Do You Want To Learn How To Slow Down Time?
Hello Beautiful Souls,
I hope you all had a great Memorial Day Weekend. We honored all our fallen heroes but also took advantage of the time to slow down our hectic lives and multiple deadlines.
We went to Sarasota. Not sure if it was the Gulf air, the birds chirping all around my balcony in the morning or, just staring out at the ocean when I had my morning cappuccino that seemed to reset my clock. My brain went to slow. There were no to-do lists, no notifications on my phone…I broke my routine. This got me thinking…after health, isn’t time the priceless gift we all want more of?
Curiosity got the best of me, so I checked various papers from neuroscientists to see what they had to say about how we perceive time since it seemed that was essential to slow it down.
There were three mechanisms - attention, memory and anticipation that inform why time seems to speed up or slow down.
Attention is our present experience of the present.
Memory is our present experience of the past. And anticipation is our present experience of the future.
Attention seems to be the most important factor. So how do we attend to time versus become distracted from it?
Here are the top three things you can do:
Practice mindfulness – mindfulness means that our brain is 100% focused on what we are doing. We are fully present, aware of what we are and what we are doing. This gets us out of the multitasking way of life.
I practiced this wonderful mindfulness method called, 54321.
It is a sensory-awareness and grounding exercise.
To do this:
Name 5 things you can see
Name 4 things you can touch
Name 3 things you can hear
Name 2 things you can smell
Name one thing you can taste
Whenever I do this, I feel calmer and more peaceful. It also fully brings me into the moment.
The second thing you can do to slow down time is to add new experiences to your calendar to break up the monotony of routine. These help us to form new memory anchors. Some of the things I’ve done to shake up my “routine” are learning a new language, learning a new skill, trying out a new place or get lost in a museum to let my inner artist dream. It is amazing how those things make time expand for me.
The third thing is to start journaling. As many of you know who’ve listened to the show, I have been journaling since I was 6. It allowed for self-reflection and really digging into my thoughts. I also learned self-discovery. My journals have been filled with photos, memorabilia and of course my words in whatever form they came out. I’m sure that was one of the inspirations behind my creating the company I have called, “My Magnus Opus – the greatest story you’ll ever tell –yours.” It allows you to slow down, mark milestones in your life, thoughtfully remember people and places and look forward to your dreams. While I created my life story, I had the gift of slowing down and really appreciate what I’ve accomplished in my life and all that I’ve yet to accomplish to leave behind as a legacy for my family and future generations.
If you’d like some journaling prompts, shoot me an email at: hi@mymagnusopus.com
Before I end this blog, I would like to share a great quote about slowing down from a fabulous book on this topic called, “In Praise Of Slowness” by Carl Honorè.
He said, “The great benefit of slowing down is reclaiming the time and tranquility to make meaningful connections with people, with culture, with work, with nature, with our own bodies and minds.”
I hope this blog has brought you the great gift of slowing down time.
Until next week, I’m sending you so much
Light and love,
Rosanna
Oh, and one more thing, if you would like one-on-one time with me to discover how to find more time in your life you can get more information on my private coaching or sign up for one of my four coaching slots available in June.