Growing up, I was a raging busy body! I was the kind of kid who would put 'wake up' in my calendar just so it would appear more full and I could feel busier. I don't really know when I fell in love with being busy, but its something I'm having to crucify daily and I think you should too...
I remember when I first became Vice-chair of Greenwich Young Peoples council. If you had asked me, I was convinced I had become the Vice President of the United States. I ran from meeting to meeting, scheduling more meetings in between meetings on my Blackberry 8520. I had come to glorify busyness; addicted to the high octane living, life had come to feel like one never-ending session on a treadmill. I signed up for more organisations, chaired some, led some, built some, advised some. Each year, my responsibilities increased and although my knees would often buckle under the pressure, like that kid who overestimates his strength at the gym, I would ask for more weight to be put on.
It wasn't until crashing and burning, lashing out at loved ones, making endless mistakes that I realised I needed to slow down.
There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence . . . activism and overwork. The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence. . . . it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful
Slowing is one way to overcome inner hurriedness and addiction to busyness. Through slowing, the sacrament of the present moment is tasted to the full.
Hurry is the great enemy of souls in our day. Being busy is mostly a condition of our outer world; it is having many things to do. Being hurried is a problem of the soul. It’s being so preoccupied with myself and what myself has to do that I am no longer able to be fully present with God and fully present with you. There is no way a soul can thrive when it is hurried. You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.
The practice of slowing down.
One way we can translate Jesus' invitation to ‘come and follow me’, I think, is ‘come and follow the details of my life’. Come and follow the patterns and the disciplines and the habits so that you can work out my life into your own. Often we think about following Jesus as this theological or moral expression, which it is. However, I think we forget that Jesus's way of living, his theological and the moral code came out of a very particular way of life. Something he called the 'narrow way'. Now, there are theological implications to this, however, there are also some very practical things to consider.
The wide way, which is the secular way is one of 'doing what feels good' - the language of the word. Be true to yourself, do what everyone else is doing, go wherever want, whenever you want and however you want. This is the broad way. Our culture says this is how you experience freedom but when you look around, everyone is depressed, anxious, lonely, relationally broken, sexually dysfunctional and things are falling apart. How’s that going for us? Ever since that movement started, how are things going? Happiness levels are falling even as our education, wealth and civil rights are going up. Our sense of well being is at all all-time low. This wide way is clearly not working.
This is why I invite us all reading this now to practice slowing down, even in December! I also invite us to take this practice into the new year.
Slowing Down
Here are some ways I'm practising slowing down…
Doing less. It’s hard to slow down when you are trying to do a million things. Instead, make the conscious choice to do less. Focus on what’s really important, what really needs to be done, and let go of the rest. Put space between tasks and appointments, so you can move through your days at a more leisurely pace. -- There are some things you need to kill after reading this. Let go of them. This is one of the most important things about slowing down.
Living Between My Potential and Limitation. This sounds anti-everything I preach online but hear me out. I believe God put limitations in our lives for a reason. You are a human being and not a robot. If you are the type of person that only talks about your potential, then you will be prone to burning out, you won't rest enough and will be terrible to be around. If you are the kind of person who only dwells on your limitation, then you will be a sloth watching life pass by. It’s important that you push yourself but also important that you are self-aware enough to listen to your body and make changes when necessary.
Be present. It’s not enough to just slow down — you need to actually be mindful of whatever you’re doing at the moment. That means when you find yourself thinking about something you need to do, or something that’s already happened, or something that might happen … gently bring yourself back to the present moment. Focus on what’s going on right now. On your actions, on your environment, on others around you. This takes practice but is essential.
Eat slower. Instead of cramming food down our throats as quickly as possible — leading to overeating and a lack of enjoyment of our food — learn to eat slowly. Be mindful of each bite. Appreciate the flavours and textures. Eating slowly has the double benefit of making you fuller on less food and making the food taste better. I suggest learning to eat more real food as well, with some great spices (instead of fat and salt and sugar and frying for flavour).
Disconnect. Don’t always be connected. If you carry around an iPhone or Android or other mobile devices, shut it off. Better yet, learn to leave it behind when possible. If you work on a computer most of the day, have times when you disconnect so you can focus on other things. Being connected all the time means we’re subject to interruptions, we’re constantly stressed about information coming in, we are at the mercy of the demands of others. It’s hard to slow down when you’re always checking new messages coming in.
Slow down so you can do more for longer!
Have a great week
M.T. Omoniyi