This week on my college campus was Mental Health Awareness Week, sponsored by the organization “Greater Than.”
Greater Than is a new organization whose purpose is to raise mental health awareness, and to help eradicate the stigma that surrounds it. Their mission is to help those with mental health illnesses to feel they can get the help they need without being stigmatized negatively.
This week, I went into the bathroom by our cafeteria before going inside for dinner, and came back out with a myriad of thoughts rolling around in my head. There were “bathroom blurbs” on the inside of the stalls that Greater Than had made, and a particular phrase they used got my creative juices flowing.
The phrase was this: "Go Slowly". It is amazing how something as simple as two words strung together can make your brain run wild. I got to thinking about how quickly we seem to speed through things in life, how busy all of us are, how we see time as something precious that is constantly eluding our grasp.
What if we simply took life a little bit slower? What if, instead of running from obligation to obligation each day, with a narrow focus, we took a minute to walk a little slower, to let our senses wash over us? I think the effects could be pretty healing.
I think going slowly can extend to more than just the physical sense. Going slowly can also mean letting yourself take time to have a conversation with a friend, even when you have a mountain of work to get done. It could mean putting down your phone or your laptop for awhile and simply taking a walk or reading a book for fun.
We seem to have a concept of time that constrains us to a stressful daily life. We say so often that there are simply not enough hours in the day. But I don’t like to think of any time in my life as time wasted. For instance, spending time with friends instead of getting right down to work on a homework assignment is not time wasted. When I look back on that day, I’ll remember the laughter we shared more than I will remember the grade I got on that assignment. That is not time wasted.
I am not asking you to shirk on your duties, or not to be stressed. But I think it is worth trying to simply slow yourself down. Take a deep breath and count every step you take, give thanks for everything you see around you - and really see it. I think you might like the effects.
