Five ways to find stillness in a busy life
This week, rather unexpectedly, I've been thinking a lot about the art of slowing down.
I've broken my foot, and suddenly a life that normally moves at quite a pace has become considerably slower.
While I wouldn't necessarily recommend breaking a bone as a route to mindfulness, there has been something interesting about being made to stop.
I've realised that when life is busy, we often imagine rest as something we need to make significant time for. A weekend away. A yoga class. An afternoon with nothing in the diary.
And because those windows can be difficult to find, we simply carry on.
But perhaps slowing down doesn't have to mean stopping completely.
I'm beginning to think it's more about finding small moments of pause within the life we're already living.
Moments where we're not scrolling, answering, planning or trying to achieve something.
Sometimes it's ten minutes.
Sometimes it's the length of a cup of tea.
Sometimes it's simply choosing to do something we already do every day a little more slowly.
These are five of my favourite ways to find them.
1. Turn Your Skincare Routine Into a Ritual
Skincare is something most of us already make time for, which makes it a wonderful place to create a pause without adding anything else to the day.
Rather than applying your products as quickly as possible, give yourself a few extra minutes.
Warm your facial oil between your hands. Breathe. Massage it slowly into your face, neck and décolletage.
Use your hands, a gua sha or facial cups if you enjoy them.
Pay attention to where you're holding tension. Your jaw. Your temples. Your forehead. Your shoulders.
The Kyūshi skincare rituals have always been about more than simply applying a product. The way we touch our skin matters too.
A routine is something we complete.
A ritual is something we experience.
2. Find the Pause in Movement
Slowing down doesn't necessarily mean being still.
Some of my clearest moments happen while I'm walking. (obviously not right now)
Leave the headphones at home occasionally. Put your phone away and notice what's around you instead.
The changing light. The trees. The temperature. The sound of birds. The feeling of your feet on the ground.
There is something incredibly grounding about reconnecting with the physical world when so much of our lives now happens through screens.
Movement can be productive without being a workout.
Sometimes the walk itself is enough.
3. Let Food Be Something You Experience
Food can so easily become another task.
Something eaten at a desk, grabbed between meetings or prepared while simultaneously answering emails.
But food is also one of life's great pleasures.
A pause might mean taking the time to cook yourself a nourishing meal using ingredients that genuinely excite you.
It might mean laying the table even when you're eating alone.
Or it might mean going somewhere wonderful with friends, ordering something delicious and spending a few hours talking over lunch.
Nourishment isn't only about the nutritional composition of what's on our plate.
There is value in the experience around it too.
4. Use the Time You Already Have
This has become one of my favourite discoveries this week.
I've been using red light therapy as part of my routine while my foot recovers. Once I'm in the bed, I have ten minutes where there is quite literally nowhere else I need to be.
So I've started using those ten minutes for a very simple meditation.
Sometimes I focus on my physical health and visualise my body strong and well.
Sometimes I think about abundance.
Sometimes I simply let myself dream about what I would like my life to look and feel like.
You don't need a red light bed to do this.
Look for the pockets of time that already exist in your day.
The train journey. The bath. The few minutes before everyone else wakes up. Sitting in the car before an appointment.
Instead of automatically filling every empty moment with your phone, occasionally leave the space empty.
You may be surprised by what arrives when you do.
5. Create a Gentle Beginning
One of my favourite rituals happens before the day has really begun.
I make myself a cup of organic green tea, take it back upstairs and climb into bed with Mable and my husband.
We look out over the garden, watch the birds and allow ourselves a few minutes before emails, work and everything else begins.
Your version might be green tea.
It might be your favourite coffee.
It might simply be opening the bedroom window and sitting quietly for five minutes.
What matters isn't what you're drinking or where you're sitting.
It's resisting the urge to enter the day at full speed.
There will be plenty of time for that later.
This Week's Invitation
Find one moment in your existing day and turn it into a pause.
Don't add another task to your list.
Choose something you're already doing.
Your morning coffee.
Your skincare.
Your walk.
Your lunch.
Ten minutes before bed.
Put your phone somewhere else and allow yourself to experience that one thing fully.
No multitasking. No productivity. Nothing to achieve.
Just ten minutes of being where you actually are.
I'm learning that slowing down doesn't necessarily require us to change our lives.
Sometimes we simply need to notice the spaces that were there all along.
