Slow down for a better life, writing and productivity

Slow down and enjoy life. It’s not only the scenery you miss by going to fast — you also miss the sense of where you are going and why. ~Eddie Cantor, singer & songwriter (1892-1964)

It’s no accident in our frenetically paced world, more and more commentators are advising us to “slow down” for a better life, writing and productivity.  Social media has driven an ever-faster commentary and response time, sometimes even driving major political changes. Professors and students and others are all caught up in the whirl of expectation for immediate replies. I recently took a weekend trip to the Bahamas, a mere 556 miles nearly due south from Charleston to Nassau, and found the near stop in my daily scheduling demands amazingly refreshing. Or as my husband often admonishes me, “It’s time to step away from the computer.”

This is extraordinarily good advice (though I don’t always take it) when you are stuck or intensely frustrated. Your roughly three-pound brain is actually a muscle, and it needs a physical break from being used. You don’t climb a mountain without rest breaks, so why do we expect to keep going non-stop when we are engaged in intellectual work?

It’s time to slow down. There is an ever-growing body of literature on the benefits of mindfulness for respite. A wonderful new book on the Slow Professor: Challenging the Culture of Speed in the Academy (2016) by Maggie Berg and Barbara K. Seeber argues for an end to the publication race, occasionally referred to as the “publications arms race,” because of the dire consequences for those still seeking tenure of “publish or perish.” The authors assert: “While slowness has been celebrated in architecture, urban life and personal relations, it has not yet found its way into education.” Slow professors “advocate deliberation over acceleration” because they “need time to think, and so do our students. Time for reflection and open-ended inquiry is not a luxury but is crucial to what we do.”

Joseph Jaworski, author of Source: The Inner Path of Knowledge Creation (2012) who is interested in transformational leadership, believes there are two fundamentally different sources of cognition. One is the application of existing frameworks for “downloading information” that already exists as a body of knowledge in the world, and the other is accessing one’s inner knowing. Real innovation in business, education, science, and society actually emerge from inner knowing and not by using existing thought constructs. W. Brian Arthur, designated “External Professor, Santa Fe Institute” and an economist and pioneer in the science of complexity, feels that leaders must have time to retreat and reflect, allowing inner knowing to emerge. This requires going to the inner place of stillness where knowing comes to the surface. C. Otto Scharmer, a senior lecturer at MIT, in various articles on leadership says these are abilities to cultivate:

• Holding the space
• Observing
• Sensing
• Presencing, or Connecting to the deepest source of yourself
• Crystallizing
• Prototyping
• Performing

Why am I giving you all these examples from the business world? Because even here, where “nimbleness” and “fast action” in the marketplace have become catchphrases, there is a budding emphasis on finding the time to stop before jumping into immediate action. Eleanor Rosch, a psychologist at the University of California at Berkeley, calls it “primary knowing,” connecting with the heart rather than the head. In a 1999 interview she stated, “Action from awareness…is compassionate, since it is based on wholes larger than the self; and it can be shockingly effective.” She is referencing everything from marketing to original scientific research.

Violinist Miha Pogacnik poetically described the kind of connection to the whole Rosch is discussing to Scharmer when asked to describe key “aha” moments from his own musical education. In regard to his first concert in Chartres, he said: “I felt that the cathedral almost kicked me out. ‘Get out with you!’ she said. For I was young and I tried to perform as I always did: by just playing my violin. But then I realized that in Chartres you actually cannot play your small violin, but you have to play the ‘macro violin.’ The small violin is the instrument that is in your hands. The macro violin is the whole cathedral that surrounds you…You have to move your listening and playing from within to beyond yourself.”

Below are two simple practices to help you slow down.
Practice 1: Meditation

One definition of mindfulness is a moment by moment acknowledgment without judgmental thought in context, in other words, all the sensations, emotions and physical feelings that arise when you simply sit still. Active mindfulness methods are usually called meditation, but could as easily be called “attention practice.” This consists of literally paying attention to your own breath or just one object, and bringing yourself back to that point as soon as your mind wanders. Which it will. Your mind will get roil, so just expect it. Your mind can no more stop thinking than your lungs can stop breathing.

With repetition, we can learn how to more quickly spot digressions and return to meditation. This is a way to “witness” our own experience, and by noticing what goes on inside of our own nervous systems, we grow awareness. This in turn can loosen the hold of habits, and generate new modes of thinking, creativity and ultimately action.

Practice 2: Day-dreaming

Which leads us to a related practice, making room for day-dreaming. In a quiet space and time, let your mind drift along as you imagine what you most desire. You do not judge what comes up, no matter how ridiculous it might initially feel. Often people see their day-dreams as a picture. Friedrich August Kekulé, a German organic chemist, explained that he had discovered the ring shape of the benzene molecule after having a reverie or day-dream of a snake seizing its own tail, an ancient symbol known as the ouroboros.

You might even consider what your younger self might have seen or wanted in this day-dreaming state. Day-dreams are private and allow us to explore our own inner experience in a restful way. When you enter this state, you are using the “default mode network” of your brain, which is active during passive rest and mind-wandering moments. Neurologist

Marcus Raichle coined the term “default mode” in 2001. It is different from the brain’s visual and movement systems and seems to be involved in sorting information about the self, thinking about others, remembering the past and envisioning the future.

This may have served us well as a species for survival and innovation in particular environments. You may remember the old adage, “you can’t do it if you can’t dream it.” So, go ahead, let your mind wander, without getting bogged down in details. If you want to after the fact, write down some words or create a picture to help you remember what came up for you in this resting state. You may be surprised at the productivity and creativity that emerges.

Tags: dream, happiness, planning, productivity