I have to SLOW down

[Leon]

OK, Since I spend my day getting ready for work, rushing in a car to work, at work not taking breaks, bringing home work, eat dinner thinking about work, on the computer working or trying to manage the business affairs of my life and going to bed stressed by the incompletion of it all (& dreaming of unfinished work)... I need to slow down and connect to my life - some would say, "Get one!"   

Keeping the big picture is something us Blokes are renown for not doing easily.  Yet when I've connected and reviewed the real priorities, the world ( of my work especially) doesn't end calamitously.  Rather like the idea that none of us is irreplaceable - the system moves remorselessly on with a substitute in our place.  So we might as well be human and go slow and get it right by our priorities.  We are probably in a far better place to be of service to whatever work or cause simply for being healthily in our own creative space rather than a potential corporate casualty helping none.

So there...  I've committed in print/text my resolve to be of service by choosing SLOW.

let you know if I live better

Leon

[dreamdays]

I am trying to slow down too! (I guess we all are or we wouldnt be here)  I have to or its going to take a big toll on me soon.  Besides regular work and chores and errands and the gym, Ive been working on a small grassroots campaign that has gotten very big.  It has been so stressful that Ive had trouble breathing (hyperventilating) for days.  So right now Im really trying to slow down, trying not to work more than I need to, and realising that I can do some things tomorrow.  Ive also been trying not to eat at my computer! 

This weekend all I did was nothing.  I read, I drew, I played with my pet rats.  It was a little hard at first because we're made to feel guilty and lazy if we dont do something.. But in the end things were good and my breathing got better and I realised how slow the day went.  Im used to it just flying by without feeling like I did anything enjoyable. 

Anyway, I guess thats my story...and Im sticking to it.

PS It's great to have this forum here!

[Leon]

An Update - Just re-read my original post that seems to have been read by more than a few.
Since that time , June 28 2006, I've ceased working full time and now work on call - a luxury I'm able to afford by downshifting and downscalng needs and wants as well as having a partner prepared to do the same and share the income streaming. 
I'm certainly less stressed and less of a cost to the planet now.  I'm feeling healthier and less likely to be come a casualty of the rat race.  However my "not so slow" attitudes remain to some extent, despite the change of routine - still spending more time in the office than I'd want. 

What are other people's experiences with making thes subtler changes?

[eryka]

At one point in our lives we were both doing the high-powered corporate thing and it was tearing us up.  Money and power was fun but it got old - and we were getting ill.  We bought a ramshackle house on the Colorado plains, and rebuilt it passive solar.  We both worked part-time and spent weekends hiking, canoeing, backpacking the mountains.

Traditional statistics state that you can cut your income about 20% before you qualitatively change your lifestyle.  Dunno.  We stopped eating out so much because we were too tired to cook, and found cooking together to be fun (and cheaper).   Without the snob-jobs we didn't need the fancy suits.  We drove older cars.  We went to the library instead of the bookstore.  We no longer needed the gym memberships because we got so much exercise exploring our new home on the weekends.  In short, we never noticed the loss of income and our lives became richer. 

That was almost 15 years ago.  He went back to fulltime work for only 2 years out of the following 15, I worked fulltime 4-1/2 years of those 15.  Now we're both part time again, valuing time more than money, friends more than possessions.