Taking Things Slow…

Deadlines after deadlines. Multitasking is the new culture. 24-hour days are never enough. With so much to do and see, we need to spend our time more and more efficiently. We need to walk faster, talk faster, type faster and eat faster. It is a race to see who can get more things done within a minute.

Yet, this race with speed may work against us sometimes. When you talk too fast, it means that the listener may not be able to completely understand you. When you walk too fast, it means that you never notice anyone or anything along the way. The journey becomes plain dull. When you type too fast, our carpal tunnels may suffer. When you eat too fast, it is bad for digestion and we may not fully appreciate the efforts in the preparation of the food.

There is this TV program on Saturday morning on Channel 5 where the host will visit grandmothers from different countries each week. These grandmothers will share their lives stories as well as the traditional food of the family. In the last episode, the grandmother was formerly from Singapore. She was brought up in a traditional family where her father instilled strict discipline at home. She was trained to chew her food slowly. Her father would make her take a mouthful of the food and chew. She would then start lining cutleries along the table. Only upon reaching the other edge of the long table could she swallow her food. To her father, eating and chewing slowly was an essential dining etiquette.

Similarly, the benefits of chewing our food slowly before swallowing are emphasized in So Simple 2. At Brown Field farm in Japan, all the helpers are encouraged to chew their food slowly. This is believed to better release the energy from the food and to create overall wellness for our bodies.

In yoga lessons, one of the most important techniques to pick up is also breathing. There are all sorts of breathing methods – abdominal breathing, cleansing breathing, rhythmic breathing and slow breathing. One of the observations is that many young working adults have ignored their breathing when they are too caught up in work stress. Forget breathing is a prevalent trademark among the workers. Such disruptive breathing has dire effects on our health. Hence, yoga re-teaches us on breathing, especially slow breathing. Slow breathing is supposed to calm our minds and bodies.

It may be difficult to reverse our lifestyles to a slow pace. Moreover, such a reversal may have adverse impact on our economy. However, we should try to spare a few minutes a day or even an hour a day to do things slower. It is to rebalance our mind, our soul and our bodies.