Slow Down: The Importance of Relaxation

I work in a campground so a big part of my job is getting people to slow down. As irritating and unsafe as their speeding is, I get it; I used to live a life of rushing around, of scrambling and hustling to get everything done including vacations. I get it...but you still need to slow down. It’s not the dust your wheels raise, dust eventually dissipates, it’s what rushing through life leads to, the effect it has on you. I spent many years sitting forward in the driver seat clenched with impatience; who knows how many years it took off my life. Who knows how many years it's taking off yours….

That’s great, Izaak, you broke ass hippie. Some of us have families who depend on us or, at the very least, couldn’t live the way you do…

But…are you really there for your family? Yeah, you’re paying the bills, making sure the kids get their back to school clothes and braces, but are you really present in their lives? You’ve taken on all these burdens, doing the work of three people, taking on a mortgage and car payments that leave you living check to check even though you make $85,000 a year. Man, I’ve done all that:

We can pay the gas bill a few days late and pay the electric bill on time this month…

No, we can’t. We did a thirty day late on the gas bill last month…

Been there, still remember the hopelessness that I was ever going to get ahead.

This is great, Izaak, you just reminded me what a suckfest my life is, this blog of yours is awesome…

Let’s compare your situation with someone in the throes of alcohol addiction: Most people can’t just stop, you can’t just flick the switch of addiction into the off position, you need help, a sponsor. If I were your sponsor the first two words I’d say would be, “slow down.”

Easy for you to say, I’ve got a mortgage, my truck payment is nearly a grand a month and I am not even going into the payment on my trailer or my mortgage…

That trailer…every weekend I see trailers like yours, these enormous $100,000 trailers so you can have a microwave and shower and all that. I see people watching televisions mounted on their trailers as the moon glows on the lake and the clouds are like the backdrop of a Van Gogh painting. How much is that trailer a month? Why do you need a television and a microwave and a shower? You can go without a shower for a weekend, it really is part of the experience, getting a little dirty. I’m not suggesting you reek like a Market Street hobo, just be okay with no being so daisy fresh.

Maybe instead of “slow down” I should suggest “Let it go.”

I understand the pressure our families and friends put on us, the pressure kids get at school to have the correct clothes and phone, to not have their parents driving some dirty thirteen year old minivan with the spare tire on the roof. As your sponsor I get that we need to take small steps and even small steps can be challenging, but…ask yourself this:

Are you happy? Is this the life you want? Does this life make sense to you? Would you be leading the life you lead if you had a choice?

Easy for you to say, Izaak, you have no obligations, no people counting on you…

I have debt, I have my car payment and a loan left over from my marriage. Do I have people counting on me? In a way, yes, as your sponsor I have you counting on me.

Take it from someone in their mid-fifties to whom it seems my mid-thirties were years and not decades ago that time speeds up. Maybe you want to wait until your kids graduate from high school. Let’s say that is five years away; you can solve just about any problem in five years if you focus on it. I am currently working towards leaving the United States. This is a huge project, it involves learning languages and creating a new career as a digital nomad etc. I have estimated it will take close to two years to make it a possibility. Did you see the blog I put up about “envisioning the future?” Maybe you should try that: In this ideal life of yours, what do see a typical day like? Where do you see yourself living? Don’t hold back, be honest with yourself, go nuts (but not too nuts like living in a mansion on the ocean where money falls from the sky, we need these things to be honest but doable). What did you write? Is it totally different than how you are living now? Start planning, you’d be surprised what you can do in five years.

I remember five years ago when I’d be walking to work when I lived in Portland. I seemed to be running late every morning—you know how it is, you don’t want to go to work, you just want to take your time, sip your coffee and not gulp it. So, I’d be hustling to work, wondering if I’d be late again. I had this boss named Kyle, the kind of douchebag who enjoys cutting you down to size with this huge, Arizona white smile stapled on his face. Man, I didn’t want to face another day around Kyle but I had a mortgage and car payments and everything else. One day, I just stopped in my tracks, I couldn’t move, I couldn’t face another day of cheese ass, energy drink swilling Kyle…

And then I saw a bird up on a tree branch chirping away. Who knows how long I stood there watching that little chirpy dude, but it was calming. Nature. Even in the middle of a city it was all around us. See that tree? That tree was growing before you were born, before they put in the Targets and the McDonalds, and it will probably still be growing after you and I are dead. Nature. Maybe you can’t pack up the F250 and get lost in the woods for a week but when you start getting stressed out go outside and look for the birds, focus on the way the tree limbs move in the breeze, on the way their roots say “fuck you!” to the sidewalks. Nature. It is so much bigger than us. And when you open yourself to it, even in small ten minute doses, you will find calmness, and in those moments you will begin to slow down…

Hey, man, wanna keep a dirty hippie in rice and beans and gasoline? Check out my books. My non fiction American Outback series goes more into depth about my personal challenges to find a way out of the rat race, live out of a van for a year, and pivot to a career as a camp host:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B00EG7OKUY?ingress=0&visitId=7d9e6cac-d576-4a29-bd14-424e9b60c084&store_ref=ap_rdr&ref_=ap_rdr