Life in retirement tends to be a lot ‘slower’ than our working lives. So, as you approach retirement, it can feel quite daunting to think about living life at a slower pace.
During your time in work, your career provides you with a full, engaged life that provides identity, purpose and structure. You rush through your day to day life from one task to another, with your mind constantly active. That voice in your head is always on and thinking about what’s next.
In retirement, you lose the consistent purpose that work provides you with, keeping you physically and mentally occupied. You don’t know how to slow down and enjoy a relaxed lifestyle, without a nagging sense that you’re not accomplishing anything.
Learning how to slow down is a very important aspect of transitioning from working life into retirement, and is a skill that will become easier with practice. I promise.
The first step in slowing down is to acknowledge that life will take a different shape when you leave work, and accept that. It is very easy, and also very common, to make yourself feel guilty if you’re not achieving something or being very busy. You have to be patient with yourself as you relearn how to slow down and enjoy life in a different way.
Understand that your achievements in retirement will look different to your achievements in your working life, but that you will still have achievements.
A slower-paced life will mean making time to enjoy your mornings, instead of rushing off to work in a frenzy. It will mean taking time to enjoy whatever you’re doing, to appreciate the moment and to actually focus on a single task, rather than switching between a multitude of tasks.
You have the opportunity to curate your life. What you do with your time is up to you, and although all of your hours don’t need to be productive, a sense of purpose will provide focus for your days.
All of this understanding comes from within, we already hold all the answers to the questions that we don’t think we know. It requires a significant mental adjustment, but that mental adjustment is the secret to slowing down and accepting change.
Creating a mindset practice to help you live more mindfully will help you to achieve a sense of inner calm and balance. You can let go of that guilt, that nagging voice in your head that you’re not accomplishing what you should be, and accept that you’re living your life the way that you should be.
So, where do you start? Learning how to slow down with mindfulness is a practice that takes time. A great place to start is to take it slowly and start thinking of moments as ‘mindful moments’.
Mindfulness is available to us constantly, and a mindful moment is just taking time to pause and breathe throughout your day, instead of rushing.
“Mindfulness is awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgementally,”
Jon Kabat-Zinn, creator of the research-backed stress-reduction program Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
Set aside some time during your day to observe the present moment as it is. You don’t need to quiet the mind, just let your mind slow down and wander wherever it wants.
Consciously make a choice to do less. Start to space out tasks, so you can move through your day at a more leisurely pace.
Slowing down is a conscious choice, and an easy one, but it will lead to a greater appreciation for life and a greater level of happiness.
Does this sound familiar to you? Well, you are not alone. My client’s concerns regularly include worrying about how to slow down… I want you to know that you’re in the right place.
The Curated Retirement focuses on techniques to help you slow down and find balance, without the nagging voice in your head telling you you should be doing something more productive. Sign up to the waiting list below: