Slow Down… Become Mindful

“Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing.” – Lao Tzu

It is difficult to be mindful when your mind is racing a mile a minute, when your emotions feel chaotic, or when your heart is racing out of control.  All of these experiences share a common element… they are all happening quickly.  You are much more likely to make careless mistakes, overlook important facts, and make interpersonal blunders when your internal state of affairs is hurried and out of control.  Sometimes you may not even be aware of how “fast” you are really moving until someone close to you points it out.  This is often a sure sign that you are being decidedly unmindful.

The first step toward slowing down and becoming more mindful is noticing that you are rushing.  Perhaps the awareness that you need to slow down comes from feeling your heart racing, noticing yourself making clumsy errors, or feeling strangely detached from yourself.  Do you notice your knee bouncing up and down as you hurriedly struggle to complete tasks?  While your desire to get things done can certainly be a great strength, it is important to recognize that for many of us (myself included!), this desire to “get it done” often results in unnecessary oversights or errors.  When this happens, it ends up taking more time to actually complete the task.

How to Slow Down & Become Mindful

4 Simple Tips for Slowing Down:

Double the Time You Think it Will Take to Complete a Task

How often do you actually finish a task or project in precisely the amount of time that you set aside for yourself? For many people, this rarely happens.  When you allow yourself more time by planning accordingly, you provide yourself with more psychological “space” to go about your work in a more methodical and mindful way.

When you feel rushed to complete a task during the one day, week, or month that you set aside, there may be a sense of urgency that results in you rushing through important steps, cutting corners, or making careless mistakes.  Simply giving yourself more space to “breathe” (without procrastinating) is a way to set the stage for going about your work with greater mindfulness.

Consciously Perform Tasks in Slow Motion

This might sound silly, but forcing yourself to physically move more slowly is an easy way to flex your willpower muscle.  Research suggests that willpower can be actively strengthened through engaging in tasks more slowly and in different ways than we are used to doing them.  For example, brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand actually boosts willpower over time.

Observe yourself in this moment with mindful awareness.  Whatever you are “doing,” slow it down by at least 25%.  If you are hurriedly reading along, slow down.  In your knee is bouncing up and down, bring your awareness to it and allow it to calm down.  If you are tapping your fingers on the table, notice this and allow them to relax.  Physically slow yourself down and allow your thoughts and emotions to slow down as well.

Stimulate Your Parasympathetic Nervous System

Your autonomic nervous system serves the function of regulating many of your bodily systems and functions without your conscious awareness (e.g., your heart beats without you telling it to do so, you continue to breathe while you are asleep).  Two of its three branches are the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system.

When your sympathetic nervous system becomes aroused, it activates your bodily processes for “fight or flight.” This serves an incredibly useful adaptive function.  Have you ever started to change lanes while driving only to see a car nearby and feel a sudden and powerful bodily rush of adrenaline?  This prepares you to take swift action.  In contrast, when the parasympathetic nervous system is aroused, it activates a mental and physical experience of calm and relaxation.

These two systems are designed to work together in harmony.  When they get out of balance, it may be experienced as being in a constant state of hypervigilance (i.e., a heightened state of reactivity and watchfulness for danger/threats).  One (of several) explanations for this is that speedily moving about your day without a grounded sense of mindfulness can result in mental and physiological overactivity… everything is moving too fast.

When the sympathetic nervous system is overly aroused in this way, the parasympathetic nervous system has little opportunity to kick in and provide its balance of calm and relaxation.  The good news is that you can actively stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system to regain a mindful balance of calm and alertness.

Techniques for Stimulating the Parasympathetic Nervous System:

  • Slow and deep breaths from your diaphragm… place your hand on your lower abdomen and allow it to noticeably rise and fall with each deep belly breath.
  • Combined diaphragm breathing with active mindfulness.  Bring your full mindful awareness to your bodily sensations, thoughts, and emotions as you take slow and deep breaths.
  • Safe place visualization exercise(s).  Be sure to make your visualization as vivid as possible, imagining as much richness and detail of your safe and calming place as possible.
  • Lightly run one or two fingers over your lips.  This might sound odd, but parasympathetic fibers are spread throughout your lips, so when you gently touch them (and take slow and deep breaths), you are activating the parasympathetic nervous system.

Avoid Multitasking

Multitasking can be useful sometimes.  The trick is to notice the times when multitasking is resulting in you unnecessarily speeding up and making mistakes and when it is actually helping you get things done in a productive and efficient manner.  If you are a big proponent of multitasking, challenge yourself to spend one entire day with no multitasking whatsoever.  In the words of Korean Zen master Seung Sahn, “When reading, only read.  When eating, only eat.  When thinking, only think.”

If you find that multitasking seems to result in a sense of being “overstimulated,” then consider the benefits that engaging with your tasks and relationships with others with greater mindfulness may have.  If your attention often feels scattered, this is a sign that you may benefit from less multitasking as well.  Doing one thing at a time provides an opportunity to be more mindful and connected to the present moment.  Allow each thing that you do to be worthy of your full attention.  If you are doing something “boring” then use this as an opportunity to be mindful of your boredom… relate to that experience with greater openness, curiosity, and acceptance.

What differences might you notice in your own life if you made the choice to slow down?  When we go through the day in a frantic and frazzled state of urgency, we often miss out on important, special, or beautiful parts of our lives.  People who are close to us may feel disconnected from us when we are rushing around trying to get things done.  Why not try an experiment with yourself to see what life might feel like if you took the pressure off “getting things done” and simply enjoyed things just as they are?  Slow down and appreciate the present moment more… you may experience an ironic twist that you end up getting more done in the end.

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Bernhard, T. (2011, September 13). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/collections/201111/slowing-down-good-health/4-tips-slowing-down-reduce-stress

Featured image: Life in the Slow Lane by InAweofGod’sCreation / CC BY 2.0

About Laura K. Schenck, Ph.D., LPC

I am a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) with a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Northern Colorado. Some of my academic interests include: Dialectical Behavior Therapy, mindfulness, stress reduction, work/life balance, mood disorders, identity development, supervision & training, and self-care.

6 Comments

  1. James on November 28, 2011 at 12:16 pm

    I like how you point out that when you slow down, you often wind up getting more done! I find that this is often the case.

    I also think it’s worth noting that, when you slow down and think about what you are doing, you may often find that, either because it is unimportant or because it will take care of itself if you leave it alone, the thing you are doing doesn’t need to be done at all! What faster way is there to do something than to decide to not do it?

    Also, related to my last point… Often times the moment at which you do the thing can have a profound impact on how long it takes you to do it. While many things will not just take care of themselves if you leave them alone, many of these things will be easier to take care of if you wait until the time is right. When rushing to “get things done,” one can often lose sight of the importance of “timing.”

    • Laura on December 1, 2011 at 9:21 am

      James – I’m glad you shared that insight about how, as a function of slowing down and thinking about what you are doing, you may find that the task itself is unimportant or will actually resolve itself in some way. You’re quite right that that is the “fastest” way to take care of a task! It definitely seems like when you slow down, you are better able to take in new information and analyze existing information in a way that allows you to look at the problem/task in a new light. I often struggle with “knowing” when the “time is right” because for me, I have a tendency to feel like the time is right when you “decide” that the time is right. This is definitely something that I continue to get better with and learn more about! Thanks for your comment!

  2. dave on April 10, 2012 at 2:32 pm

    There are so many practices for being mindful that you can get bogged down in suggestions , all are valid.
    About a year ago i decided to simplify all that i had read and heard to five words so that i could easily remind myself during the day how to stay mindful. I had those five words engraved on a disc that i wear round my neck , those five words are–
    SLOW DOWN—be aware of what you are doing and why you are doing it.
    SPEAK LOW—be aware of what you say and how you are saying it.
    LISTEN—to everything,especialy the quiet voice within.
    It is a wonderful piece of advice to slow down,not rush to the next action or thought. Savour the moment you are in. Thank you.

    • Laura on April 15, 2012 at 9:43 pm

      Dave – Absolutely! It is amazing how many “ways” one can learn about and practice mindfulness. The multitude of paths toward mindfulness often remind me of how this is such as basic concept that applies to all aspects of our experience. Thank you for sharing those five words that have been so meaningful to you in reminding yourself to be mindful throughout the day. It can be difficult to “remember” to slow down and become mindful, especially when life feels fast-paced, stressful, or demands seem to increase.

      I struggle with this in similar ways that many people struggle, but when I notice myself experiencing this struggle, it often serves as a cue to pause, reflect, and slow down. When we feel “rushed,” it is as if life is passing us by without us even experiencing it. I agree with you wholeheartedly… savor the moment you are in. This moment will never happen again… this very moment is your life. Thank you for your comment.

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