Most of us hurry through life. Rarely slowing down, we rapidly race from task to task, place to place, thing to thing.
I talk about this. I write about this. But I need to become so much better at slowing, at stopping, at pausing, at resting. Here are some reminders through my book Pause: The Secret to a Better Life, One Word at a Time.
I need to apply what I have written.
-Let each of us choose to meet a new friend this week. Smile and say hello. Grab a moment. Give a little time, a little kindness, a little eye contact.
-Look through your typical schedule diet. See how much time you are spending for just yourself. Set goals to find a balanced schedule including God, yourself, and others.
-Let us be still. Breathing in the air, let us inhale and exhale fully aware of what matters most. Let us make changes if too much stuff is taking out too much of our lives.
-Inhale. Pause. Exhale. Pause. Walk slowly. Read slowly. Type slowly. Stare for a long time. Enjoy this season of your life—one breath at a time.
-When you read a heartbreaking article, watch a sad movie, and feel deep hurt in real life, don’t be afraid to cry. Realize your feelings, your hurt. Find a friend and talk about the painful experiences of life.
-Find a close friend who will listen to your doubts and fears, and who will encourage you to endure the journey.
-By quitting too soon, we’ll never know what’s on the other side. By finishing, we’ll know the joy of completion.
-Think of ways you can show love and care in practical ways—financially, conversationally, relationally.
-Take a walk through your house. Slowly. Notice what you often ignore. Take similar walks through your neighborhood, your school, your workplace, your church campus.
-Today, let us analyze ourselves. Are we investing in relationships?
-Open a new life chapter. Begin a new story. Guide the story with faith and hope and love. Receive the love of Christ: the Greatest Story of All.
I love how much opportunity you gave in this for practical application. These are things that we definitely need to be taking time to slow down, notice, and question.
I enjoyed the practicality of this blog. Look at your emotions and process every moment is just pure gold for the workaholic, for the joyful and the broken. So much beauty of life we often miss by just speeding from moment to moment.
The main things that stuck out to me from this post were that I need to take a look at my schedule diet, and that I’m actually making time to invest in relationships rather than keeping myself busy.
Great piece! Anyone with even a passing interest in the subject should read your in-depth analysis and explanations. Your inclusion of examples and practical ideas is really appreciated. We appreciate you being so kind with your time and expertise.
This blog was truly incredible. I enjoyed reading this and I felt this is something I need to do better in my life. In coming to Emmanuel and hearing Pastor Chris speak on this, I have strived to do better at slowing down in life. When I’m walking down the hall, going to my room, walking to my next class, getting food in the cafeteria, walking to my car, and even responding to messages on my phone, I do it all so fast paced. I have to stop myself sometimes, telling myself to slow down as I do these things. I’m not in a hurry most of the time, but it has become habit for everything to be fast paced. I’ve noticed when I stop, slow down, and take my time, I feel so much better. Life at Emmanuel is very busy. Classes, rehearsals, practices, trying to complete work, going to see friends, trying to get one place to another on time, can create this stress of feeling like there is no time. Like, “if I don’t do it right now, I’m not going to have time to do it”. I have fallen in to this before, causing me to do everything so quick (like the examples I mentioned earlier). And, if you don’t take the time to slow down, you feel that stress and panic. But like the blog mentioned, if we “Walk slowly. Read slowly. Type slowly.”, it helps us to remember we don’t need to be in a rush. That there is no real urgency most of the time. By slowing down and breathing, it helps remove that stress. Slowing down can help us realize, and be grateful for, all that God has done for us. Slowing down can help us really think about God and His love. Something like pausing to just sit outside and take in God’s creation, helps one to slow down and focus on God. Living so fast paced can cause you to miss things like that. It’s so important to pause, take your time, and enjoy and be thankful for your life.
I think you mentioned a very important application that I needed to apply more and that is to analyse myself more. I am quick to analyse others but when it comes to myself I am not as quick and I am more reluctant. I think that these applications that you mentioned in this post is are very useful and that I should apply some of them more into my daily life routine.
I find your topic here really resonates with me. With everything going on between school, sports, and in one’s personal life it seems so easy to just get caught up checking things off a to do list than actually experiencing them. The same being true of being a Christian/ one’s relationship with God. It becomes go to chapel, check, read the Bible, check, pray, check. Instead of taking a moment and actually hearing the message at chapel or finding the meaning in the Bible. And at the end of the day, you’re doing all of this trying to get ahead or feel like you’re at least keeping, but all you end up feeling is stuck. You lose your motivation and suddenly it all seems like it would have been so much simpler to of slowed down in the first place.
We can get so caught up in our hurriedness that we even forget that we are so. It is ingrained into us. I seek to apply these principles, Pastor Chris. I want slowness to characterize my life; intentionality with my time and my words, careful consideration in my decisions, and love that is not rushed, hurried, or thoughtless but shared with everyone on purpose.
I have been trying to work on slowing down in my own life and being conscious of the things that I experience around me. I work to take the time to feel the feelings that I may be holding inside. I try to process them myself and sometimes take time to analyze those feelings and through that, I learn more about myself. It is important to pause and take the time to really see people and pay attention to the needs that they have that they may not be outwardly expressing. Listen to the things that they say and pay attention to body language. When we pause it makes it easier to recognize these things and it helps us love others and ourselves better.
Each of those points I could and should apply to my life. There are few times where I get out of my comfort zone. I don’t talk to new people, I don’t take time to do something different. I stick to my routine and same friends everyday. These points you have made, have challenged me to do just that. Thank you.
I loved this! I will definitely be copying this list down as a physical reminder for myself. A lot of these are things I definitely struggle with and I know if I just slow down and take the time to do them that it will not only make me feel better, but also DO better. I resonate a lot with needing to just be still and make changes to things in my life that take stuff from me and don’t add to me in a positive and healthy way.
I love that you give practical application within this article! I think it is definitely difficult to take the initiative to slow down because so much in our lives is “go, go, go” when in reality we need to take a moment and breathe.
Slowing down is a foreign concept in my life right now. Feel like a race car that is driving at a hundred miles an hour and the only time I slow down is for a thirty-second pit stop. I know that Jesus was not in a hurry. He did not run from place to place just yelling through the towns he was preaching to. But he stopped and spent time with the people and his disciples. He also took time to commune with the Father. That is my biggest struggle right now is slowing down at some point in the day to commune with him. I love your vulnerability in saying that you also need to practice what you write about. I think this process of slowing is one that you have to intentionally choose to do daily.
Slowing down is such a hard concept to apply to your life with the world around you is the complete opposite. I feel that it is vital to slow down so that we can actually experience life, not just run through it. Jesus was the perfect person to show us what a slowed life looked like. He never just ran through the towns he was visiting. He spent time there, met with people, and taught his disciples. Even in that, he took time to spend with God. This is one of my biggest struggles. As I feel like I am running a hundred miles an hour, I have always created a space in time to sit with the Father. I love that you’re also vulnerable in saying that you need to practice what you have written. I think that the process of slowing is a daily choice of whether to speed through the day or walk like Jesus did.