How To Slow Down

I like to work hard, and when I have something I’m directly passionate about I am in with both feet. 

Somewhere after I had Henry or probably even before that, I started to associate my self-worth with my perceived level of success. I’m privileged to have always been working on a career I love but somewhere along the way I got a bit lost... I feared failure and I stopped being able to sit with myself. I didn’t want to let emotion in and I began to make myself so busy that there was simply no space for my real needs. I was trying to dim the dark, but when we dim the dark- we also dim the light and eventually my efforts to keep my pain hidden erupted in a level of panic so real, I had to stop and listen. 

And that’s exactly what I did.

I stopped, slowed way down and went right back to the most fundamental movement pattern I know - the breath. One minute a day was all I could commit to, soon that became two minutes and then three and now eventually 10 minutes of intentional breathing. 

Every. Single. Day. 

Stress is becoming an epidemic, we are all so busy, so constantly connected to technology and so absorbed with the everyday hustle that we no longer know how to manage our stressors. Everywhere you look heads are down absorbed in phones, people sit in the same room as each other and barely utter a word, consumed with social media, apps and games. We are losing real human connection and it’s causing us to suffer. 

And then we add to that with crazy workout schedules and burning the candle at both ends. Then wonder why we feel like shit, can’t sleep or have emotional outbursts at seemingly minor things. We make no time to sit, stillness isn’t valued but we cannot be on all of the time! We need yin to balance the yang. 

Treat this as your reminder to dedicate a few minutes to stillness, switch your phone off, get outside, hug a tree or just take a few deep breaths. 

It might not solve all our problems but I can guarantee it’ll help you see things a bit clearer. If you’d like some guidance here’s a breathing practice that will help you find a moment of calm in the chaos, I know it isn’t easy, and I know it’s not your fault - life is not set up to allow us to support ourselves as well as keep all the other plates spinning. Especially right now when we are all so worried about what is going to come next on this crazy ride!