GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION TO SLOW DOWN

At times, you may feel that your days are defined by the pressure placed on you. Even in situations where you're doing what you love and you know that if you "zoom out," you'll be grateful for what you have, there are still days where the pressure to succeed or outperform overshadows the more mindful pace you desire to take. Even though you yearn to take deep breaths and pace yourself, there's a message from the world around you that you must keep up with everyone else. Whether it's to meet performance goals at work or expectations within your family, a question might arise: How can you even pursue a life of breathing deeply when there are so many fast-moving factors that you cannot control?

This is a big, complex question that speaks to the tension many people find themselves in. And while the question may not have an easy, step-by-step answer, one thing we can do is situate the question within the landscape of life.

If you live in a part of the world where there's any kind of modernization, such as cellphone towers, paved roads, and digital screens, then you are keenly aware of the way these things contribute to the fast-paced nature of life. However, while this is happening, if you look beyond the cellphone tower or the power lines, you will find a blue sky above you. If you look to the left or right of the road that vehicles travel on, you may find trees that line the road, and maybe even mountains, creeks, or rivers. Even though humans have built up a lot of the modern world, there are reminders of nature all around us. Just looking over to the side of the road, noticing how nature is still there, even in the modern world, shows a tension that is often there in our daily lives: a natural world that moves in a very different way than the modern world.

Remembering this tension in your daily life is something to reflect on when you're starting to feel "behind" in life. Yes, there will be human-made settings where there is a ton of emphasis on achieving and succeeding. And we should be able to speak about those pressures that humans put on each other. At the same time, the sky above us and the ground beneath are reminders that, even when it's hard to access, a more natural pace is calling our name. Even when we're just trying to move through our daily routine, when we find ourselves feeling tired, or needing a break, or just needing to get some fresh air or sit by the window and get some sunlight, it doesn't mean we're weak or unequipped for what's before us. These are very natural responses. Sometimes, the human-made world can cause us to forget just how complex the experience of being human truly is. In a world of highways, it can be easy to forget the winding paths that call our name.

There will be those who might not feel that you are where you are supposed to be, but you don't have to be one of those people. You're allowed to zoom out and recognize the context and larger picture from which they might be coming from while also recognizing that you are free to seek out space to breathe deeply wherever you can. This is not easy to do, but it matters to remember that you are worthy of spaces where you feel free to pace yourself, no matter what you have or have not achieved by now.

Perhaps, when you feel like you're "behind," you're actually learning to pace yourself on this winding course of your life. Give yourself permission to slow down and embrace the meandering nature of the journey you're on.

More in this week's series called "Pacing Yourself Every Breath", only with a subscription in the Storyteller App.

More tomorrow…
Sincerely,
Morgan Harper Nichols
@thestorytellerco
@morganharpernichols