How to Slow Down, Survive and Thrive

Quiet time at the beach

“Create a place in your home…at your work…in your heart…where you can go for quiet and recollection. You deserve it.” -- Linus Mundy, Slow-down Therapy

We certainly cannot be reminded too much about the importance of slowing down in this hectic world of ours with its go here, go there, do this, do that mentality. Many experts in stress will tell us if we want to improve our lives,

we need to turn the “noise” down in our heads on a regular basis. It’s the best place to begin a more peaceful life.

In decades past, no one needed to tap us on the shoulder and tell us to sit down and catch our breath. True, the world was a busy place, especially for women who were largely responsible for keeping a home running smoothly all the while feeding, clothing, and bathing five, eight, or even ten children! How they did this is a mystery to us.

Children had regular (and early) bedtimes, the house was finally quiet, and moms then had a chance to catch up with their own thoughts for a change. It was a time to reflect, read, and ruminate. And no one had to force this issue. Of course, two or three generations ago there were no computers, tablets, cell phones, or smart TVs. The world was a quieter place without the noise of Xboxes, Nintendo, or an internet search for the best PC games.

Seven Ideas to Work With

Travel to our extreme world now in 2020. We can all probably agree there are so many ways to rearrange our single-again lives and enjoy the benefits of slowing down. The question is how. Do we have kids to take care of? Yes, some do. Do we have jobs to go to? Yes, some do. This isn’t a fairy-tale story of Cinderella and we are not saying it isn’t hard to be single again. Quite the contrary.

So how do we slow down, survive, and better yet, thrive well as superwomen? First, we must stop pretending our lives are the same as before divorce, death of a spouse, or the harsh reality of struggling as a single mom. They aren’t and that’s a good thing or will be eventually after a necessary period of grief and readjustment we all go through. Really, we promise. Secondly, the time comes when we suddenly realize we have the freedom to organize our lives exactly as we wish. There is no person we have to check-in with or get permission from.

“Notice the sun and the moon as they rise and set. They are remarkable for their steady pattern of movement, not their speed.” -- Linus Mundy, Slow-down Therapy

To get more specific on the How portion of this real-life story, we offer seven ideas, suggestions, and questions to work with even though we know each one of us have a unique life unlike any other. Think about these and add or subtract wherever appropriate.

1. What is the one thing that needs changing immediately? Work on answers.
2. Stress is a killer. Find one peaceful moment each day to recharge.
3. We can ask a friend, family, or neighbor for help and support.
4. What hobby or career have we always wanted to begin?
5. Experiment with “fasting” from TV, Facebook, or Twitter for several days.
6. Stay healthy. For energy start walking around the block or at the gym.
7. Join a women’s Bible study group during the week.         

Who Created All This Beauty?

Here’s a thought: why did God spend time to create our beautiful physical world? Was He required to make 7,500 varieties of apples in the world? Or 4 million different species of flowers? No, He wasn't. As we see it, He simply delighted in variety, detail, and beauty. And how about people? Oh, my! How He loves each one of us no matter where we are or what we are doing to love the life He gave us. Let’s not waste it and then wonder where all our days went.

“Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. …So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can” (Ecclesiastes 3:11a-12 NLT).

How Can We Change What’s Not Working?

Stop and slow down

There are times when life gets going so fast—like a runaway train--that we rarely take the time to turn our heads for a moment and see where we came from and where we are going. Just one common example is the cell phone. According to bankmycell.com, there are now more mobile devices (9.32 billion!) in the world than there are people (7.74 billion). And even more amazing, not every single person owns a cell phone. So, obviously, many people have more than one device. Unbelievable.   

According to one tracker, it’s easy to understand, “You don’t need a home to have one, and you don’t need a network that touches every building. It’s easier to plop a cell phone tower in a neighborhood than plug in every single building.” This makes sense, but cell phones have made us spin faster and faster until we almost get dizzy and fall over.  

Every now and then, though, it’s a good idea to slow down, look back, and do a friendly examination of ourselves. Especially with the mind-blowing situation we just survived. It took every bit of toughness, strength, and resilience we had in our bodies to get right here and right now. If we don’t want to repeat all that, it’s to our own advantage to review every now and then how much we have achieved. We do it in our jobs once a year, so why not in our personal lives too?

Wide-Eyed Wishing

There are two ways to contrast how we are doing--what didn’t work before and what is working after.

  

Many of us were perhaps too young when we rushed down the aisle the first time. We didn’t take our time to get to know the one we said, “I do!” to, nor even to make permanent life-plans that involved both of us. We, most likely, lacked the experience needed to deal with and avoid repeated scenes that caused us damage and destruction. Honestly, we really had no idea what we were doing; it was very much like wide-eyed wishing. Eventually, because of our innocence, we lost ourselves in a pool of nothingness. We lived a “half-life” never developing our own talents and abilities. Thankfully, we eventually gained insight and found the strength to make better decisions.   

The Next Wise Choice

Grow and Gather

Learning from past circumstances, we have been able to choose new goals and habits that uplift our “fully-developed lives.” Our hearts spill over with joy just creating a whole new way to live. Enthusiasm goes a long way. Sure, not every single day goes smoothly, no one said it would. This is real life. It gets hard sometimes for all of us. We are not alone in this truth. The key is how we respond to all the messiness. We each must decide what that looks like for our own lives not for our friend’s life, not for our sister’s, brother’s, or mother’s life, but what positive thing we do when life gets us down. It’s all about making the next wise choice. The confidence we now have (and it will increase every day), can help us survive at least the next 24 hours! Go. Grow. Gather. Repeat.  

Word Reflections

Wiser words have never been spoken than in the first nine chapters of the Book of Proverbs. We use those as a guide to weigh how our lives are going and where we can go next. If we haven’t quite reached the pinnacle where our lives can bloom, studying and meditating on these words of God will make it very clear what the next step is in front of us.  

If we are beginning to find satisfaction with our journey, sustaining true wisdom for the “long haul” can be discovered through these chapters in Proverbs. They will direct us in knowing God better and what He sees for our future. It is His heart for our hearts!

“As a face is reflected in water, so the heart reflects the real person” (Proverbs 27:19 NLT).