Slowing Down to Speed Up
Last month I spent time in beautiful Naman Resort near Danang in Vietnam. I felt such an amazing energy and sense of coherence amid its natural splendour and tranquil spirit. Naman = peacefulness – Being…..Consciousness…..Bliss.
I came back to the final weeks of business bustle and the frenetic activity that often colours our family life before Christmas. It led me to ponder:
In a chaotic world, we're often mired in tasks and doing ‘stuff’. While the doing is important, what's our broader contribution at a knowing and being level?
How do we slow down enough to enable quality time and space for reflection, making it ritualized rather than sporadic?
How do we find our island (actual or virtual) - the place from which we have perspective? By perspective I mean a sense of the unified whole - call it a gestalt or balcony view. This is the canvas against which we find our presence and purpose, our vision and aspiration. Without this, as Richard Boyatzis says, goals we pursue may be empty or mechanical.
Our brains are wired for an 80% ‘negativity bias’, which helps us spot danger - primal tigers or snakes in the undergrowth. How do we manage this mindfully and move away from the deficit approach it drives?
My ponderings have triggered a series of blogs. The first explores slowing down to enable quality thinking time and reflection. Important questions such as, What happened? What does it mean and what do I learn from it? What now? Ironically slowing down in this way helps to focus our mind and energy, and hence use our time to greater effect.
Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman describes reflection as “the food of healthy leadership and deep, deliberate and developmental thinking.” In his book Thinking, fast and slow, Dan describes our two types of cognitive process from his decades of research: System 1 and System 2 Thinking. System 1 “is the brain’s fast, automatic, intuitive approach” and is described as fast, feral and frugal. System 2 is “the mind’s slower, analytical mode, where reason dominates.”
Both types of thinking have their important place. For example, our automatic mode of thinking, not under voluntary control, is essential to save the turkey on Christmas Day when we stumble over something (cat/dog/toddler/step) and the platter starts a dangerous dive. If, however, we’re in a complex dialogue with colleagues or stakeholders, there’s a need to slow down to be more effortful and conscious.
We are habitual creatures. We clean our teeth, don our clothes and drive to work the same way. With habits triggered by System 1 thinking (like our daily caffeine addictions) we’ve evolved to often act without System 2 thinking present. This works, but also means we‘re likely not operating from optimal neurological efficiency - or more simply, a whole or coherent mind.
Time away from our daily routines on holiday is a great opportunity to consider our habits and defaults and ‘reset’. The reflection and reset helps us identify new helpful patterns of behaviour and ultimately a pathway to focus and coherence.
In my time away I 'dialed up' my mindfulness practice, enjoyed Tai Chi and meditation sessions. I also embraced quality time with the husband, workouts at the gym, massages, stretching and delicious Vietnamese food. Without knowing it, I was following the advice of Silvia Damiano, CEO of About My Brain Institute, who identifies three key ways to improve your brain function and mind congruence - physical exercise, meditation and music.
Here are my 5 tips to help you slow down this holiday season:
Increase any mindfulness practice while you have the downtime.
Use the break to experience joy with the people you care about - your family and friends - and come back re-energised and refreshed.
Ask yourself, “What is my vision and aspiration for me in 2017? When I’m really ‘in flow’, what are the relevant strengths I bring?”
Be conscious of your System 1 thinking habits - how will they help or hinder?
Use the time for some self-care and creating positive habits - you are the most important investment you have.
In subsequent posts I will delve into other reflections shared here and would love to hear any of your thoughts along the way.
Wishing everyone a wonderful, safe and joyous festive season.