Slow With the Flow
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By Salomé Gómez-Upegui
I adore slow mornings. On a perfect slow morning, I wake up and pour a fresh cup of coffee amidst the silence inundating the apartment. I sit cross-legged on the couch, staring out the window, and letting out a deep sigh. I feel peace, all is well in my world.
For a while, I allow myself to do nothing. It’s a lavish gift I love to start the day with; doing nothing. I breathe in, I breathe out, I close my eyes, I open them. I feel the sun on my face as it peeks through the mountains. On a perfect slow morning, I daydream inside this bubble of nothingness.
Soon enough, the bubble bursts. The name of the needle that does the trick is anxiety. Poof. Back to reality.
Reality is often a place where doing nothing triggers a tornado of guilt. The tornado goes round and round in my stomach as it suggests I should be doing something. I move from just being to just doing, and the storm seems to settle down. I do. I do. I do. I rush. I rush. I rush. I can’t feel the storm anymore. I’ve picked up the pace, I’m too busy hustling, winning the race I’ve signed myself up for.
I don’t need to tell you that we live in a world that seems to be spinning faster and faster each day, but I will. I will address the obvious, and refer to what you already know because I believe this glorification of velocity to be an important source of our collective angst.
We’ve been taught to believe fast is best, it’s efficient, it’s the way. Emails need to be answered, content must be produced, money must be made, and all of this must happen fast. It’s not about what you’re doing, it’s about how soon you can get it done. Exhaustion and mindless hustling are honor badges that we’re urged to wear every day, especially as entrepreneurs.
In growing this blog, I’ve often wondered if I’m growing fast enough. I think to myself, Will I succeed if I don’t move fast? Will I make it if I don’t hustle? For a project called Mindful Feminism, the irony is self-evident.
The universe has a way of sending crystal clear answers to all my random questions, and recently it was through an interview with Araki Koman, a French creative coach and illustrator who lives in Bali. She said to me, “as humans, we tend to think that struggling is necessary…
