Why Slow Living is Way Better Than Racing Through Life

Slow Living

Your life is precious. Not only to you but to so many people around you too.

Every day you are walking around this Earth influencing others and changing the course of history. The enormity of it seems impossible, but it is true. We touch so many people throughout our days and we rarely realize it.

We have the ultimate power to affect someone else’s entire day with our attitudes and behaviors and many times we do not stop long enough to look him or her in the eye while doing it.

Just think of how many people you interacted with this morning, this week, and this month. How many times did you stand in line with others and noticeably sigh out loud or make a negative comment about having to wait so long, how many times did you pay a cashier while barely acknowledging them just to speed up the process so you could leave, how many people did you cut off in traffic, swerving in front of them because you think your job is more important to get to than theirs?

We do all of these things and more, not because we are all just a bunch of jerks, but because we have all been socialized to be in a constant state of hurry. Being the first one to complete a huge project or land a monthly sales goal is rewarded at work. Being the first one to understand a new concept and ace a test is applauded at school. Being the first to volunteer or donate money is glorified at church.

So we have learned over time to race from one important part of our lives to the next. We wake up and our job is important so we wolf down breakfast and coffee and speed along with our interactions with our family members or the barista at our favorite coffee shop. Then we rush through traffic as if we will literally die if we do not get there on time. We spend the next eight (more likely nine or ten) hours charging through one task or meeting to another as if each one will make or break the company we work for. Then we speed like professional race car drivers to get home in time to grab our kids and buy them fast food to inhale so they can get to practice on time.

Slow Living Lifestyle

We need to stop racing through our lives. Like now. It is draining every ounce of energy from our bodies and stealing every drop of happiness from our souls.

We have been conditioned since childhood to hurry up and get our shoes on, hurry up and walk quickly, hurry up and eat our dinners. I catch myself doing this to my own children all the time. And it never saves me the precious seconds I think it will; it always causes them stress and then they meltdown, which ends up making us later than ever.

So what if we all make the decision here and now to slow down? What could possibly go wrong?

If you are anything like me, you will still be fifteen minutes early instead of twenty. And if you are not like me, you can wake up five minutes earlier and still be on time. You will still be able to buy whatever you are waiting for inline. Now you will have the opportunity to genuinely smile at the cashier and wish them a good day (because we all know people in customer service need to hear it more than anyone). And you will still reach your destination and you will do so safer and without a speeding ticket.

Enjoy Your Life

Your life will never be full of joy if you race from one activity to the next. True happiness comes from intentional, slow living, spending quality time with others, and enjoying the simple experiences in life.

So I chose to do a little experiment with my own family over the last week. Every time I felt the need to hurry someone along, I took a deep breath and kept my mouth shut. I let my daughter eat the world’s slowest breakfast and I did not race her out of a very long shower. I let my son pick up his race track when he got around to it, and I refrained from reminding him over and over again to put his shoes on so we could leave. And guess what? None of us died!

Interestingly enough, I realized how much my children have already been socialized to hurry each other along. My son is the oldest so he makes it his personal mission in life to boss around his sister and I was shocked to see how many of his comments in a day revolved around how slow she does everything. This led to me teaching him how to take a deep breath and not allowing time to worry him so much. I also realized that my fiance walks way too fast everywhere he goes and my much shorter legs are constantly trying to keep up with his pace. So I stopped. I told him he walks too fast for me and from now on, I will get there when I get there. I do not need to race across every parking lot to be next to him when the sliding doors open. They will still slide open when I trigger the sensor. And now it is our little personal joke and he is standing there smiling at me when I catch up with him.

After a week of practicing at a slower pace, it was crazy to see how much less anxiety I felt. I even ended up buying new food to try in the grocery store because I let my kids meander at their own pace and select one item each that they had never tasted before. And when I stopped in to work with them, I took the time to show them around (instead of rushing them through to grab what I needed) and we discovered a party going on where they got to meet some of my co-workers and enjoy a surprise cupcake. We actually stayed for a while and enjoyed each other’s company.

It is amazing how living intentionally actually gives us freedom and creates a level of happiness that we might never have discovered before.

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What can you do to enjoy life more? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.