With the stressful life most of us got, we need our breaks to slow down. Stress brings adrenaline in your blood, which makes you feel great and excited. That’s the feeling you got when visiting an exciting festival or when you are about to start your show. Though if stress endures, it brings cortisol in your blood. Cortisol harms your body at cell level. That’s OK if it’s for a short while, to run from a lion. It’s no long term remedy. The best way to get the cortisol level back to normal, is to slow down for a while, to touch base again. Slowing down will recharge your batteries!
While spring and fall are the seasons of change, summer and winter are the ideal time to slow down. In winter it seems logic, it’s dark and nature is sleeping. Summer holidays though is ideal to slow down too, slow down and enjoy with every sense you got! And if you have trouble to chill and do nothing, start doing something superfluous, like bake your own cake, knit your own sweater, grow your own veggies.
A great way to slow down and touch base is to get your senses involved, to concentrate on what you sense. I love food and cooking. Cooking with fresh vegetables involves all my senses: I see, feel, smell and taste them. I can even hear them sizzling on the BBQ, nice corn or a package with veggies and cheese. If you really want to slow down with food even more, try slow food. You can start with using old, often time consuming recipes for making your own jam, bake your own cakes etc.
Music helps to slow down too, depending a bit on the music itself. Still, if you work with music, it’s difficult to listen or watch it as superfluous. It might be wise pick music you don’t know yet, to enjoy the folk music of the region you are traveling in, without any plan to get inspired, just for the moment. Or you can use something else to chill down, to touch base again, like cooking, playing with children, visiting cathedrals, walking in the woods. What’s your favorite way to slow down?