Practice English Listening B1 Exercises – Slow down, you move too fast

A

1 sitting down   2 gym, yoga   3 long walk

4 in silence   5 bath, shower

B

1   Eat breakfast sitting down – if you eat it standing up, you start the day in a hurry.

2   Forget the gym. Do yoga. The gym is stressful. Aerobics, etc. makes your heart beat quickly. Yoga helps you slow down (and get fit).

3   Go for a long walk. When we walk we can’t do it fast. We have time to look at everything and everybody (birds, trees, shops, people, etc.). Helps us stop, think, and relax.

4   Spend ten minutes each day in silence. Meditation teaches your mind to slow down and think more clearly (good for your general health too).

5   Have a bath, not a shower. A half an hour bath is relaxing and will slow you down at the end of a hard day.

Tip number 1. Eat breakfast sitting down. Most people stay in bed until the last minute and then have a coffee and a piece of toast standing up. This is really bad for you, because it means that you start the day in a hurry. Your body and mind are already moving too fast. So do yourself a favour. Get up ten minutes earlier every day and have breakfast – nice and slowly.

Tip number 2. Forget the gym, and do yoga instead. Many people go to the gym after work to do exercise because they think that this relaxes them, but it doesn’t, believe me. I really think that a gym is a very stressful place. Exercising hard, for example doing aerobics, makes your heart beat more quickly, so it doesn’t relax your body at all. In fact, it does the opposite. So, forget the gym and try doing yoga. Yoga will not only help you to get fit, but it will also slow your body down and help you to think more clearly.

Tip number 3. Go for a long walk. Walking is the most traditional form of exercise but many people have just forgotten how to do it. These days we all just get into our cars. The great thing about walking is that you can’t walk very fast, so walking actually slows you down. And when we walk, we look around us at the birds, the trees, the shops, other people. It reminds us of the world we live in and it helps us to stop, and think, and relax.

Tip number 4. Spend 10 minutes each day in silence. Meditation isn’t new. People have been doing it for thousands of years and now it is becoming really popular again. In the United States now you can find meditation rooms in companies, schools, airports, and even hospitals. Meditation is a fantastic way to teach your mind to slow down and to think more clearly. And spending time in silence every day will also benefit your general health.

And finally, tip number 5. Have a bath, not a shower. Having a shower is very quick and convenient but it is another part of our fast-living culture. When you come home from work, instead of having a shower, have a bath and spend half an hour there. A bath is one of the most relaxing things you can do, and it will really help to slow you down at the end of a hard day.