The great benefit of slowing down is reclaiming the time and tranquility to make meaningful connections–with people, with culture, with work, with nature, with our own bodies and minds” - Carl Honoré
Most of our movements are not in the moment. We anticipate how to move into the future based on our current perceptions and past experience. This allows you to catch a ball, drive a car or eat your food. A person, with enough repetition, learns to habituate or automatically make the movement. This is a wonderful time and energy saving function. We can do without thinking. It does, however, have its downside. Once started, the action is difficult to stop or change. This results in dropped balls, crashed cars and wearing your dinner.
Every moment in an Awareness Through Movement class or Functional Integration lesson is an opportunity to discover more about yourself. To access these moments in real time; you need to dramatically slow down. Otherwise you are simply projecting into the future and the moments of exploration and connection have already vanished. So, how slow is slow enough?
While proper slowness varies from person to person, there are some helpful guidelines:
It is much slower than you think. Imagine yourself in a slow motion movie scene or sporting event.
If you can smoothly stop and immediately go in another direction, you are probably at a good speed.
Slow enough to become aware and sense more connections within yourself.
To make the most out of every moment we need to slow down. It works for interpersonal relations, work environments, and if we slow down even more, ourselves.