I’ve tried something over the past few weeks that I highly recommend:
Slowing down.
I have been hand-writing notes or picking up the phone instead of sending quick e-mails.
Cooking in an oven instead of a microwave.
Drying clothes on a drying rack instead of putting them in the dryer.
Talking slower.
Taking my time when I’m reading a book.
Easing off the gas pedal.
I started doing this after reading Bill Bryson’s witty and engaging book The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, a memoir of his life as a boy growing up in the 1950’s.
I was raised in a different time than Bryson was, but still in the days before cell phones, DVDs, PlayStations and home computers. When I was a kid we had virtual reality. It was called “outside.”
The result of my slowing down is that I’m appreciating life a whole lot more.
I’m enjoying conversations more.
Listening better.
Eating more slowly and enjoying that more, too.
Life seems bouncy again. More fun.
Much better as I take the time to enjoy it more.
Let it soak in. I commend to you taking a little more time to do everything in your life.
See if it doesn’t result in richer experiences.
Nice post. We all need to learn to slow down. I like to think of it as being mindful of what I am doing and why I am doing it…
I gave up my dryer a year ago and now only use a clothes drying rack it is amazing how much more I appriciate my clothing now that I am handling them more and just slowing down and thinking…
This past weekend I did the same thing (true story, although I would have used the “communal” dryers in my building — ick) and recall that as a kid, we hung the sheets up on the clothes line in the backyard … I also like the fact that I’m not polluting as much when the sun dries them!