I hope some of these reflections and insights I have from the slow life will be useful for anyone. There is so much beauty in life if I just slow down and notice it. Having a chronic illness forces me to slow down. The key features of Parkinson's Disease include slow movement, rigidity and slow speech. Could slowing down actually be just what I need? How do I manage the demands of the fast paced world at a slower pace?
The increased complications of going out makes us more intentional with our outings and activities and who we spend time with. This is essentially extremely wise use of energy.
I did not really have the mental energy to spend my career being annoyed by people, so instead I changed my experience of them.
I realize that this finding fault thing is a bad habit of my mind that I have transferred from big things like environmental problems to my body, to my home, to people. My mind’s set-point is: “Something is wrong. I have to fix it. I can’t do it” So my experience has been finding things that are wrong that I can’t fix from my career, to my body to the overflowing toys and books in my house.
A week of self-isolation with my almost-four-year-old son led to some valuable insights:
Joy is in the present moment
Creativity lies beyond boredom
I can change my emotional reactions
I can grieve the loss of the activities and roles that I used to have and then wonder with optimism “What will be next?”.
It was as if clearing the junk from the basement also cleared the junk in my mind that was preventing me from seeing something really important.
No one really gets to know exactly what Life will bring. Even the best laid plans and goals don’t always go as planned. The richest part of life sometimes happens in the parts that are off-plan, unexpected, and spontaneous.
Rather than live in fear, I am trying to look at this as an opportunity. How can I take what 2020 is offering me? Rather than fight against the limitations, can I relax into them? Instead of feeling bound, can I feel held? Wrapped in a cocoon created by outer closures, I keep my focus inward and may discover something that I hadn’t noticed because I was so busy.