21/06/2023
Is it possible to slow down while you’re being carried by a raging river? Maybe… with great difficulty and by exerting a lot of energy. You might be able to paddle against the current but for how long and at what cost?
This is how I feel about my past 12 years that I lived in the UK, mostly in London. It’s a fast paced environment and even though I was often trying to slow down, it felt like a lot of work. Now, less than 2 months after leaving the UK, I can see very clearly why this was the case. I was being carried by the raging river of energy. Everyone rushing everywhere all the time.
Only after leaving and coming to an environment that resembles a quiet lake rather than a raging river, I realised how impossible my efforts were. For a month I lived in a place where there was one train per hour going up into the mountains and one train per hour coming back down. It took this train about an hour to cover 19 km. There was nowhere to rush and no point in rushing, the train would only come once per hour anyway.
Quite unexpectedly, this has been a really nourishing and healing experience. A new lesson for me, one of those realisations that seem super obvious in hindsight, one of those “why didn’t I know this?” moments.
You cannot slow down and chill while you’re being carried by a raging river.
