Freeman’s message a thought. He definitely has a valid point.
- It’s scientifically proven that slower breathing is one of the simplest ways to better health. The Hindu mythology says that the length our life isn’t determined by the number of years we live but the number of breaths we take. Deep breathing lowers stress and reduces systolic blood pressure. It allows oxygen to reach the smallest airways in our lungs, (alveoli), where the oxygen exchange is most efficient. Quick, shallow breathing causes our bodies to release less nitrous oxide resulting our organs and tissues to be less oxygenated.
- Ever wondered why French women are so slim? I saw a show on Opera once where she invited a French lady to disclose their secret for being so slim. Eat slower and you will eat less is what was revealed! There is a lag time between when the stretch receptors in your stomach signal it is time to stop eating and when your brain gets the message. We tend to over eat during this time lag because we either eat too fast or are busy being distracted by something else.
- If you slow your intake, you will also savor your meals more. Researchers at the University of Rhode Island discovered that people who eat slowly consume 70 less calories per meal. Multiply that by three meals a day and you’ll drop 20 pounds over the next year. Boom- boom- boom!
- Slowness won’t hurt your love life. Enjoy the moments in life together; make every moment a special one. Enjoy that long, lingering, teasing kiss.
- Slowing down prevents accidents. It’s impossible to calculate the number of motorists killed or injured each year because they were in a rush.You actually save time, do better work and prevent more injuries by slowing down.
- A more deliberate pace enhances your quality of life. There’s an old Chinese saying, “Man in hurry cannot walk with dignity.” A constant flurry of activity doesn’t present an attractive image. It creates stress and anxiety. It causes us to miss much of what is going on around us. As the philosophical quote states, the wise man is not hurried and the hurried man is not wise.
- It’s good to churn some instant money from time to time by opting for some quick but risky derivatives available in the financial market, but it’s wise to play safe and have a slow and steady savings plan for our future/retirement. After all slow and steady wins the race.
We all have obligations and deadlines, of course. But hurry and extreme future-mindedness impoverish the present.
Deep down, most of us realize this. But it never hurts to be reminded!
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