My favorite days to work are the ones when It’s cloudy and rainy or snowing like crazy and you have nowhere else to be. Cocooned in my office with candles lit, music playing, and a hot cup of tea next to me, I feel like I can take on the world–as long as I don’t have to leave my desk. In this space I feel calm and slow can take it’s course through my work and my mind. I might even gift myself with a power nap after lunch to make it through the rest of the day.
Often though, my days don’t look like this.
It’s to-do lists that never stop growing, meetings that get lined up back to back, because who thought to pause in-between? It’s emails, social posts, art projects, deadlines, organization and more. Almost any day we can pack it to the brim with things to do and tasks to check off, and feel the stress and exhaustion because of it.
We know that going at this speed with this many projects isn’t always great for us, and surely doesn’t help with the idea of moving slow. But this is life. Things have to get done. So how do we create momentum and yet still go slow?
We embrace graceful transitions.
As you move through your day from one task to another or one meeting to another, it’s making (not finding) time to pause in-between. Schedule 5-minutes between two meetings so you can run to the restroom, take a few deep breaths, or go put your feet in the grass before jumping into the next thing. When you’re done answering emails and are ready to check off your next to-do, stop and see how finishing that task feels in your body. Notice how you’re breathing and what you’re thinking about.
We think of slow living as going slow all the time, making things from scratch and living in a garden. The reality is, that life doesn’t (and won’t) look that way for many of us.
Graceful transitions are a small and intentional way to embrace the slow. After all, that’s what slow living is really about. Doing things with intention.
**The term graceful transitions was first heard on the Slow Home Podcast.
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