A slow rhythm to hear your soul
I don’t have much personal experience with this being unemployed for the better part of two years now, but I’ve watched my husband Ryan rush off to work every morning for two years until the quarantine hit.
The day begins with a loud, unfriendly sounding alarm kicking us out from under warm blankets to stumble around in the dark.
A light switches on somehow and I instinctively cover my eyes, wishing to slowly transition out of the darkness.
Ryan dresses quickly as I gather his lunch together in the lunchbox and brew us both a cup of coffee.
A quick kiss in front of the storm door on the back of the house, followed by an “I love you” and he walks to the car, leaving me lingering in the whirlwind.
After observing Ryan’s rushed mornings for two years and preferring a slower paced one myself, I wondered why we rush to get out the door.
I know there are times when this is necessary, and on mornings when I have to be somewhere, I am the picture of rushing.
But I wondered why. Why do we wait until the last possible moment to rise from our sleepy stupor and get on with the day?
Why do we have such a hard time building in the time for a slower paced morning, and would adopting one benefit us?
As an engaged couple Ryan and I got to travel to a small, rural town in Japan called Ako for a work trip of his.
The trip lasted almost two weeks, and only three days of that stay were we able to do some travelling to Osaka and Hiroshima, including the historic site of the atomic bomb dropped there.
At our hotel filled with businessmen I noticed every morning at breakfast each man spent about 30 minutes eating and sipping their freshly brewed green tea before moving on to the train station attached to the hotel.
Even these businessmen spent time reading the newspaper or watching whichever crazy Japanese gameshow was playing on TV before starting their day.
Maybe our rushing problem is the product of a society that pushes us to go, go, go all the time, even in the mornings, or maybe we just really like our sleep.
But what if the problem isn’t in the mornings at all?
What if the problem is really how we treat our evenings instead?
Rather than give our minds ample time to relax and unwind we pack our evenings as full as our days, ever striving to do just a little bit more.
My evenings are my workdays, when I get my writing, scheduling, and emailing done. It is the only time I have without interruption (most of the time).
So, I generally don’t use this time for unwinding or relaxing my mind; I use it to work my brain like Ryan does during the day for his job.
One thing I know has helped me quiet my soul and my mind before bed is reading a fiction book while laying in bed with the lights dim.
As I read, my mind slowly drifts away from work and my soul feels lighter, and my eyes grow heavier, until my book tilts sharply toward my face.
No one solution is exactly right for everyone, but what I know to be true is what we need will make itself apparent to us if we pay close enough attention.
That might look like going to bed at 8:30 one night to allow your body and mind the rest it needs, and it might look like taking a warm shower before bed.
Listen to your body and trust what it tells you needs to be done, but also try to quiet yourself enough to listen to your soul.
