Insight #5: On Pacing

Hello everyone and welcome to Insight #5; On pacing.

• Pacing is the art of creating a rythm for something. This can be a task, a day, an hour. It can be inside creative fields and presents itself in many areas of life.

• Pacing is deeply tied to balance, pace isn’t static, instead it is very fluid and changes speeds, here I’m using the word pacing as the pace of one’s life in general, however these concepts can be applied to any pace in any field.

• This all sounds well and good but it often goes over our heads, as adults in this strange world we are constantly stressed, constantly doubting and comparing ourselves with others, when in reality this only leads us astray, instead we should be focusing on our own beat and learning how and when it moves.

• In general I would recommend to the majority of people to perhaps allow their pace to slow down more, as humans we need periods of downtime and rest, and that doesn’t mean scrolling on our phones lying on the couch, or playing a videogame, it means literally doing nothing, meditating, sleeping.

• Doing nothing is very useful, but I shall leave it to another time for now. Just now that resting and taking breaks is not selfish, no matter who tells you otherwise, the only thing you should listen to is your own pace.

• So how do we find our ideal pacing? This is not that easy of a task, it takes trial and error for most people to adjust to their own lives. However many many people never even try to find one, nor do they understand why sometimes it feels like they suddenly slowed down, or out of nowhere everything is running past them. Of course this is only a matter of lacking the context of pacing.

• I believe pacing to be a balancing act, this means that when you feel yourself steering way too hard to one side of the other, you must consciously bring yourself back, if you are having a crazy day and notice yourself very stressed, try to take a break, even if just for 5 whole minutes, and slow down. This will help immensely down the line, especially noticing your emotional state and doing something about it, you will understand yourself more, you will be able to point out to yourself and others why it is that you are feeling some way and what to do to improve it.

• The last thing I want to mention about pacing is that you can never force it to be always one way or the other. Like with emotions, healthy individuals face both highs and lows, and likewise it should be with pace, you can also try to expand the range of your pace for when life throws things at you, for example trying to do a lot of things in one day, and learning how to prepare for such days can help for when they inevitably arrive unanounced.

Until next time, have a great evening!