The Importance Of Slowing Down And The 4 Key Effects Of REST
Slowly, the idea of slowing down is making its well-deserved way into our collective thinking – and for a good reason. We all know how fast our life has become – not only are we rushing from A to B, potentially burning out somewhere on the way – there are also cookbooks for 5-minute dinners, 1-minute bedtime stories, and tips and tricks and apps for fast reading. But the truth is: if you want to go faster, you need to slooow dooown.
To be honest, I could write a whole book about the importance of slowing down (and in fact I might down the line). I believe it to be one of the most urgent remedies for modern issues like inequality, depression, climate change and so forth (together with education of girls and compassion). So, yes. We need to slow down - quickly!
There truly are many different angles from which I can and will talk about the beauty and significance of slowing down and the importance of rest on this blog, starting today with my acronym REST.
Don’t you love a good acronym?
In order to make the wonderful effects of slowing down easier to remember, I made “rest” an acronym in itself. Recovery, Equilibrium, Sustainability, Time-Affluence (REST).
So, let’s take a deep breath.
Be present.
Take a moment.
And let’s begin.
Recovery
Did you know that slowing down and taking a good rest is actually and literally healing your body?
Let me get a little scienc-y here.
We have a sympathetic (fight, flight or freeze) and a parasympathetic nervous system (rest, digest, repair & regeneration). The sympathetic nervous system protects us from a potential threat. But it also makes us worry, fear and think in catastrophic ways. When this nervous system is activated, our body is stressed and tense. It is the place where we hang out when we are experiencing mental stress. Like a rabbit that perceives a danger, and it quickly decides to freeze, run or attack. But generally, the rabbit only stays in this state for as long as the threat exists. Whereas, we humans, we hang out in that sphere way too much.
But when we slow down, when we embody the lack of threat, we move toward the parasympathetic nervous system. The frequency of our brain slows down, the stress in the brain gets reduced, allowing organs to function properly - like our digestive system - and promote healing.
We can slow down by meditating or simply by reducing the speed we move and think in - to increase the presence of our psyche and awareness. Here we can become more aware of our body herself. Through mindfulness practices and arriving in stillness, we can experience emotions without judging them - just allowing them to be and to move through our body without any attachment. This is pure presence. It is where time stands still, where we experience peace. It is where we don’t focus on anything or scan our surroundings for danger. Instead, our system can look inward and regenerate. (To be fair - this is more of a high-level overview.)
This state is beyond mindfulness. With mindfulness, we are always mindful of something - we focus on something. But in this regenerative state, there is only pure presence, no focus. No thoughts.
This also means that allowing our emotions without judging them plays an important role for healing. After a felt experience/emotion/sensation reaches its peak, it begins to settle. The whole body begins to settle, the nervous system, the organ system, cardiovascular system, hormonal system, … it is where repair and regeneration can happen.
Equilibrium
So, here is a semi-controversial belief. What seems like a chaotic world is the result of century-long oppression of women, and therefore the oppression and dismissing of the majority of feminine traits & strengths (such as rest, nurturance, sensitivity, cyclical, win/win, stillness, empathy, vulnerability, being over doing, inward energy, intuition, creativity, allowing, flow, etc.).
And vice versa, we have been experiencing an oversaturation of masculine traits & strengths (visibility, productivity, result-oriented, linear, analytical, assertive, logical, competitive, win/lose, doing over being, outward, individualism).
(Please note that this is not about men versus women or saying that one is better or more advanced than the other. It is about the two different sets of traits and strengths of the two archetypes that reside in everyone at different percentages. However, women tend to host more feminine than masculine traits and men more masculine than feminine ones.)
The one common denominator, the one solution I have identified to recreate the balance and a healthy equilibrium, is for everyone to slow down. Men and women.
Because what are we racing toward in the first place? By racing toward a goal, something to make us “happy”, we miss what happens in the present moment.
But we are an over-stimulated generation. It is no secret that social media, smartphones, TV shows, and so on are designed to make us addicted – and on average addicted we are. The average internet user spends just under 2.5 hours per day on social media. And TV? Around 80% of Australians have been spending 3 hours and the average U.S. American 4 hours watching TV per day. PER DAY. Added up, this gets us to somewhere around 5.5 hours spend per day on social media and watching TV, unless you do both at the same time - which doesn’t make it better. And don’t get me started on the news. All of this causes a lot of stress and anxiety and depression, which Matt Haig has a few things to say about.
”Personally I need to know why I have a fear of slowing down, like I am the bus in Speed that would explode if it dropped below 50 miles per hour. … I am petrified of where my mind can go, because I know where it has been. (But) the thing with mental turmoil is that so many things that make you feel better in the short term make you feel worse in the long term. You distract yourself, when what you really need is to know yourself.”
– Matt Haig, “Notes On A Nervous Planet”
So, by slowing down, the equilibrium is moving away from an on average overstimulated and stressed mind into a more healthy middle between stimulation and rest. You can imagine this imagery as a pendulum that swings between two extremes. If there is no counter piece to stress, the pendulum has no equilibrium to return to or travel through, it only hangs in one spot - stress. That is why meditation or other dedicated stillness/slow living practices and rituals are so important. They are the counter piece to our busy lives and therefore, the equilibrium moves more toward a healthy middle. It doesn’t mean that we have to be slow all the time and summon our inner turtle at all times. It is about finding the balance. The more stressed and busy you are, the more time you may need to spend in stillness.
I believe that by shifting our mindset away from the hustle, away from the constant need to grow and do and consume, towards more moments of presence, pure being, awareness and creativity we will be able to re-establish a long-lost balance and create a lifestyle that is sustainable for us as individuals, a community and the planet.
Sustainability
Another wonderful effect of slowing down is a more sustainable lifestyle. Not only are we activating our parasympathetic nervous system more regularly, but implementing rest as part of the work/creative process and simply life, we also remind ourselves of where we come from. Mother Nature.
Creating a more sustainable lifestyle begins with not waiting to feel tired, not waiting to be exhausted, and not waiting to burnout, before we slow down. In the natural world (somehow I can hear David Attenborough’s voice in my head right now!), everything lives in cycles. There are the seasons of the year, the way a tree grows buds, grows leaves, loses its leaves again and lives through winter (rest time), the way water moves in cycles, day and night, full moon and new moon, life and death, female cycles …
Living in accordance with these natural cycles allows us and gives us permission (since we seem to need permission) to slow down without any fear of being left behind, being considered lazy, or experiencing fomo.
Rest is a natural part of the process and many societies have cut it out. That’s where the imbalance comes from.
We can (nay, need to!) manage our energy in a more cyclical way by calculating in rest periods and trusting that spring - a new phase for brainstorming and creativity and sowing seeds for results - will come again.
”Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished”
– Lao Tzu
With all the media consumption I talked about above, we are utterly disconnected from our self and nature. That’s where stillness comes in. We need to understand that reconnecting with nature/our self/a natural way of being is key to being connected with our self and living a fruitful and sustainable life.
And that said - there are cultures on Earth that still work with cyclical time systems. This means that you never run out of time, that there is a right time for everything, and that everything is equally important. Leaving things undone in the evening is not a sign of laziness, it is knowing that the new day brings a new opportunity. Every new dawn brings a new beginning. Why not adopt thinking about time as cyclical instead of linear?
Sustainability also plays a huge role in agriculture (duh!). Where fields used to be let to rest, left to lie fallow for a while so that the soil would recover for new growth, we are now exploiting our resources in a way that will sooner or later create some real trouble (who am I kidding? It already does that), contributing to global soil losing its quality, a decrease of biodiversity, contributing to CO2 emissions, and climate change. The German word for the country lying fallow is “Brache” which also refers to the time period itself. So, the meaning of the word not only talks about the process of the land is lying idle - it also refers to a time period within the agricultural processes.
Not without a reason, regenerative agriculture is gaining importance worldwide as a method to increase biodiversity and water cycles and to establish resilience to climate change in an attempt to reduce carbon dioxide levels. For example, this is being done by letting pieces of land recover periodically in a technique referred to as regenerative grazing. (Please excuse me, I am not an agriculture pro!)
In the same way, we can learn to manage our own time and energy, respect the time and energy of others, live in better connection with the Earth and produce without exploitation.
What I am saying is that without respecting the natural cycles and the need for rest, regeneration, and recovery, humans and the planet are figuratively and literally burning out.
“It is not just do do do. It is not just be be be. It is do be do be do.”
— Amit Goswami, theoretical nuclear physicist & consciousness researcher
Time-Affluence
Modern society certainly has a lot to offer. A lot of advances have been made and we have in fact more time than ever before in our individual lives - we live longer and enjoy more automated and industrialised processes which “save us time”. But if they are saving us so much time - how come we are still rushing and buzzing around? Shouldn’t we have all the time in the world to relax in a hammock or spend hours upon hours with our friends and family? (The happiest people socialise about 6 hours a day!)
Not quite. Of course, living expenses have increased and as we live for a longer time, we continue to pay for them beyond the age of fifty-five (the rough life-expectancy 100 years ago).
But other than that we should have more time at our hands.
Yet somewhere along the way, we started to believe that we need to do all the things. Like rushing. Making more and more money. Watching Netflix. Being on social media. Reading all the news. Improving, being better than others, competing, yada yada yada.
Being hyper-active disconnects us from the present moment and it actually makes time rush by unnoticed - so that by the end of the day, you don’t know anymore what has happened to you. And you are exhausted.
Not buying into this belief of constantly having to be on the go or living by the tyranny of a ticking round little thing, we are able to better connect with our mind and body and we may experience time affluence.
Time affluence is one of the few things in your life that is proven to gift you long-lasting happiness.
But what is time affluence, you wonder?
Time affluence is when you wake up in the morning and you have enough time to choose in peace the things you want to do.
Time affluence is not having to rush out through the door in the morning.
It is being present, in control, not blindly following a routine.
Time affluence is doing a few movements of yoga and then changing your mind and going for a walk instead, without judgment and without time pressure.
It is getting lost in a book and not noticing that the sun has set and the room got all dark.
Time affluence is not a vacation in Italy, rushing from sight to sight.
It is staying at your accommodation, boiling an egg or two, eating them in silence with a stalk of fresh asparagus, wiggling your toes in the sun.
Time affluence is la dolce fa niente.
Tasting time on your tongue, not letting it upset your stomach.
Time affluence is bliss.
Let’s think about sex.
That is one activity that most people enjoy most out of all activities and it is where many people are extremely present and connecting with their partner. Do you ever check the time while you are, well, at it? Do you know how much time has passed? And that said, how enjoyable is sex when during it you think about what to cook for dinner?
On the other end of the spectrum - an activity that people on average dislike the most is commuting to work. It is one of the least liked experiences. Time may drag on - “Oh no, another red light! I will be late!”. It makes sense considering that many people worry about the day ahead, a presentation at work, being late, the food shopping that needs to be done after, a meeting with the manager, or seeing a colleague they are not on the same page with. That’s a lot of sympathetic nervous system activity right there, making you think, “GET ME OUTA HERE!”
It is a transition phase that many of us don’t know how to handle. Its sole purpose seems to be to move you from A to B, but what if it’s purpose would be to just be and experience the present moment without judgment?
This time right there, in the car, is the time to meditate. (Do you ever think you don’t have the time to meditate? Do it in traffic or at a red light! Breathing in. Breathing out. You can read my post about 5 misconceptions about meditation here.)
When we take a deep breath and let our bodily systems slow down, when we don’t think about the future or the past but feel our beautiful belly expand, time is reduced to what it actually is – the NOW. A single point in time and yet an unlimited moment of now. Time stands still and loses its man-made meaning. Time expands, circles, or speeds up. It always is. We have no anchor in it, we only have the activity at hand. We are fully present. You can learn a few ways to create more time in your day in this post.
That also means that when we slow down we are more in healthy control. We are able to step back, zoom out and have more control over our emotions, responses and decisions. It allows us to make intentional changes and aligned decisions which is where life becomes more intended, purposeful and rich.
But in order to do that we need to slow down first.
“Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life.”
― Eckhart Tolle
What about you? How do you feel about slowing down? Do you find it difficult or easy? Does it scare you or do you feel enriched by it? And let me know what you took away from this post! It always thrills me to hear from you!
