Why It's Important To Slow Down


Do you ever do that thing where you blink, and you realise we're almost halfway through August? You feel like you closed your eyes at the beginning of 2017 and suddenly it's 'X' many Monday's until Christmas.

It's a feeling almost all of us experience - judging from the tweets filling my timeline on the first day of every month. And although it's a bit of a laugh, it's also the truth, life is going incredibly bloody quickly.

At the age I'm in right now, there's a lot of pressure. Find a great job, meet a great partner, maybe even start looking at buying a great house or having great children.

These life choices, as we all know, are greats which are bloody FAR away for me.

But since graduating uni and starting a job myself, they're also the hot conversation topic between myself and my housemates. A couple of them will be moving in with boyfriends, others are finding forever-jobs. It's a huge part of your life.

And I, meanwhile, am freaking out.

I was lucky enough to land myself a job straight out of university. I beat all of the statistics and should really have been walking on cloud nine about the whole thing - and for a while I was. I could picture myself moving to London, building my way up in this job, making my own new social network in PR, and... working for the rest of my life.

Literally, until I'm 70 (according to the experts).

I've had a lot of pep talks with myself recently. And the most important one I'm living through right now, is how important it is to just slow down.

Take you time finding your footing. Do things you won't be able to do at any other age, and make adult life start that little bit older. Fill your time with the things which matter, because if not you'll never realise they mattered until it's far too late.

I was always a bit worried about my sister, she decided college and university weren't for her, and got a full time job whilst living at home with my parents. I thought she was mad - why would  you not want to start renting, or move out? But the truth is, my sister is only 19.

I'm not saying stay living at home forever. But it's absolutely, 100% okay to take the time you need to figure things out before you make drastic life plans. Life really is what happens when you're making other plans. So stop those plans. Pause. Take a breather. And make sure it's what you really want to do. Whether you're 4 or 40, 16 or 36. Or in your 20s and just trying to find your feet in adult life. Make sure life is happening, make sure you're experiencing everything and grasping every single opportunity. It's perfectly okay for life to slow down, just so long as it doesn't stop.

Love, Alice x

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