I live in Los Angeles, which is not a location known for its sleepiness. It isn't quite the city that never sleeps (a friend once described it as the city that sleeps in) but there is certainly no lack of activity within its boundaries. And part of me likes that. The undiagnosed ADHD part of me. I grew up in a sleepy little town and longed to escape it from second grade on. It's only been in the last year or so that I've felt this intense urge to slow my life down. Go ahead blame it on my age. And my hormones causing me to want to settle down, create a nest and have my own little chicks. But to be honest I don't yet long for children (and to give ya'll a heads up, may never) nor want to give up my life of adventure. Hell, my adventure's barely getting started. But I do want to stop and smell the dandelions a little more often (maybe make some soup with them). There's a culture of insanity in cities characterized by watches, mass amounts of traffic and constant overstimulation. This past week alone I worked five 9-5 days, met up with the bf (who currently lives 35 miles away from me) three times, played three soccer matches, saw Inception (So good!), checked out a couple apartments, cooked some meals, ate some meals out, went to two bars, went camping up in Big Bear, ran three times training for this marathon (including one 12-miler), fit in some leisure reading and who knows what else I'm leaving out. And this has been the norm for... well, most of my life (even when I didn't live in a city). I've always beeen this active person who enjoys being around a lot of people and staying busy but I may be on the brink of burnout. Which could really put a huge dent in my fun.
There is much to be said for slowing things down. And here are some of the ways I plan to slow things down:
- Quit work. Granted this isn't something everyone can do but I'm quitting my dead end job at the end of next week. This actually has less to do with slowing down and more to do with going to grad school round dos in September and not being able to maintain a normal 9-5 job (which I s'pose in the grand scheme of things is technically slowing down). Still leaving at the end of July will help me slow things down since August will be busy enough with moving closer to UCLA and weddings every weekend.
- More surfing and yoga. These aren't physical activities I feel like I have to fit in like I often do with running (training for marathons requires a certain commitment... a commitment I'm not always thrilled about) or even soccer sometimes. And when I'm doing them it's as if time stops. I always feel big time relaxed and happy after surfing and yoga.
- Say no. I'm really bad at this. Especially when it comes to plans with friends. I know I've said before I have a lot of friends. The bf has a lot of friends. But I've started saying no to things when I just don't have the energy to do something and it feels good.
- Craft more. I used to create such beautiful things. Pieces of writing (which this blog has helped me start getting back into), paintings and other arts and crafts. That's all been put on the backburner but I'm realizing now that isn't healthy for me and so I'm going to use more "me" time to create beautiful things again.
What do you do to slow down your life? Or do you feel that it's impossible?
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