How familiar does this sound? You wake up to the absolutely God-awful screech of your phone alarm, injecting yourself with nothing but anxiety and excess caffeine to fuel your zombified body. 

You rush through your classes so you can rush to whatever other appointment you’ve set for yourself for some reason, only to overwhelm yourself and hustle through every other little chore, conversation and obligation until, to your surprise; you’ve lost any sight of sunlight, and even if you were allowed to enjoy it, your body wouldn’t be able to fulfill this little pleasure because you’ve collapsed from exhaustion.

I’d even argue the little pleasures in the morning, like washing your face, possibly doing your makeup, combing your hair, getting dressed – these once little indulgences are simply another task to add to the colossal list we’ve set for ourselves, and if we don’t complete this task list, then we’re failures who can’t get anything done. 

We aren’t even human anymore; we’re little hamsters, exerting legs too tiny to keep up on a wheel that exists just to exhaust and distract you.

So what’s the deal? It sounds like a pointless and, frankly, mortifying existence we are leading right now. This has become our reality, but how do we address the significant problem we’re all facing? My answer: Just slow down.

It sounds too simple to be the answer to a problem that has literally plagued humanity since the invention of the clock. It almost sounds ridiculous, right? Large problems call for much larger solutions, but the fact is, it’s true.

To “slow down” almost sounds dangerous, because it’s such an unfamiliar concept in our 21st-century world. In fact, we’ve demonized the simple act of easy living, almost like it’s some unforgivable sin.

I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve nearly lost my life to a scooter-crazed madman, all for the sake of beating time. Several Starbucks-wielding peers have almost trampled me while hurrying to their next class. 

Every little thing in our lives is a race against time. This concept we’ve made up measures not only the passage of events, but it also measures our worth.

It’s almost like it’s ingrained in our very DNA. We rush our childhood, wishing for maturity and independence, only to rush through high school, and soon this cycle continues like some bad attempt at a series of spinoff movies until we run into the grave bitter and regretful.

The clock has become our greatest enemy; because of it, we’ve lost sight of what it means to truly live anymore. This rings true now more than ever. We jeopardize fundamental needs such as our health and our relationships in the pursuit of approval that we’ll probably never receive.

We’re trained to pursue validation and “success,” regardless of the drawbacks, and because of this, we’re all stressed out. We fear mediocrity, we fear shame, we fear financial insecurity and we fear falling behind. Because of this, we begin to hustle through life in hopes of winning the race.

Hear me out, and I really urge you to listen: You are never going to win this race. We all end this race the same way. Along the way, we’ll all experience regret, grief, shame and sadness. There’s no use in speedrunning to an end that will come no matter what. Instead, take some time to enjoy life. Take some time and slow down.

To be slow is not necessarily to surrender to “laziness;” rather, I’d argue it’s intentionality and presence. The demands of our economy are very real, as we all have deadlines to submit to and bills to pay. To slow down is not to abandon responsibility, it’s about reclaiming your mental health so you can rise to these demands triumphantly.

In a fast-moving modern culture defined by chaos, we already marinate in the cesspool of anxiety. I’m surprised such conditions haven’t suffocated us to death. To counteract this, we owe it to ourselves to ignore the clock for just a little while.

It is all too common today that we gloss over the little things that justify our time on this earth. We forget what it means to live, to embrace our senses and connect with ourselves and each other. 

Take some time out of your day to greet your local barista and compliment them, call your mom and admire the way the trees bend to the will of the seasons.

Ditch the phone and schedule some much overdue “non-productive time” into your calendar. Treat the clock not as an evil overlord, but as a tool to protect your time between the rush of your tasks. This, and this alone, is the greatest act of rebellion in a world that constantly demands your time. 

Get off your wheel, stretch those stubby little legs and look outside the cage you’ve built for yourself. There’s a lot more to life than the race we’ve been forced to run.