There are benefits to slowing down
Do you, like me, often find yourself rushing through, well, everything?
Rushing to get onto the next thing out of urgency or anxiety?
I ask this question because I was so busy “going fast” that I didn’t realize it.
It wasn’t until someone uttered the words my father used to say to us when we were kids, “piano, piano” or “slowly, slowly” that I began to be aware of this tendency. And that it needed to change.
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When in Rome (or in this case Naples)…
I recently traveled to Italy for some of the good life (vacation and work). And yes, lessons in the art of going slow.
Because other than driving, slow is the operative word here, along with flexibility and patience.
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Lessons in slow.
My first lesson on the benefit of slowing down came when trying to get to Pompeii by train. I had reserved ahead — I learned this was a mistake, as every trip I had booked was canceled or I missed it — and with some of the aforementioned flexibility, managed to get to the Pompeii station, just the wrong one for the start of the tour I booked.
I frantically messaged the tour host that I was on my way and then went to buy a bus ticket to get to the right spot. This meant I needed to interact with the ticket seller.
Now, I’ve been studying Italian on and off for years, and I can often understand what is being said when I pay attention.
That’s the thing I realized that day… when I’m anxious, rushing, in a hurry I cannot understand one word of the language. When I slow down I can.
And I thought about how this applies to taking in any kind of information. We absorb so much more of what is being said — spoken and not — when we’re present in the moment. When we’re operating on slow.
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My second lesson came on my fifth day in Naples. I left my Airbnb and made my way to the pedestrian street to walk the Lungomare (walkway along the sea). I was not in a hurry as I had no set plan for the day.
As I walked, I saw the Rococo building I’d passed at least a dozen times at this point. It was only then that I realized it was a station for one of the city’s four funiculares (trains up the steep hill) — Stazione Centrale. Um, wow. I had been wondering where on the Via Toledo the station was.
A little further on, still taking my time, I walked by a cafe. I passed the second door on the corner of the building in which it was housed and was stopped in my tracks by the most intoxicatingly sweet aroma.
I turned around and walked into the most beautifully ornate building only to realize it was Gambrinus, a spot I’d read about in The New York Times and too had been trying to find.
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With both, I came to see that everything I need, want, and am looking for is right here if only I slow down enough to truly be where I’m at.
If you need to hear this today, I hope it helps.