Want to feel better? Slow down

In the past month, I found myself thinking faster, adding items to my mental to-do list much faster, and acting faster. Go, go, go! Never enough time to get everything done! Rush through doing one thing as a way to get to the next important thing on the list, and get VERY irritated if something slows me down.

Using my mindfulness skills, I was able to pull back and notice how unpleasant it felt to be so speedy. Then, I made a very conscious effort to slow down, do one thing at a time, focus on only that task, and transition to a new activity at a reasonable pace—I'll get there when I get there—instead of rushing.  

It worked. My mood improved very, very quickly. I also made fewer mistakes, and my interactions with other people were smoother and more pleasant.

Of course, "feeling good and loving life" is complex; it will take many blog postings for me to share tips and techniques that can help you to make big progress. However, if you can do only ONE thing to feel better and to make your life go much better, I would suggest slowing down.

Slowing down doesn't mean that you have to move slowly. It means focusing on one thing at a time, keeping thoughts of other activities out of your awareness and connecting totally with only what you are doing in the moment. It means moving at an effective speed, the speed that will best get the job done. It doesn't mean sitting on  your hands or being a slow poke; it means walking instead of running. It means accepting that you can't do more than one item on your to-do list at a time; it means getting your to-do list out of your head so that it doesn't feel so heavy and overwhelming—write down your to-do list as a way to clear it from your mind!

So, try slowing down. Notice how it feels and how well it works.