Taking time to look up in San Francisco last weekend

On July 27th I wrote the following in my journal: "live slow, do less. Less stimulus, slow eating." Perhaps utterly lacking context to anyone else, but it clicked for me when I revisited the entry today.

I can feel more space between the ears when I reduce my content consumption. There have been many mornings (and even days) in the past few months in which I fill much of my waking moments with phone reading or podcast listening. When that happens, I've realized my thoughts are primarily reactions to things produced by others. In this way I have little opportunity for original thought, because my focus and attention are directed towards someone else's.

It's even more ethereal than production vs. consumption. There's something psychological, something universe-warping around slowness, stillness, and less. When I eat less food and eat it slower, my meals seem longer, more enjoyable, full of experience. When I'm "bored" for a stint during the day because I'm not consuming anything, I'm fascinated by the minute nuances of life on this planet. Mundane facets of life become interesting.

And I'm motivated to produce something: to create, to write, to contribute. In living slowly, I seem to live more. My behavior changes from consuming to creating. Thus life feels more meaningful, because I experience fulfillment in what I produce. When I live slowly and do less, I think less about things that don't matter and instead ponder things that truly do. Living slowly and doing less, paradoxically, isn't really doing either.