Speaker 1: 0:06

Is there a common thread between motorcycling, mindfulness and meaning? I'm so glad you're here today because we're about to talk about something that seems so simple. But it isn't Something that looks easy. But it takes real practice, mindfulness and what I would call the art of go slow, recorded in beautiful Loveland, colorado. 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.

Speaker 1: 1:51

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.

Speaker 1: 5:16

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.

Speaker 1: 6:09

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.

Speaker 1: 7:30

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.

Speaker 1: 8:37

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.

Speaker 1: 9:57

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.

Speaker 1: 10:53

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.