Moving Slowly…

As someone with ADHD, I have always moved quickly. Life, even when I have little to do, feels like a rush. A mental list of tasks to be accomplished as quickly and efficiently as possible, probably for fear of my forgetful mind. There are only two available times, now or run the risk of forgetting and possibly never.

This has translated across the board of my life, going to work; mental check-list of everything I need to leave the house, even my daily ritual of morning pranayama and meditation has sometime (less frequently now, thankfully) came to be a checked box on my neverending to-do list. This behaviour, I thought was great! I am so efficient, I can do so much so quickly, and living in a society that praises productivity, it was difficult to fathom anything else.

It wasn’t until my life structure changed and I was in a position with much, much less to do, that I noticed the irritability. The ceaseless rushing even when I had only one or two things on my ‘to-do list’ for the day. As I am sure some of you may relate and as with all things that may appear in life as problems, they are merely opportunities for growth.

So I move quickly, I notice my inability to partake in life without the mental checklist, the endless ‘doing’ with little to no ‘being’. Not everyone will be as fortunate to get the opportunity as I have, but there are ways to start including a little more being to our human-ness and a little less doing. I read recently from someone that their aim in their yoga practice was to ‘move as slowly as possible’, wow, I thought to myself, I am definitely going to try that! It was infuriating! I managed clunky, stop/start, yoga-esc, movements, with lots of breaking out into thought trains and very little mindfulness.

It was such a challenge. I am very keen on Yin, where we hold poses for substantial amounts of time, but this, moving as slowly as I can, was the biggest challenge yet. It is something I am working on, when we reach something that challenges us, it is always an opportunity to grow. So, starting moving a bit slower, then a bit more. Each and every practice brings us closer to human-being rather than human-doing. In a world profiting off our productivity, moving slowly, mindfully, is a beautiful rebellion.