On Slowing Down

This is gentle, guided meditation to help you slow down and get your bearings. Using the metaphor of coming down the gears to slow down, as you would do in a car, this meditation helps you slow down at a pace that suits you.

Transcript

Give yourself a moment to arrive here.

Take your time to shuffle your body and yourself into a posture and a state that feels most comfortable for you at this point.

Whether that's adjusting something or simply allowing your experience to come into land,

Give yourself a breath to slow down and arrive from where you have been to where you now are.

It can be helpful to orientate yourself in space and time.

Remind yourself where you are and I do mean that literally.

What's the actual physical space you are in?

Then remind yourself what day it is and what time of day it is.

You have given yourself this space and this time to invest in your own experience.

It is likely that your mind will wander as it is likely that your feelings will ebb and flow.

This is perfectly normal and understandable.

Go gently with yourself during this time and remember that you can listen to it as often as is helpful to you.

Now in your own time gently soften the focus of your eyes or close your eyes.

Whatever feels most helpful to you at this point as you open up to this meditation.

The focus of this meditation is slowing down.

Noticing the thought and the body experience you're having and getting a sense of what speed it is at.

If your mind and body were a car,

What speed would it be travelling at at this point?

It might be 50 miles an hour,

It might be a hundred miles an hour.

It's not a very scientific observation.

Just notice what it feels like and pick a number.

Noticing that speed and well that's coming in through the speed of your thoughts,

The speed of your breath,

The sensations through your body.

Whether your feelings and emotions are feeling tumultuous like you're flicking from one to the next.

Just allow it to be what it is.

Paying attention,

Practicing being present with the reality of your experience as it is at this point.

It can be helpful to get a sense of where we are at before we then make changes.

So before you start to actively slow down,

Becoming aware of here is important.

It can be really hard to move from fast to slow in one movement.

If you know how to drive a car you will know that it's impossible to come down from fifth gear to neutral in a single movement.

We need to come down from fifth gear to fourth gear and then from fourth gear to third gear.

And so we move down the gears until we come down to first gear and then down to neutral.

Where our engine can idle and be still.

Our mind and our body work in a quite a similar way.

If you've been moving fast,

If you've been using a lot of fast energy,

If you've been using your adrenaline,

It is biochemically difficult for the body to move from these faster chemicals to the slower chemicals of relaxation and restfulness.

So just noticing that as we are talking about slowing down,

As we are talking about coming down the gears,

Chances are you are slowing down a little bit at a time.

Noticing this gradual change,

This gradual shift,

This gradual movement through your thoughts,

Through your emotions and through your physical sensations.

This is what slowing down feels like.

And you may find that you speed up a little bit and that's okay too.

Giving yourself permission to just feel how you are and where you are.

It can take practice to learn how to slow down deliberately.

Using a meditation like this will help that practice.

Using metaphors like the gears in a car can help you structure the way you slow down.

Getting a sense of what a slower pace actually feels like and what the difference between moving fast and slowing down feels like.

You might even want to get a sense of what would be your speed at this point.

Would it be 20 miles an hour,

40 miles an hour or maybe even five miles an hour?

As you slow down and you develop the awareness of slowing down,

There is a learning happening.

Learning the mechanics of slowing down as well as learning the sensations,

The physical experiences,

The emotions and thoughts you are feeling as you move the gears from a faster speed to a slower speed.

That's it.

Give yourself a moment to observe and absorb what you are learning.

Paying attentions to the sensations you're experiencing,

The emotions and the thoughts you are having.

And with your breath,

Stay here for a wee while.

As you live your breath,

Expand your awareness throughout your body,

Feeling the sensations from the top of your head to the tips of your toes,

Noticing whatever details your awareness brings to your attention.

Give thanks to yourself and to the feelings that have come up during this meditation.

Without you investing your time and your focus and getting curious,

You would not learn how this feels and how this shows up and the valuable information that you are taking from here.

Feelings are information and it needs both you and your feelings to take your experience forward.

Then in your own time,

Expand your awareness beyond yourself and your body to the space around you and the sounds that you can hear.

And when you're ready,

Gently open your eyes,

Get a sense of the space and your wider context.

Take this learning,

This knowing and this experience with you forward from here,

Going gently with yourself.

And remember,

It is more helpful to be curious than critical.

Reviews

Hi, Thor, Thanks for the nice guidance for slowing down. I’m always rushing from task to task for no good reason, and I know it’s ridiculous! I used this to successfully get myself to sit down between getting home from work and starting to cook dinner! My hearts not racing, I’m not craving a glass of wine, and I feel quite relaxed. I’ll practice this some more till I get good at it!
Thank you,
Donna

Thank you Thor for this incredibly supportive meditation! It helped me to pause and slow down from a somewhat frantic pace at which I’ve been trying to complete work that I’ve been feeling anxious about. Thank you!

Awesome - great tone n thoughts given to be have a different style. I'm bookmarking this one! 🤙

Helped me settle and understand something about seeing how fast I am running and why I might feel tired. Sometimes I just don’t notice how much energy I am using. A good centering and grounding meditation. Thank you 🙏🏻🕊

Slowed me down 🤍

Really loved this! 🙏🏾

I needed this 🤗 I loved the metaphor being used, and it brought me so much insight!

Excellent. Pacing is perfect. The meditation left me calm and focused. Thank you!

A good session to take some time out during the middle of the day to reset and begin the afternoon. Thanks.