Slow Christmas

Happy 2011 everyone! May it be filled with opportunities, and may we have the presence of mind not to pursue all of them.

I’ll be back again with the first frost. In the meantime, thanks for a wonderful Christmas season Lori, Eden, Sarah, Pam, Ian, Felix, Isabel, Roberta, Jesse, Sharon, Ginny, Susan, and everyone who visited the site seeking to make this Christmas a slow one. Special thanks to Elly and the spouse for their excellent guest posts. Here are some tips to live by until we meet again, from an oldie but goodie post:

The more we wind ourselves up, the longer it takes to wind down.  It’s what we do:  we push ourselves to work longer, save up more, then spend it all on a blowout vacation to somewhere we can sit around for a whole week and do absolutely nothing.  The trouble is, when we get there, relaxing feels foreign to us.  And just when we start to get used to slowing down, it’s time to go back to work. When we get back, the memory of our vacation makes it harder to submit once again to the breakneck pace of daily life.

So what about if this year, rather than speeding-up-so-we-can-slow-down, we head off this madness right now? Here are 3 steps to help:

1. When you notice your mind racing and making lists, stop. Take ten slow breaths in a row, counting all the way to five as you inhale, taking another 5 to exhale. This is almost a cliché at this point, but believe me when I tell you, there’s a reason it’s become one.  Deep breaths actually send signals to your brain that trigger an “everything is okay now” response in your body.  This gives you an opportunity to slow down and take stock.

2. Ask yourself, is this a situation where my need for speed is legitimate, i.e. am I being pursued by bears? As the original fast American would be the first to tell you, there are some things worth breaking a sweat for:

 

Paul Revere galloping, 1775

But, if you find that you’re rushing and you feel frantic, you may want to do a spot-check on your priorities. Your friends and loved ones will understand if you can’t make it to every social engagement, be on every committee, or make the perfect meal. There are times when perfect isn’t good enough, and good enough is just great.

3.Take a look at your to-do list.  Cross 2 things off. Go on, do it.  Then, see if anyone notices that you didn’t do them this year. It’s a hard lesson to swallow for those of us who pay attention to detail, or have a perfectionist streak. But if you’re serious about slowing down your year, you have to prioritize.  Frankly, some errands are just more important than others.  (Having planned a wedding not too long ago, there are a million details that couples can exhaust themselves getting right.  But when we decided not to send save-the-date postcards, or make a seating chart, no one even noticed.)

Try not to skip any steps, or it won’t work.  Let me know how it goes, and I’ll let you know how I do. See you next Christmas!