Slowing down

Slowing Doooown / Savoring Stillness

• Lingering, savoring
• Value of community and wellbeing
  • While the culture may not be as efficient, it can be slower
  • You need less and you want less
• How do I become an anchor in stillness without retrofitting?
  • There are moments where you have to be very productive
  • Geographical differences
• Have I done enough? How do I feel?
• The things people can’t see
• Interacting with healthcare systems may conflict with timeliness of moment
• Finding lightweight ways to get into meditating
• Have to “flop” and “sweat the stuff out”
• Being driven by dopamine vs. serotonin
  • Looking at your email = dopamine hit
  • Longer-term lets you pause
• Our bodies are systems and we can build your capacity and resilience
• Having things to look forward to and appreciating the little changes around you
• Self-care gets morphed into capitalism (example: manicures)
  • Shift to domestic care: people don’t have to prove anything
  • Difficult to do until you imagine someone else
  • Think of how you deserve that care
• Having the “suck it up” baked into being
  • Taking the day to just feel emotions (example: feeling sad)
• Walking from the bed to the couch: feeling like it’s enough?
• Realizing strength in being alone
  • Assessing energy levels and honoring them
• Desire to be done with tasks very fast leads to not taking rest
• Discomfort in breaking established cycles
  • Offering retirement transitions
  • Pressure of feeling failure based on societal and/or cultural norms
• Even if you are infinite, it still wouldn’t be enough hours to get everything done in 24 hours
• Modeling sustainable activism for a younger generation
• Things are human with everyone all of the time
  • Realizing how we show up for each other
• Navigating small talk through humor

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Things we find rejuvenating:

• Sitting side-by-side
• Different energy levels (introverts and extroverts)
• Recess for adults
• Rational Dharma (book)
  • Focus: how do you have the contemplative practice of calming your body down in an urban setting?
• Having things to look forward to (example: a bath)
• Lymphatic self-massage (get back in touch with your body)
• Spirituality: listening to ancestors (connections we might have locked away)
• Savoring chocolate
  • Make it a competition with yourself to engage your senses (slow tasting)
• Inside Out (movie)
• Between Two Kingdoms
  • Being in the kingdom of the sick or the kingdom of the living
• Placing consciousness into other objects
  • Time for contemplation
• EFT (Tapping)
• Spiritual music or high vibrational music
• The Joy of Missing Out
• Looking at nature and seeing how it works / being in nature
• Finding hobbies to enjoy
• Positive deviance: paying attention to people who are doing okay versus vast majority of people
• Create a challenge: putting your phone away while traveling in order to interact with others
  • What are ways you can “unautomate” your life to interact with people in your community?
  • Observe ways to connect with others
• Small talk with Jessica St. Clair and Casey Wilson