Here are the ingredients of a magic healing potion:
Let's take it slow and just look at the first ingredient: Slowness.
To get this ingredient, I would like to look with you at the opposite: Speed.
Speed is the normal modus operandi for many of us.
Driving a bit too fast in the car, passing a red light with the bike, chucking food in quickly in between two meetings, listening to a podcast at 1.5 or the often-used phrase: „let me just finish this quickly". And there are so many more examples.
As speed is often seen as desirable in our society, it can actually take some courage to slow down.
Take walking as an example. We actually do walk quite fast usually, very targeted towards a goal.
If you deliberately slow down, it can feel weird when other people are around because you are not matching the normal flow of the general walking speed anymore. You might feel anxiety. But you might also feel anxiety from the speed of things.
Deliberately slowing down lets you get the rest you need. And many of us are in urgent need of rest.
Slowing down often comes combined with another ingredient: just doing one thing at a time.
Let's say you make a tea. You put the water into the kettle. You switch on the kettle. And then, instead of doing something else in between, you just wait. You just enjoy the idleness while the kettle is boiling.
And then you drink your tea.
You do not need to maximally fill your time with things happening.
You can just be there, while the kettle is boiling the water.
I know economically it can be difficult. We are sometimes forced to do things quickly and many things at the same time to make ends meet. We feel our survival is based on speed and business.
So, I would never judge someone that struggles to slow down. Our society really hasn't made it easy.
But maybe some of us find our pockets of slowness. Maybe daily. Maybe on the weekend. Maybe on vacation.
When we look at physical living, speeding things up is often the road to injury. If you want to achieve things faster than your body can adapt or your coordinative ability allows you to execute safely, you can end up with acute injury or inflammation. Yes, you can pull on the grass to make it grow quicker, but you might pull out the grass from its roots.
Give the things the time it needs.
It takes many years to become a medical doctor.
It takes also many years to become proficient at moving or at self-care or at meditation.
All those arts are long, long paths.
I experience that impatience is making people stop too early. If you dig out the treasure chest, it really takes a while.
And as a side note: that's why no one can take away experience. Experience is what you have earned through time. There is no shortcut. You cannot watch a YouTube video and then claim experience. You collected information, but you have not applied it yet.
Accept the speed of things.
And invite the slowness. Because so many wonders of life you can only perceive when you slow down.
If you go race down the German Autobahn at 250kph, you arrive somewhere fast. If you walk somewhere slowly, you make all sorts of experiences if your perception is open. So many small and big things are there for us to perceive, but we forget because those things do not shout loudly, they do not advertise themselves.
At any given moment, there is a myriad of things happening ready for you to perceive if you slow down.
And on the other side, each time you slow down, you invite rest into yourself.
In the greater context of society, it can feel like a revolt. Seeking shelter from the religion of consumption.
For me personally, it's not about making a statement. I just feel the need to slow down. And I feel it quite regularly. So I practice slowness every day. Or… almost every day.
Joseph Bartz
2025-08-04