Slowness is an experience that happens in the right now. One being present in the moment, being fully aware of the moment, that is slowness.
Let me put this with my own experience of the last few weeks, where I’ve been consistent in giving time towards experiencing meditativeness in my little things through the day. Please note that this does not mean that I reach that state of meditativeness all the time, neither am I professing this as a way to follow. For each, it’s their own way.
I wake up at 5.20 AM, linger in the bed for about 8-10 minutes – sometimes I check my mails. At 5.30 AM, I go to the kitchen and pour some tepid water in a glass and then lay on the sofa for about 3-4 minutes, drink it with complete ease. Then I go into the study room, lay the mat on the floor in a certain manner and sit for meditation. For the next 25 minutes, there’s nobody around. And when I get up from there, there’s an inner lightness. Once I complete I fold the mat in a certain way and also place a certain side of it to the top. Go to my desk, settle in, open my notebook, I need a few things accessible and handy that I place on my left-hand side. Writing for the 15-30 minutes allows me to completely unwind further any lingering thoughts. This is where the ideas and genesis of all these posts too usually happen. At around 6.30 AM I go for a walk or a jog and do it for another 30 minutes, and sometimes I skip that and extend the writing.
Once I’m back, we make a good cup of Chai, and me and my wife sit in the living room, lazing, sieving through the newspaper, chatting until another 25-30 minutes. This first couple of hours after waking unfold the day ahead of me with great slowness, and I’m being present and mindful to each of the little things that happen. At dawn when the birds start chirping, the changes that happen to the colour of the sky, the world as it slowly wakes allows me to build an ease within me that allows me to take the entire day ahead with a certain grace – well, most part of the day.
These first couple of hours after waking unfold the day ahead of me with great slowness, and I’m being present and mindful to each of the little things that happen. At dawn when the birds start chirping, the changes that happen to the colour of the sky, the world as it slowly wakes…
Has it been easy to follow this routine in the last few weeks? It’s not. It’s a rainy morning, there’s a nip in the air, oh! It’s weekend, I slept quite late last night – my mind plays all tricks with me each morning (although, I must acknowledge that it has reduced now). But, it’s a very small price to pay, as opposed to when I used to wake up at 7.15ish, I still did the meditation and writing, but often would then be in a haste to reach office in time. And the day ahead is already in a rush. In contrast, the morning slowness now extends for me through at least the first half and sometimes into the second half of the day too.
Finding a slot of time in a day, and experiencing it moment by moment as the time pass by is a meditative experience. There’s ease within. There’s slowness in it. There’s no sense of rush or hurry. Slowness happens in the right now.
Like said at the beginning, this is my personal experience and not something that I’m professing that each one of our readers does it too. For me, this works. For somebody else, something else would. Finding a slot of time in a day, and experiencing it moment by moment as the time pass by is a meditative experience. There’s ease within. There’s slowness in it. There’s no sense of rush or hurry. Slowness happens in the right now.
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