What’s the rush? Nothing in particular, just that our modern world runs on hurry culture. Speeding on the highway, changing to the shortest grocery check-out line, and playing podcasts at double speed. 

It’s become the norm to fill our days with endless activity, sometimes to the point where we don’t know why we even do it anymore. While the hustle and bustle may give us a brief adrenaline rush or feel productive, it’s more likely a form of escapism, robbing you of peace and joy and leaving you burnt out.  

This hurry sickness has an obvious solution – slow down! Of course, that’s easier said than done when we’re all so busy. Thankfully, there’s a timeless moral virtue that holds the key to balance our busyness: moderation.

Ready to embrace a slower, freeing lifestyle? Here are some tips to help you develop this virtue in your life.

What is moderation?

From Aristotle to Aquinas, moderation, or temperance, has been seen as a crucial virtue of self-mastery. Moderation engages your will and your intellect so that they work together to order your desires.

Moderation isn’t restrictive though – it’s about finding balance by enjoying good things in the right amounts and putting everything in its proper place in your life. Whether it’s eating that third slice of cake or routinely losing sleep because you took on more work than you had bandwidth for, too much of anything – even good things – can seriously upset your health, happiness, and sanity. 

Life is busy with all our daily commitments – family, work, friends, community – and that’s not going away. But what we can change is our approach to “busy” and that can make all the difference. That’s where developing a habit of moderation comes in, giving you the willpower to order your life to a greater purpose. 

Create a rhythm of life

Set a rhythm for your life centered around what’s important to you – faith, family, values – and let all the work you do each day flow from that rhythm. Using moderation as your guide, prioritize your commitments based on where they fit in with this core, from family meals, to daily prayer or reflection time. 

Creating a sense of harmony between all your tasks makes your life feel organized instead of bound to a chaotic bunch of random activities. This can reduce the inclination to anxiously hurry through the day by assigning meaning to each task. 

Embrace simplicity

Struggling to get out the door in the morning? Feel exhausted about that event you agreed to host without thinking? Sometimes the rush is brought on by thinking we need more than we actually do. 

It may be cliche, but often less is actually more.

It’s easy to be a perfectionist about everything and while we should want to give our best it can give way to unnecessary stress. From Pinterest perfect school lunches to too many steps in your morning routine. With moderation, you can start to simplify your commitments. This way you can focus on what is most essential and meaningful to the task at hand and reduce the clutter.

The fruit of moderation: Mindfulness

The word mindfulness comes up a lot in our culture. Its essence is being present in each moment. Instead of going into autopilot to get stuff done, the virtue of moderation helps you embrace what you’re doing with joy! 

Whether working, doing the dishes, and especially when you’re with others, you can choose to be fully present rather than letting your mind wander to the next thing on your to-do list. 

How’s it done? For example, when talking with your spouse, a coworker, your child, try to really listen. Make eye contact and engage with the conversation instead of multitasking on your phone or thinking about how long to bake your lasagna later. 

If you struggle with being present, the root cause usually stems from feelings of anxiety, fear, or perfectionism. For most people, those feelings come and go throughout the day depending on what’s going on. 

The key is developing a habit of moderation where no matter what happened in the past or what concerns you for the future you choose to be present in each moment alone. If you’re pushing to hit a tight deadline or stuck in traffic, take a breath and do whatever you can in the moment to accomplish your task. You can’t change what’s out of your control, so don’t stress and keep writing one word at a time in your work report or use the traffic jam time to appreciate nature or take a much-needed drink of water.  

Cultivate gratitude

Take a moment as you begin new conversations or tasks to consider that it is a privilege to be alive and working, even when doing something you dislike. Things could always be worse. Just living and breathing air is a blessing we can be thankful for. We’ve all lost someone or something whose absence reminds us that all things pass on. We must embrace this reality, give thanks for what is, and change our perspective to find our peace in each moment.

What’s more, gratitude goes hand-in-hand with moderation because counting your blessings allows you to deliberately place everything in its proper place. This can balance our desires by eliminating negative feelings that bring us down and instead focus on the good.

Whether the laundry is overflowing, that project is due in an hour, or the dog tracked mud through the house right as you walked through the door, take a deep breath and a moment to be thankful for something, no matter how small. Peacefully recenter, order your day, and choose not to rush.  

Set boundaries

Another obvious cause of hurry is being short on time. Take back your time by cutting out things you don’t need to do, reevaluating what takes up time in your day and refusing to overcommit to projects or activities that we don’t have the energy for. 

We can also set boundaries with ourselves to moderate the luxuries that eat up our precious time. Rather than binging a whole miniseries on Netflix, for example, we can use part of that time to help out at a local charity or meal prep for the next day and still enjoy the next episode you’ve been waiting to watch!

In conclusion

Moderating good things in life may also mean having to turn down good opportunities as well, but no matter how great it may seem, if being pulled in too many directions prevents you from giving your best, it’s not worth it. 

Practicing moderation and establishing boundaries with things you enjoy and the time you give helps create space for what is truly important. Then you will find that room to breathe and really hone in on what elevates and inspires your life.