I take some heart in movements like slow-cooking that place value on the exponential increase in the quality of both the food and dining experience when the pace for preparing and consuming food is tempered. The experience is what is important because at a deep level this nourishes us, give us pleasure and sustains us. Is that not worth slowing down for?
The French are famous for prioritizing such experiences and have turned it into something of an art form. I take some inspiration from this. I believe the quality of our experiences are important and that by tempering the pace at which we move through our lives, we make greater room for the possibility of increasing the pleasure and joy to be had in it.
Slowing down means less will be done, which means that we need to be clear about what is important to us and what we want to prioritize. The benefits are that the quality of whatever it is that we are engaged in goes up. We make fewer errors in our work, we heighten our sensory awareness which increases our capacity for pleasure, and we deepen our relationship to the world and to ourselves.
When life proceeds at a more leisurely pace our stress levels go down, we are healthier in mind, body and soul. What is life for, if not for the creation of unique and amazing lives that add to the quality of everyone's existence? To do this properly things need time to mature, there needs to be time for the attention to detail leading to a rich, full-bodied delicious life!
We are not here to race around impressing ourselves and others with how busy we are. Somehow being busy has gotten equated with being important and worthy, but I question this assumption based on what this sort of life produces at the end of the day--a society of drugged, depressed, anxious, stressed individuals who far from being happy are cynical and jaded. How can a cynical and jaded mind and heart make one happy and fulfilled?
I think that simplifying one's life, clarifying one's values and prioritizing the handful of things that are most important to a person, can go far towards the end of slackening the pace of one's life and giving it a little room to breathe and to bloom. For me, this is worth taking the trouble to slow down for.
