Slow Your Busy Mind With School Zone For The Mind

Do you long to slow your mind in the midst of everyday life—so you can move with more clarity and empowered results?

So often we tell ourselves we don’t have time for mindfulness. Yet true mindfulness does not ask for extra time. It simply invites us to have a mind full of now.

When we pause to notice our surroundings—the light through the window, the sound of breath, the feeling of our feet on the ground—we return to presence. This simple shift supports our nervous system, steadies our energy, and allows us to respond with more calm and focus.

Mindfulness is not something separate from life. It is a way of living within it.

Transcript

Within this podcast, I am revisiting an old episode. One that I refer to as school zone for the mind. Often within our world, We're so used to moving at a fast pace, Where we have demands, Thinking, Boxes to tick, As many would say. And then when we want to relax, We find it difficult. We may even find our body starts to react in the fact that we can't sit still. We may find that our mind simply doesn't want to, As many would say, Switch off or quieten. For many years, I've been sharing just a teaching of mine called School Zone for the Mind. And I find that it always helps people to really be able to understand why they find it hard to calm their mind. And I thought that, You know, Being the beginning of the year, I would revisit it because time and time again, It just reiterates to us the importance of truly empowering ourselves as to what we wish to live in the world. You know, It's nice to say we would like to have a quiet mind. It's nice to say that we wish we could relax. But it's another thing to actually show up each day and do practices that help us to do this. So the School Zone of the Mind is something that came to me many, Many years ago when I was presenting to some students, Actually. And we were talking about meditation and relaxation and how people find it difficult. And how I liken it is we all understand that there's a school zone around a school for a reason. We all understand that in Australia, At least, It's a 40k zone, So 40 kilometres an hour. That's what you're expected to drive at when the lights are flashing and school is either coming in or going out. And we all understand that this happens because it's safer. So that when we know that we are in this area, It's just very natural for us that if we have to pull up quickly, We can stop. And it's the same with our mind. If we are on a highway and we're doing 100, 110 kilometres an hour, We know that that's an acceptable speed on the highway. And should we have to pull up quickly, We know it's going to be far more difficult and perhaps even dangerous to try and stop at that speed, As opposed to the school zone speed. But what a lot of people don't realise is that our lives and our minds and our nervous systems also have a speed. And if we're working at that 100 kilometres an hour or 110 kilometres an hour every single day non-stop, If we're always thinking, Always moving, Always in that fight or flight, That it becomes really difficult for us to stop. Sometimes to the point that we become agitated and our body doesn't want to let us sit still. Or perhaps you want to calm and quieten your mind but you just can't, Or you can't go to sleep and you're tossing and turning and you just can't seem to get a deep, Deep restful sleep. So we need to give our body an understanding that there are times when 100 kilometres an hour is exactly what you require. But we also have to give our bodies time to know when a school zone speed is required. And this enables our nervous system to also understand a slower pace, A slower speed. And I always say to people, If you want to start to relax and meditate, You must learn to first of all slow down. You can't go from 100 kilometres an hour to stop and then become frustrated when your mind won't empty for you. It needs to learn. In the same way you learn to play a musical instrument, You learn to quieten the mind. Now in this episode I'm not going to get into meditation, And we could be here having major discussions around what is meditation. I prefer to always just think about it as a meditative state, A state where you're very mindful of how you're feeling and perhaps have stillness. But for the average person to actually just empty their mind and have nothing is unattainable from where their actual everyday life is. Don't get me wrong, I meditate every day and I completely believe and know that you can completely empty your mind. But where I'm trying to share in this episode is that it takes an awareness of slowing down first. It takes an awareness of actually wanting to create the change. And I use the school zone for the mind analogy to enable you to sort of think about the fact of okay, Here's my normal speed, Or perhaps my old speed that I want to change, And it's 100 kilometres an hour and I want to start to go at a slower pace, I want to go at the school zone place, The school zone time and speed and pace. How does that feel for you? Does it sort of bring mindfulness into a little bit of a more realistic approach? Often people when they ask me about mindfulness I smile and they go, I'm not quite sure what to do. And I say to them, Mindfulness is having a mind full of now, A mind full of this moment. Nothing more, Nothing less. And of course if you're walking in nature, Have a mind full of that. Notice the birds, Notice the trees, Notice the ocean. If you're cooking, Creating for your family, Be mindful of that. Notice the ingredients that you're using, The textures of what you're creating, The tastes, The smells. And straight away your nervous system and your mind has come into a school zone. It's come into a place and a speed that is slower than it's used to. It can be that simple, If we practice it. So a great place to start is your breath and I know you may be rolling your eyes saying oh here she goes again talking about the breath, But it never ceases to amaze me the amount of, Of all the hundreds of people, Thousands, It doesn't matter who I'm talking to, It's always the same. Within three minutes we've got them more relaxed, They're feeling a deeper sense of themselves than they have for a long time. Why is that so? Because the breath is the only thing that goes through every facet of your being. It is like the beautiful thread that ties everything together. It ties your physical, Your mental, Your emotional, Your energetic self, Your spirit, All together. And so when we have the breath, When we focus on it, We have an ability to get a great amount of value for you, For your time really. It's like oh, If I focus on the breath, I'm actually going to gain the benefit physically, Mentally, Emotionally, Energetically, Wow, What good value. But the average human dismisses it and says that's, It can't be that powerful, It can't be that simple, But it is. I truly believe the moment that we were born we were gifted the greatest gift from the universe, The breath. When we were born and we were gifted that first life giving breath, It was like the universe said to us, I'm going to give you the greatest wisdom to get you through to have the most amazing life ever. But none of us remembered it. We all forgot. We all forgot that in that first breath we were given everything we ever need to remain in a centered, Calm, Central place where we understood the world. Think about it. You can go months without food, Or weeks perhaps, Days without water, But moments without breath. If that doesn't bring it home to you how important it is, I don't know what else does. So to bring that school zone of a mind into that beautiful speed of just that, You know, Slower pace to what it's like at work or what it's like when you're in the thick of it with your family or perhaps, You know, Presenting to a large audience or, You know, Creating or in a business structure or whatever your day entails. Just simply notice your breath and say the simple sentence I've shared with you many times on the podcast. Inside your own head as you breathe in say, I'm breathing in, And as you breathe out say, I'm breathing out, I am breathing in, I am breathing out. Do it with me, But your breath, Not mine. Now that mind's going to try and give you every other thought to come into you but you just keep focusing, I'm breathing in, I'm breathing out. Now see if you can make your exhalation a little longer than your inhalation. Just don't strain it but just see if you can just get that longer exhale and as you exhale let your body know it's okay, I'm safe, I'm going to go and I ask you how do you feel? What is your mind doing? It's great to want to have change. It's life-changing to live it. So become aware, Are you moving at a hundred kilometers an hour, Are your thoughts darting off everywhere like a puppy you've let off the lead at the park, Running around everywhere but where you want it to be, Or are you starting to become aware of a practice of bringing your mind into the speed of a school zone, One where you empower yourself through the focus on your breathing to begin to slow your mind and your nervous system down. The choice is yours, The benefits, Extraordinary. Everything from improved digestion, Sleep, Skin, Hair, Eyes, Concentration, Your speech, Everything will improve when you begin to truly nourish yourself through your breathing and calming your mind and nervous system but it's really about just knowing that the minute you understand your mind is too busy or you're stressed, That is the moment you are empowered to do something about it. My hope with this episode is to empower you with a tool that can help you to unlock that quieter mind. From my heart to yours, May you have the most extraordinary week ahead and thank you for sharing space with me and truly may your inner light shine brightly.