Mindfulness and the Art of Riding Slow

Welcome to Peace , love Moto the podcast for motorcyclists seeking that peaceful , easy feeling as we cruise through this life together . Are you ready ? Let's go ? Going slow is hard . Anyone can twist a throttle and go fast . That's easy . Beginner riders can go fast . They may also crash and die when they miss a corner and hit a tree .

But yeah , going fast is easy . But riding slow , really slow , now , that takes skill , it takes patience , it takes practice . Going slow is an art , and I don't mean just going slow on a motorcycle .

Sure , getting really good at riding where you can cruise up to a stop sign , come to a complete stop for a moment , then gracefully move forward , all without putting a foot down . Yeah , that takes some real control , but it's the same , I think , in life

too . We hear it all the time from our friends and our loved ones You're going too fast . You just got to slow down , ron , slow down , relax . It's one thing to slow down in life , but it's another thing to go slow , because those are not the same thing . Oftentimes we hear slow down , stop being so frantic , but that's just to a lesser level of fast .

Sometimes I don't know if I'm describing that well at all Probably not , but I think you know what I mean . You see , going slow doesn't mean reacting slowly or thinking slowly at all . Going slow means really being fully present , grounded , calm . It means moving with intention , just enough , no more , no less .

You see , when you ride slow , truly slow , well , that's an art . It does take practice , but in time it begins to feel natural , almost like breathing . It's fun , it's something you can show off in front of your friends . How in the world can you go so slow and stay balanced and under control ?

Well , that brings me to a question then Can you go so slow and stay balanced and under control ? Hmm , well , it brings me to a question . Then let's see if this is related . How many breaths did you take in the last minute ? Any ideas ? Probably not .

I mean , we don't usually count , but we know this when we're stressed , we breathe faster , when we move faster , and that sometimes opens us up for opportunities for mistakes due to stress , due to our mind going too fast , or maybe our body's going too fast too Can lead to mistakes , which adds to the stress , right .

But when we're calm , we breathe more slowly , we take time to assess what's going on around us and we respond deliberately . And that breathing that I just mentioned , automatic as it is , comes from signals in our brains . Our bodies know how to respond to your state of mind , even if we don't consciously realize it .

I once heard Jay Leno say that his favorite motorcycle rides are those where he's riding between 30 and 45 miles per hour . Yeah , I get that . Just last evening , before sunset it was about 70 degrees , no wind , just perfect Headed over to a little community called Masonville , if you want to call it a community .

It's just a little speck in the road , but out there I just stopped , got off the bike and took a picture of the sunset , of the foothills , of the clouds . There were deer off in the distance too , experiencing their own peaceful world , maybe their own mindfulness moment .

We human beings living in our fast-moving world social media , the 24-hour news cycle , sirens , schedules , deadlines , traffic , a lot of noise and sure stress has always been a part of life , I suppose since the saber-toothed tiger thousands of years ago chasing us down trying to eat us maybe .

From that to Monday morning meetings and deadlines , and deadlines that aren't going to be met these days . Yeah , it's a lot of stress we carry and we probably create a lot of our own stress . We chase for more money , for more attention , for more productivity .

We convince ourselves that faster is better , that speed equals success , but you and I know it really doesn't . From the business world , I heard an interesting story once An efficiency expert was hired to come and observe the workers in a company to see how things could be improved .

When the efficiency expert came back to the manager of the department , he said I passed by an office of this one man and every time I passed by he was just sitting there reading a book . Now how is it that you're going to be paying this man a high salary just to sit there and read a book all day long ? Well , the manager responded by saying this .

He said oh , I know who you're talking about and I have full support for him sitting there and reading a book as long as he wants , because you see about every few weeks that man will come up with an idea , and that

idea in most cases , will make our company millions of dollars Because no one else thought of it . So , sir , that man can sit and read a book as long as he likes . I love that , at least in my experience in the corporate world .

It's those folks who can demonstrate that they are slowing down , allowing their minds to be free and open to new ideas , those are the folks , again in my experience , who come up with the greatest ideas . There's a big difference between working hard and coming up with great ideas .

So maybe it's the same to you , maybe it's just a need for a good book , a comfortable chair , your favorite beverage and , most importantly , time , time to slow down where you can breathe , just breathe , breathe . I'll close with this idea . I think that it's the slowing down that brings peace of mind , the opportunity to show up .

That's why I love riding kind of slow from time to time , just like what Jay Leno suggested maybe 30 , 45 miles an hour out in the country . Slowing down when I come up to a stop sign , coming to a brief stop with all without putting a foot down and beginning again .

Can't always do it , but it sure does feel good when I do , because when I'm moving at that pace , when the world is still buzzing all around me , but I'm just gliding along , it's like time just opens up . I'm not reacting , I'm just being .

And that , my friends , I think is mindfulness .

So here's my invitation to you , my fellow writers , seekers , my friends Next time you're out on the road , find a safe , quiet spot , take a minute and just ride slow , see what it feels like to be fully present , to breathe and know that you're breathing , to move with grace instead of speed and force , to ride like you're meditating on two wheels , because that

is peace and that is love , and that is love and that is moto . Get it , as always . Thank you so much for listening . I do wish you peace and I wish you love , thank you .