The beauty of slowing down

Hey there, thank you for stopping by. It's been very long since I have written something. I was too held-up to catch up with writing, so I have decided to continue to write as much as possible from now on. Your visit to read has entrusted me with the responsibility of making the work worth reading.

We keep ourselves so busy in our city lives that we hardly get time to stop and reflect. Are our actions driven out of habit or consciousness? Are we really exercising our ability to think when we act out of our habits?

How often are we really in that moment taking it all in and enjoying every bit of detail it has to offer? Our attention spans have reduced so much that on an average we can hardly focus on anything for more than 30 seconds or a minute. When was the last time you engaged yourself in a meaningful conversation with your colleague or took a walk in the park without any phone or music?

Slowing down doesn't mean that you are left behind in the race, it means you are content with where you are and that you truly are happy about the present. You are totally in this very second. While I am writing this piece, I am able to hear the sound of rain in the background, I am able to hear the sound of vehicles passing by, I can hear the sound of thunder and much more. This is the wonderful capacity of our brains. Despite me focusing on writing, I am able to absorb, understand and extract some much information without even paying much attention to it. I feel at ease in this moment, not because I have achieved everything that I want to but because I am able to experience the fullness of existence by being present in this moment.

Let me share a story with you, the story is derived from the kannada version of it written by one of my colleagues and a very good friend Roopesh Sir.

A man living by the shores of a river, having lost all opportunities to earn and make a living, turned to fishing as his last resort to make some money. Having bought a new net to fish, all excited he put the net in water and waited for the fishes to come along to catch them, despite staying there for quite long, he realised that no fishes were caught in the net and decided to put his hands in water, he found some stones underneath his feet and started throwing them one by one into the water without looking at them. With only one stone left under his feet, he looked intently as to what the stone was made up of, that is when he realised, these were not just regular stones but gemstones, selling which he could have become millionaire. Having thrown many of them into the water mindlessly, he was disappointed.

The Stones that were thrown into the water is a metaphor to the opportunities that we throw away without paying heed to them. All of us are born with some talents which we may or may not realise. It is only a handful of fortunate people who realise their full potential. If we slow down and observe maybe we are also having many stones underneath our feet, it is just our ability to recognise them and utilise them that is lacking. Maybe before we reach our last stone and think I have lost it all, we can realise the power that we hold within.

Let's stop for a moment, reflect and try to be mindful in everything we do. Let's slow down to listen to our inner voices, let's be content in this very moment of existence, let us be in the 'now' in this information loaded world. Let's try to be happy. Maybe we really don't need anything in this moment to make us happy, maybe we need ourselves whom we have lost running behind things, people, etc.,

Thanks for reading till the end. Will be back soon with something different.

-Nupa