Take Time To Stop & Smell The Roses!
What has become of us these days? rush, quick, speedy, fast, gett-er-done, there’s no time to waste… Yet stopping to smell the roses is NOT wasting time. It’s what life is about! To slow down and be content and happy in the moment, to capture life’s beauty, to sit and appreciate the things and people around us. (but Eloise, there’s too much to get done, I have to do a lot in my day!) I know, life can get busy and can cause us to feel anxious, desperate, and like a lunatic. But really, HOW did your schedule get so complicated and busy? did you take on too much? did you forget to schedule time to gaze at the garden, park, lake, ocean, etc…? Do you not allow yourself the simple pleasure of walking at a slow pace taking that deep breath, feeling that warm sun?
There’s a quote I love, “Nature does not hurry yet everything is accomplished.” Lao Tzu
Thatquoteis how I try to live these days. Before nearly loosing my life to a disease I was born with I lived a fast paced life, doing way too much, not knowing the meaning of ‘contentment’ or the ‘simple life.’ I thought being busy at every single second of every single day was how life was meant to be lived. I must work every waking moment to be successful! Yet driving home from the hospital after fighting for my life for a solid period of time something changed within me. It was clear how life should actually be lived. I soaked it all in, opened the car window, felt the breeze and the sun on my skin, it had been a while since I felt that. I watched everything and everyone in a slower pace, I allowed myself to sit, to think, to RELAX… I could get used to this you know?! And I DID!
It’s All About Balance!
Now don’t get me wrong… Still go to work, still exercise, still get busy at times. I’m not saying give that up completely. But, rather find a balance between the two (50/50). Don’t worry, you can still be productive while living the balanced life… Your work will benefit from taking a peaceful approach, you’ll think more clearly and you could very well create better quality goods and services.
Let’s take an example: homes that were built a century or so ago to homes that are built now… Now-a-days, homes are built very quickly and have lost that charm, that extra craftsman style to spruce up a house and make it feel more like a beautiful home. Long ago it wasn’t about ‘the money'(meaning, let’s build more homes fast to sell and make profit as well as let’s build with cheaper goods to spend less and make more profit)it was about the QUALITY. I love older homes, you could tell workers took their TIME to craft amazing woodwork. They built the homes to last and everything was built with the best, with hard work, and with LOVE.
The Benefits Of Taking Time To Relax, Reflect, & Appreciate
this paragraph is from GreaterGoodBerkeley.edu
There are many studies on how to live a happy life. One in particular is by Rutgers University psychology professor Nancy Fagley. Fagley found that appreciation and gratitude both seem to be strongly connected to happiness, her results suggest that appreciation is twice as significant as gratitude in determining overall satisfaction with life.
Past research has considered appreciation to be a byproduct of gratitude and one’s personality. This study shows that appreciation plays a significant role in one’s quality of life, independent of one’s personality or gratitude level—a role even more significant than previously thought.
Fagley is still researching how best to practice appreciation on a day-to-day-basis, she says. But for starters, she suggests that people focus on and value what they have, spend time outdoors, and reflect on their blessings and relationships with others.
“The challenge in fostering appreciation,” she says, “is that we want to periodically reflect on the positive aspects of our lives, value our friends and family, relish and savor the good times—without the practice of reflection becoming a rote habit or something that is taken for granted.” by GreaterGoodBerkeley.edu
So by all means, slow down in life to relax and give yourself the time to think about the good!
Where I’m Going With All Of This Babbling…
In conclusion, it takes each of us to change society. A balanced life allowing us to relax more is beneficial for our overall health (our happiness! How do we change such a large number of people from the Go and never stop mentality? How do we live in the moment more? Think about what you can do to be a part of the ‘smell the roses’ movement. Don’t forget to take time for yourself in the busy world. See things in a new light, what you once glanced at, look at again and take time to observe it and see beauty in it.
