One thing I've noticed after just a single day of Living Slowly, is that my memory is better.
I'll think of something like taking my vitamins, but once I enter the kitchen I'll think of something else and forget why I came in there to begin with. But being in slow mo, there's space to remember before I move on to the next thing and forget the vitamins altogether.
There's also time to experience things before naming them. This means that I'm more deeply immersed in my own experience and less quick to judge it, good/bad. I can experience more nuance, complexity, more everything.
I've also noticed a couple of INKLINGS, the beginning of a new, intuitive understanding. They're too new to spell out clearly, but I make note of them here for future reference: Craving is a dream state. The independent, choosing self is an illusion; interdependence and conditionality are closer to reality.
Speaking of immersion. I took the time to get in the ocean today. I was working in Seal Beach and had a couple hours between appointment, but I would normally just take a short walk on the beach, especially since the tide was high and the shore break not conducive to body surfing. In my usual adult, hurried, efficient mindset, I would not have gone swimming. Sand between the toes, and elsewhere, salty skin and hair, not worth it... Only if there are waves to ride would it have been worth the "trouble."
But in slow mo, child-like delight became possible. Floating in the warm water, tossed around by waves and currents, fish jumping out of the water in unpredictable flashes of silver light, the breeze flowing over my shirtless skin, the sound of children's screams as they raced to escape the blue-green, foaming dragon chasing them up the shore. Worth the trouble, after all.
I'll think of something like taking my vitamins, but once I enter the kitchen I'll think of something else and forget why I came in there to begin with. But being in slow mo, there's space to remember before I move on to the next thing and forget the vitamins altogether.
There's also time to experience things before naming them. This means that I'm more deeply immersed in my own experience and less quick to judge it, good/bad. I can experience more nuance, complexity, more everything.
I've also noticed a couple of INKLINGS, the beginning of a new, intuitive understanding. They're too new to spell out clearly, but I make note of them here for future reference: Craving is a dream state. The independent, choosing self is an illusion; interdependence and conditionality are closer to reality.
Speaking of immersion. I took the time to get in the ocean today. I was working in Seal Beach and had a couple hours between appointment, but I would normally just take a short walk on the beach, especially since the tide was high and the shore break not conducive to body surfing. In my usual adult, hurried, efficient mindset, I would not have gone swimming. Sand between the toes, and elsewhere, salty skin and hair, not worth it... Only if there are waves to ride would it have been worth the "trouble."
But in slow mo, child-like delight became possible. Floating in the warm water, tossed around by waves and currents, fish jumping out of the water in unpredictable flashes of silver light, the breeze flowing over my shirtless skin, the sound of children's screams as they raced to escape the blue-green, foaming dragon chasing them up the shore. Worth the trouble, after all.