Slow Down to Speed Up

I have been learning to play tennis. I am not very good but I am getting out there and trying my hand at it.

And in my learning to play something new an awareness arrived. As the ball flies toward me, and I run toward it, I get ready to swing, my mind starts to speed up and I clinch in an attempt to focus, its all happening so fast so I must be fast and… I miss the ball entirely. What a let down. This happens a few times until this comes to me, slow down to speed up.

Now clearly I must run fast, and be swift but when I slow my mind down and soften in to the moment, I realize there is more time than I realize, I have time to look, aim, direct and hit the ball. When I slow down I drop more in to a flow state mentally and everything becomes clearer and cleaner.

I share this with you not to encourage to pick up a racket (although it is fun) but to remind you that the urgency in your brain is often more a distraction than a help. There is a time for urgency and a brain moving fast but it’s typically an emergency state and often results in tuning out a lot to focus on the one goal of survival. But there is another way to operate when life feels like it commands your attention.

We are about to enter the holiday season, where busyness picks up even though nature tells us to slow down. But even outside of this most of us look at a day full of things to do and immediately get into stress and start to “do” as quickly as possible. But this usually results in a lack of clear awareness and things go missed, mistakes made and then time for repairing the mistakes must be taken.

When you slow your mind down you might think your body and your pace in life will slow too. And at first they might but a slow and aware mind can operate a quick and efficient body. It’s a flow state. It also allows you to see and experience life more intuitively and clearly. You are essentially becoming very present, still focused but also open. You can slow down your experience of time and manuever more skillfully.

Think of it this way, have you ever been very late and then began to rush only to find the seconds go by like minutes and everything starts to flow chaotically and you end up being later and later. This is the opposite of what I am talking about. This is finding you’re late and becoming present and calm but moving toward your goal and time seems to flow with ease and you end up taking a short cut you hadn’t known before and arriving on time, or at the very least arriving late to find that you arrived exactly at the right moment for something to line up.

This may seem very practical compared to many of my more emotional posts on love and deeper spiritual states but I assure you, slowing down to be in the moment even when the dishes are piled the baby’s screaming, your mother is arriving any minute is in fact living fully and spiritually.

This way of being is juicing the moment and saying right now matters. It merging with spirit even in the mundane things and fully experiencing what each moment has to offer you.

Slowing your mind down is magic for the chronically sped up and rushed world we live in.

Of course slowing our schedules and creating more spaciousness is wonderful too but that isnt always available or desired. Just like I wouldn’t want tennis to be slower or the fun would start to be diminished. But I can be in more stillness within while my body is in activity.

Now some of you may be thinking, my mind is so slow it’s hard to function. That, my dear friend, is overwhelm and it is the result of long term urgency mind. Eventually slowness finds you but it lacks the clarity I speak of. This too is a state where you can conciously slow your mind down even more to create spaciousness and healing from overwhelm.

So how do you do it?

First, find your breath and slow the breathing down, relax the shoulders and the jaw a bit and imagine the energy around your head is currently moving in a narrow and quick stream way out in front of your eyes, try and bring the energy in and spread it wider like a wide brimmed sun visor. This takes away the focus from being so single focused and far ahead that we lose presence in the now and what is coming up next. Now be aware of your breath again. Stay in your body and move forward with your day.

This is something I must do in readings. Although it can be felt as fast, the more I slow and open my receiver mentally the clearer my words and content are. The less stress and urgency my mind and body feels the more depth and beauty is created.

So will you try it? Will you trust that you can operate from a relaxed state and operate in a high functioning way?

Remember readings and mentorships are here to help you get clear and slow down. Reach out when your ready.