30 Days of Joy: The Virtue of Slowing Down

Note: This article is the next step in my challenge to find joy in something — anything — every day for 30 days. Today’s entry is part 25.

Recently, I wrote about the affirmation that could change your life.

It was something I learned while listening to a podcast with Scott Adams, the creator of the comic strip, “Dilbert.”

In short, every day, you’re supposed to write down 15 times one sentence that declares who you want to be/what you want to achieve.

My declaration has been:

I, Brent Stoller, will become a successful writer, speaker and golfer.

For months, I’d been typing that out at the end of each of my daily journal entries, which I keep online.

But last week, I decided to start writing it out by hand.

I immediately felt a shift in the process. I felt more connected to the message when creating it by pen and paper versus by keyboard and computer.

(A shift in results? TBD.)

But this morning, I had to shift the process again.

Over the last few days, I’d noticed how hurriedly I was scribbling the affirmations. My mind was moving so quickly — either trying to get to the next sentence or to the end so I could begin my next task — I was blending multiple letters into each other and skipping words altogether.

I was so consumed with finishing the exercise that I was missing its point.

So today, I committed to slowing down, to spelling out and thinking about each letter I wrote.

Again, I immediately felt a shift.

Instead of feeling frantic, if not panicked, I felt more at peace, more present. My mind calmed, and my breath steadied, and my body relaxed.

By giving myself permission to be in the moment, I was able to make the most of it.

This patience made writing these affirmations so much more enjoyable, and hopefully, more productive.

Now, if only I could be so patient while waiting for their results…

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This originally appeared on 100 Naked Words.