Roo’s Slow Down Scheme

*Can also be applied to adults*

Just following on from yesterday’s post about slow … Roo has got serious Hare syndrome.

He’s had it ever since he was a little toddler.

He’s bright and has amazing ideas and a distinctive outlook, but his habit is to dash full-stream into things and then falls short because he hasn’t actually checked the details. This shows up in a multitude of different ways: homework marked as incorrect because he hasn’t read the question correctly; school tests ruined because he’s fired through so quickly that he missed an entire page; answers to questions he’s asked unheard, because he’s already on to the next question.

Before the last half term holiday I was in school having a chat with his teacher about just this.

Roo sat there wriggling on his chair and blushing.

“He’s clever,” the teacher reiterated. “He just needs to slow down. If he can learn to do that, everything else will flow.”

I nodded, narrowed my eyes and beaded Roo with a gaze. In my head I was seeing a sports day race; the way in which we are all taught to run, win, break the barrier and be quicker than the rest. Speeding up was easy – it just took practise. But slowing down? How was I going to teach Roo how to do THAT?

He would need a whole Slowing Down Scheme.

As I drove home I mulled over how I could help Roo to slow down. Less TV? Stop the computer? Eliminate his hot chocolate from the deli on special school mornings? In my heart I knew that it wasn’t the hot chocolate. Hot chocolate is hardly Mountain Dew or Red Bull. The issue here was Roo’s innate Hare tendencies created by an anti-Tortoise lifestyle. I have been thinking about this since and whilst lying in the bath the other night, came up with some ideas to help Roo tortoise his hare.

These ideas, I think, can be applied to anyone who wants to slow down.

Here they are:

1. Slow down slowly  

To slow down everything would be too much for Roo. He would explode. What I think he needs is a gradual slow-down schedule. I am going to sit and have a chat with him about one or two areas of his day where he can start slowing down. I would say that meal times would be perfect, but now I think about it, eating his dinner is about the only thing Roo does do slowly …

2. A Sunday slow walk

Now that the sun is out I am going to take Roo on some very slow walks. They are going to named Slow Walks and as we walk we are going to gather (slowly) everything that we see, hear, smell and touch. This is not going to be hard for me as the gramophone attached to my stomach is now over 40 weeks baked and therefore the only walking I can do is  v-e-r-y sloooow.

3. Slow meditation

Meditation is not something I think Roo would do, however, thanks to his love of Lego Starwars I know that he is very open to cultivating the Force. There is a great exercise that requires focus and concentration (but isn’t restricted to sitting and repeating a mantra) and it goes like this: Light a candle, gaze at the flame for as long as you can, then close your eyes. The imprint of the flame will be in your minds eyes. Use your focus and concentration to hold that flame imprint in the centre of your minds eye. It will try to drift away. Your job is to pull it back with your focus. When you can not do this any longer or the image fades, open your eyes, stare at the candle and repeat.

4. Ask Roo to make a Slow List

You may have read about my Slow Lists on here before. If you haven’t, they are not complicated to do. Simply print off the image below – or just use plain paper – and  write thoughtfully down all the things you would like to enjoy slowly. Obvious ideas are: your life, your favourite chocolate, your youth, your health, your relationships, a fine wine; a hot bath … When you really mull over the things you want to last, suddenly Living Slow seems like the only way forward.

Have a beautiful day. xx