When was the last time you did something really slow?
Not because you had to,
Not because you were tired,
But because you chose to.
See,
A lot of us spend our days in a rush,
Rushing through things,
Rushing to the next thing.
But it's really helpful to take a moment to deliberately slow down.
And in this practice,
We're gonna observe and see what happens.
My name is Lillian and I am a somatic therapist and fascial stretch specialist.
And I love helping people bridge their beautiful minds with their beautiful bodies.
So today we are going to do a drawing exercise.
And if you're thinking,
Lillian,
I'm not an artist.
Perfect.
This has nothing to do with art.
This has nothing to do with making anything beautiful.
It has to do with just being.
Observing what happens when we slow down.
So you're going to get a piece of paper or a notebook and whatever writing utensil you like,
A marker or a pen,
Pencil.
And it's very simple.
Okay.
We're going to begin by just drawing squiggles and,
You know,
Moving through the page.
And I want you to just kind of notice what's the pace that you move at.
So as you begin to explore.
Do you want to scribble really fast,
You know,
And see what happens?
Or do you want to move a little bit slower?
Are you drawing edges or circles?
It doesn't matter.
Here,
What matters is that we notice what starts to happen in our bodies.
What does your breath feel like right now?
Pay attention to your body.
To any sensations.
We're gonna take one last second here.
And now I'm gonna invite us to just choose a point in the sheet of paper here.
And I want your arm to get really heavy,
Okay?
So your arm,
Your hand is gonna get really heavy.
And we're going to continue drawing,
But go at a very slow speed,
Okay?
So just begin to notice here.
Is there anywhere you want to go or anything you want to do?
And when you find yourself speeding up,
It's okay.
Bring it down to a slow movement.
Noticing what's happening with your breath.
Seeing if your posture changes or if there's any changes in the body as we do this.
And just like tune in to see like,
Do I wanna make this go fast?
Do I enjoy the slowness of this?
We're not judging our thoughts.
We're simply just allowing them to be here with us,
Allowing any feelings or sensations to be here.
Now we're going to spend the next 10 seconds just in silence.
Continuing this line.
Okay,
For our last moment here,
Your arm is gonna get even heavier.
If it's even possible,
We're gonna move even slower through the page,
Okay?
And just see what happens.
Taking one final breath together here,
We're going to just gently bring our arm and our hands back to life.
And take a moment here with your drawing and just Notice.
Noticing the texture of when you are moving at a different speed.
Noticing the texture of that really slow line.
What do you see in that space?
And as you observe continuing to just like notice what's happening for you as you pay attention as you notice.
The lines,
The depth,
The thickness of the different lines.
And maybe starting to take this out of the page and into your life.
Are there places in your life that you move really fast?
You do a lot of things,
You make a lot of things happen,
There's a lot of lines.
But maybe the depth is a little bit different.
Is there a place in your life that you can slow down,
Even if it's a slow coffee in the morning?
Or a slow walk.
Or even getting out of the bed,
Getting out of bed a little bit slower.
So for this week,
For the next few days,
I want you to just experiment with that.
What's it like to slow down?
In one area of my life.
And what do I notice when I do?
Thank you so much for moving with me.
My name is Lillian and I will see you next time.
