“When we go slower, we are more patient and when we are more patient we have a choice in how we respond.” — Eknath Easwaran
A friend posted this quote on social media and it expresses something that’s been a major theme of my life lately.
At first I thought that slowing down is a hallmark of patience; that a person has to first become patient in order to slow down. And no doubt it’s true that constitutionally patient people might find it naturally easier to slow down than the rest of us do.
But I’ve realized that it very much works the other way too. Just as the quote says. I have found that I can become more patient by deliberately slowing down. Be it making coffee or doing laundry or writing a blog post or whatever. It works.
And the effects are very pleasant. So nowadays when something or someone seems to be trying to get me to speed up, I’m not so easily led in that direction.
Deliberate slowing down is one of the keys to finding a way of life that’s sustainable; that runs by nature’s rhythms.