How to Slow Down When You Don't Want To [hyperlapse video]

Photo by Milan De Clercq on Unsplash

If you're a teacher, a barista at a morning cafe, or Mark Wahlberg, you're probably an early riser. I typically wake up earlier than my spouse on the weekends, sometimes as early as 6 am. That's the teacher life for you. I would mosey along, maybe do some transcription work, maybe look for a website to test, or just browse for hours on end until noon when I would start my "work". I would feel halfway accomplished with my mornings.

Then I stumbled upon a blog post about morning pages. One of the many blogs I follow, LittleCoffeeFox, wrote about how morning pages (from Julia Cameron's, The Artist's Way") helped structure her mornings more efficiently.

Another inspiration came from a podcast episode of Better Leaders, Better Schools (http://better.libsyn.com/improving-your-communication-and-influence) where Daniel Bauer, my newfound mentor, interviewed the founder of Can Do You who discussed his morning routine.

This inspired me to look up practices of effective school leaders and business leaders, and I learned that having a morning routine helped them be successful during their work days. I knew this was something I wanted to implement in my life.

So, what does this all have to do with slowing down?

Well, for two weeks, my morning routine was fire I tell you. I updated my habit tracker in my bullet journal (bujo) to reflect new habits I wanted to instill in myself. I practiced yoga and meditation every morning. I read AND wrote daily. And then...I got the flu.

Getting sick is your body's way of telling you to sloooooow it wayyyy down. 

Like this hyperlapse video taken over the Williamsburg Bridge, it is time to speed things up!