The Slow Movement

I first got introduced to the Slow movement by Anne Marchand, someone who was also holding meetings for the Voluntary Simplicity network. It had started off as a slow food movement and contributed to the creation of the latter group. I still apply its basic tenet in my everyday life.
One of the most difficult jobs you can have is dealing with the public, whether in person or otherwise. I'm not referring to someone like me who makes appointments, but when you need to go to work and deal with the mass influx of people. Another stressful aspect of work or life is deadlines. In these and other situations, it's speed that's the problem. Not the actual physical speed of things, but the stress endured by our brains that muddle things up and build up the anxiety. This in turn uses up our endorphins and leaves us tired at the end of the day. Repeat this and it's the beginning of the destruction of our immune system.  This will eventually lead to burnout or other illness.
When I was going through this, I decided to consciously try to control my amount of negative excitement, or stress,  throughout the day so as to feel almost as fresh after work as I did in the morning. This took a very big conscious effort on my part and affected my production at first for the worst. It then slowly made me capture the control my mind needed over the once mixed up potpourri of inarticulate matter. My results got better and the time the task took me was often reduced.
This can be applied to every sphere, or aspect, of life.
This conscious empowerment soon becomes innate and very rewarding.
I can help you achieve this in any aspect of your life.

How Can You Be Smiling at a Time Like This?

Cultivating optimism is even harder than it sounds.  It takes resiliency and even courage to look overboard of a difficult situation.

I went to the clinic waiting for a very young doctor to come see me. I didn't thing Dr. Yung would be able to diagnose something as serious as a stabbing feeling  in my colon. She went through the motions of examining me and looking at the ultrasound results.  She informed me there was a mass as big as a small olive yet again.  She was puzzled, saying the mass must be an indication of something too benign to be seen.  She looked at my frightened face and posture and stopped smiling. She touched me and said that the scan would alleviate some fears but that positive thinking may control the outcome of the scan. Either way, she said, the scan results would make me feel better. She rubbed my shoulders and said that it'd all be fine.

The scan was good. There were no problems. The stabbing went away and my digestion would slowly go back to normal. Dr. Yung knew all was well.  She was reinforcing the power of positive thinking. When I met her at a book signing a few months later, I thanked her for helping me understand.  "My friend is the author of this book and he taught me about cultivating optimism. He had a full time job and wrote at night after getting divorced and his  children moved out of province. He'd be poor and lonely were it not for his optimism. " She gave my cheek a slight pinch and said goodbye.

I often think of Jack Layton and other leaders who have performed small miracles and see that they all had to cultivate optimism in their assent. No pill or drug can do this.

The power of the mind is something that needs to always be explored and mastered on the road to optimal empowerment.