By Sarah Pay, Cross Conditioning Training
Slow down. Be kind. Check your face.
Interesting fact. There are more car accidents in October than any other month of the year. I’m sure there are a number of factors for this, ranging from the days growing shorter and the weird angle of the sun, to people being on the road more with the start of the holiday season, but I imagine another factor is the busyness that comes with the season. I swear that as soon as the days start to cool down and the rhythm of the school year sets in, I begin to feel extra hurried. There’s a funny, but consistent, indicator of this happening…spilling my coffee in the morning. I did it twice last week because I was rushing. Spilling coffee is definitely more benign than a car accident, but this rushing also decreases the quality of our work, makes us less creative and increases the number of mistakes we make. Maybe the worst part is that we’re less able to connect with ourselves and others.
It’s a fact that rushing increases our stress levels and negatively impacts both our physical and our mental health. But what to do? We have to slow down. It’s that simple.
When we slow down just the opposite happens. We produce better work, make fewer mistakes, have increased clarity for better decision making. We’re more creative, we connect more deeply with others and feel more connected to ourselves. Feeling more connected to ourselves is so important because it allows us to notice what we’re feeling and take actionable steps to meet our needs before we get stressed out or overwhelmed. The same is true on the training floor. Slowing down and paying attention to what you feel is the first step to staying safe and injury free.
So while it’s not likely that we’ll be any less busy next week than we were this week, there are some practical ways we can choose to slow down and stay more connected.
CCT trainer Sarah Pay.
1. Focus on one thing at a time. Some of us pride ourselves on our ability to multitask but effort to be present with the one thing that you‘re doing in the moment.
2. Look people in the eye. It’s much harder to hurry through a conversation or feel disconnected when you pause to see and listen to people.
3. Be kind. It doesn’t take any more time to offer a kind word or a smile than it does to be transactional in our human interactions.
4. Check your face. Often the expression on our face says a lot about what we’re feeling on the inside and can even create trickle down tension in our body.
So as things pick up over the next few months choose to slow down, stay connected, be kind and check your face. A smile might be just what you and the person next to you need to lift your spirits in the moment!
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