Slowness is a Necessity in an Urgent Culture

One of my favorite permaculture principles is to focus on slow and small solutions. I found this to be one of my favorites because it was what I needed to hear and integrate the most. 

Throughout most of my life, I found myself jumping from one project to the next, fueled with anxiety in thinking that if I didn’t act NOW, then the planet and our human species would suffer. This left me feeling depleted and frantic, acting from productivity-anxiety and the work that I ended up doing was never enough. 

No matter the results. No matter the social validation. No matter the internal gratification. It was always onto the next thing. And each project or initiation was only a temporary solution to the angst that flooded through my veins. 

My nervous system was through the roof. I wasn’t actually presently engaged with my life, as much as I thought myself to be a mindful person, because I was continuously stuck in the rat-race in my mind. 

We aren’t taught to operate from a place of slowness. We see it as unproductive and inefficient. We think we could be much more efficient if we just kept going, doing, becoming, achieving. If we’re not achieving a goal, then what is there? 

There’s an entire world, waiting for you to connect, listen, and build a relationship with it. One of my favorite quotes that my contemplative life professor (and mentor, elder, second-mother) Maria Roca told me, “When did we become human doings instead of human beings?” 

This always stuck with me when I found myself on my own internal rat-race, trying to achieve the next goal in order to prove my validity as a human on this planet. I’ve found that much of this conditioning came from my introduction into Climate and Social Justice movements, where the only focus was on the action.

But the thing about just relying on action, is that we are part of a culture and systems that have depleted and exploited our planet and our people, and disconnected us from what is vitally important to us not only surviving, but thriving, as a human species. This culture operates from thoughtless action and disconnection from the whole-system, without an understanding that everything is interconnected. 

And as Kelly Diels says “We are all swimming in the same water, so we are all wet.” 

What happens when we create space to actually slow down and listen? 

We’re able to build relationships with our own awareness, the ecosystem we live within, the community members we live with, and the needs of our human and non-human ecosystem. When we’re able to build relationships, we’re able to operate from a place of truly being of service, not just operating the same old stories and patterns that got us here in the first place. When we’re able to truly listen, we come into a deeper understanding that we are co-creating our visions and we open up to having a greater capacity to allow the work to come through us, rather than by us. 

In my recent Regenerative Leadership Cohort (Enlivened Leadership Lab) I participated in, we focused on how we can allow the work to come through us, rather than by us, which is deeply rooted in not acting from a place of anxious urgency, but rather from a resourced, rooted, interconnected, interdependent, and trusting place. The work that we do can then be much more efficient and effective, if we allow space for the slowness to melt into it and enjoy the process. 

Now, I’m not saying to not do anything at all, but to act when you know what to do and have a solid self-assurance in this action.

“I am saying that there is a time to do, and a time not to do, and that when we are slave to the habit of doing we are unable to distinguish between them.”- Charles Eisenstein

Another aspect of only doing is that we are neglecting the vital importance of self-care, listening to our bodies, intuitions, and wisdom that is necessary in guiding us back to our roots. In order for regeneration to occur on the planet, we need to be resourced within ourselves to be of service. 

By only coming from a place of action, we are operating from a place of hyper-masculinity. Igniting the masculine inside of us is essential to bringing our visions, dreams, and goals into fruition in the physical reality. However, we need the feminine spaces of rest, rejuvenation, wonder, daydreaming, pondering, and play to bring us into harmony with creating new systems and ways of being. Both are essential and both are equally as important. 

“There is a time to act, and a time to wait, to listen, to observe. Then understanding and clarity can grow. From understanding, action arises that is purposeful, firm, and powerful.”- Charles Eisenstein 

If we want things to continue on the same trajectory they have been, then I say go for the continuous action and urgency! But I’m pretty sure that almost every human being reading this doesn’t want that, and therefore, a new way of existing in the world is essential. 

“In a fractal conception, I am a cell-sized unit of the human organism, and I have to use my life to leverage a shift in the system by how I am, as much as with the things I do. This means actually being in my life, and it means bringing my values into my daily decision making. Each day should be lived on purpose.” - Adrienne Maree Brown