How to stop living in a constant rush.
Could we, as people, be addicted to a rushed lifestyle? Not because we necessarily want to rush through life.
But because somewhere along the way, we felt like we had to.
Society taught us to make the most of our time.To always be doing something.To always be working towards a goal. And after living that way for so long, rushing has become normal for us.
It becomes a trap we can get out of,or a trap we keep falling back into.
Because when you have lived in a constant rush for practically your whole life, slowing down can feel uncomfortable.
You finally have time to sit still,and somehow, you don't know what to do with yourself.
I think that is one of the hardest parts of slowing down. It is not always that we don't want a slower life.
Sometimes, we simply don't know how to live one. So let me ask you:
When was the last time you had nothing you had to rush to?
And when you finally had that time,how did you feel?
Did you feel peaceful?
Or did you immediately start looking for something to do?
In my previous Sit With Your Thoughts, I shared a little about how getting sick forced me to change the way I was living. I had to stop. Not because I had finally decided that I wanted to slow down,but because my body was telling me that I couldn't continue the way I had been living. And that changed a lot for me.
I'm slowly rebuilding my life now. I'm doing a little more.I'm finding my rhythm again.I'm figuring out what my days can look like. But I'm still on sick leave. And sometimes, I notice that even though my body has slowed down,my mind still wants to rush.
I can have a productive day and still feel like I'm not doing enough. I know I should rest and still feel like I should be working. I can have nothing urgent to do,and still create urgency in my own mind. That made me realize that the rushed lifestyle doesn't only live in our schedules. The busy schedule can disappear,while the pressure remains.
Have you ever noticed that in yourself?That even when there is no real urgency,you still feel like there should be? What do you think you are afraid might happen if you simply stop? For me, that means learning something I never really had to learn before: how to simply have time. Not how to fill it.Not how to make it productive.Not how to make sure I have something to show for it. Just how to have it.
And I also started thinking about what the Bible says about the way we live. Jesus was surrounded by people who needed Him.There were always things He could have been doing. People to help.People to heal.Places to go. And yet, He wasn't constantly rushing from one thing to the next. He made time to rest.
He made time to eat. He made time to be alone.He made time to be with people. He wasn't available for every demand at every moment. And that makes me ask myself: What would it look like if I stopped treating every request, every task, and every opportunity as something I immediately have to respond to? What if I allowed myself to pause before saying yes? What if I stopped believing that everything has to be done as soon as possible?
I don't think slowing down means becoming passive or avoiding responsibility. It means not allowing urgency to control the way we live.There are deadlines.There are responsibilities.There are people who expect things from us. Sometimes, life really does require us to move quickly. So slowing down cannot always mean slowing everything down.
It can mean becoming more intentional about what actually deserves our urgency. Not everything is urgent.
Not everything needs to happen today. So ask yourself: What in my life actually requires urgency? And what have I made urgent simply because I am used to living that way? Sometimes I feel that pressure myself.
Even now, during my recovery, the feeling that I have to get better as soon as possible really weighs heavily on my heart. As if even healing has become something I need to hurry through.
But I try to remind myself that I don't have to. I can take my time.I can rest.I can let this season be what it is.
And I can trust that I don't have to have everything figured out right now. So before you move on with the rest of your day, take a moment and ask yourself: Am I actually living at a pace that is healthy for me?
Or have I simply become comfortable with living a rushed lifestyle? I don't think we need to completely remove speed from our lives.
There will always be moments when we need to move quickly. But we don't have to make hurry our default.
We can live in a fast world without allowing that speed to become the way we live every moment.
It can simply be a life where I have more space to notice,more space to rest,more space to be present,and more space to actually live. In the next Sit With Your Thoughts, I will reflect on how to find the balance between giving and receiving. See you then.
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