Top 10 Ways to Slow Down This Holiday Season
Top 10 Ways to Slow Down This Holiday Season
1) Establish gadget-free spaces. In our hyper-connected world, our gadgets sometimes take precedence over the people in our lives. While ‘now’ is all we really have, you needn’t spend every second of it in your online universe.
One way to unplug and enjoy time with family and friends is to engage in a old-fashioned tradition of reading a play aloud. Kris Kringle, A Read Aloud Movie for Kids Young & Old, is a tale about the beauty of love, forgiveness and a sense of belonging. Families can actively participate in the play and connect with one another, gadget-free!
2) Reduce the immediacy of your communication by actually writing a letter of thanks to someone instead of an email. The person will appreciate your efforts and the time it took for you to send the note.
3) Busy is a mind-set. Remember that activity does not equal productivity. Taking time to think is as valuable as implementing the idea itself.
4) Disengage from clock combat. Spend a day without wearing a watch or access to the time.
5) Avoid holiday meltdowns by managing expectations. When you communicate effectively, you avert possible upsets before they happen.
6) Treat your food intake as your primary activity, not as a secondary one as you do something else (such as read or watch TV).
7) Identify potentially hazardous behaviors such as texting while driving. Turn off your cell phone in the car.
8) Learn to say ‘no’ with kindness. When you do so, you are truly saying ‘yes’ to yourself.
9) Slay the inner pig-dog, a mythical, procrastinating creature (called Schweinehund in German) that tells you ‘now’ is never a good idea.
10) Embrace time abundance, a notion of having more than enough time to do what is required to fulfill your ultimate purpose.
Author Christine Louise Hohlbaum, author of The Power of Slow: 101 Ways to Save Time in Our 24/7 World, lives near Munich, Germany with her husband and two children.
