The Beauty Of Slowing Down | Right Here Is Enough

This episode is a gentle reminder to slow down, embrace the present moment and trust that you are exactly where you’re meant to be. You'll learn how to release the need to rush, why it's beneficial to align with the seasons and how to find peace by reframing your ability to slow down time.

This episode is a love letter to your own innate ability to slow down and live in alignment with your desires and seasonal rhythms. It touches on mindset shifts for presence and peace, as well as tips on feeling more aligned, living intentionally, and accepting the present moment as the BEST moment for your personal growth and evolution.

If you liked this episode, please join the conversation in the Wild Free Well Space here on Insight Timer!

Transcript

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Wild Freewell podcast.

For those of you watching the video version of this,

We've got some real ethereal vibes going on because of the way that the sun is coming in through the windows but we're doing it anyways so yes I'm so happy to have you here on this episode and I'm looking forward to talking to you about time today.

Yeah,

I've talked about time before on the podcast.

There's an episode about making,

Like there's always enough time and making time work for you and today is a similar theme but I think it's a little bit different.

We are going to be talking about really allowing time to slow down,

Okay?

And what I mean by that,

I think there's two sides of this discussion.

Number one,

There are always seasons of life.

Always.

Whether we like it or not,

There is.

Spring,

Summer,

Fall and winter.

And I mean we're fine when it's summer,

We're pretty cool when it's spring,

We kind of even like fall but we lose our patience a little bit when we're in the middle of a personal winter.

And so,

Sorry,

When we're talking about slowing down and allowing time to slow down for us,

It has a little bit to do with this discussion of being okay with whatever season of life that we're in,

Wherever we are.

And we don't usually have to be okay with being in spring or summer,

Sometimes not even fall,

But we do have to kind of learn to be okay with being in our own personal winter.

The time of our lives where things are almost at a standstill and we don't like it,

Right,

Necessarily.

But there is a reason why there are those seasons in nature,

There's a reason why we need that period of rest,

We need a period to be in the void,

To be in the darkness,

To,

You know,

Be the seed underground and allow ourselves time to be able to bloom later.

So we can never have a conversation about time,

I think,

Without acknowledging the seasons,

But I would also say that that's not necessarily the point of the conversation that we're going to have today.

What I want to talk to you about and the other side of this conversation is our attitude towards time.

And I did speak about this on the last episode,

On the other episode of the podcast about time,

But it's really,

For me,

It's about purposely slowing down time right now.

And that's partly because I feel like I have a lot of things to do.

Like in this season of my life,

I feel like I'm working on a lot of things,

Which I have not necessarily shared publicly,

But will one day,

At some point to talk about.

But it's just what I feel like I'm craving now.

And I will say to that this conversation is happening during the beginning of the shift of seasons from summer to fall.

And I think that this is a really natural conversation to be having at this time of year because we do tend to move from a very heightened state in the summer.

And the one of my friends Kara actually always talked about how like,

From an Ayurvedic point of view,

The summer is very,

You know,

Heat,

It's fiery.

And when we move into fall,

It's like a cooling down of that heat.

And sometimes we're not able to meet that energy,

Or sometimes it can feel like a little bit of a shock.

But when we're in this like,

Kind of shift,

Just really like allowing it to be and being okay with like the slowing down.

But what I mean by this is like,

I am craving the slowdown.

Does anyone else resonate with that?

Like,

Do you feel like that's true for you?

I'm really grateful for the shift in seasons right now,

Because it feels like a personal exhale.

Like just it's time for a different energy and a different pace to towards things.

And also,

I am desiring to actively slow down time because of the yes,

The shift in seasons,

But also because of what I feel like I'm working on and the energy and intention that I want to give to those things.

So in order for us to slow down time,

One of the things that we really need to focus on is purposefully choosing not to be in a rush.

Purposefully choosing not to rush,

Not to be in a hurry,

Not to again,

This is echoing themes from the last episode,

But not like the last episode,

The one prior to this one,

Not the last episode about time,

But of not like striving and pushing and forcing things,

But moving into a space of slowing down intentionally to be really mindful,

Present and receptive to what is happening in the now.

This is important all the time.

The more that we can do this,

I think the better that our lives will be.

The more that we can slow down,

The better things get for us,

To be honest with you,

Because the more we're present with what's happening in the now,

The less we're worrying or future tripping and the less we're like commiserating about what happened in the past,

Right?

But like the lack of rush also implies that where you are right now is where you are meant to be.

This is your true space.

You are meant to be in this particular moment and all of the decisions that you have made up until now have accumulated to bring you to this specific moment.

So like that is a huge amount of acceptance and surrender as well.

There's a lot that's kind of bottled up into this conversation.

But if we can find a way to choose to not rush,

We have more presence naturally.

We from that space have more clarity and we are able to get direction and understand where it is that we want to go next.

So it's really massively powerful.

Nothing good comes from being in a rush.

Nothing.

We cannot rush.

And again,

Let's go back to this discussion of the seasons.

We cannot rush the growing of a plant.

We cannot rush the end of winter.

So we have to really find a way to just be present with whatever is coming up.

But what this conversation is meant to do,

It's about relishing that moment.

It's not just about being okay with it and it's like,

Yeah,

You know,

I hate winter and like this sucks,

But like I'm here.

Oh,

Well,

Like that's fine,

Too.

That's fine,

Too.

Don't get me wrong.

It's that's fine,

Too.

However,

If we really want to,

You know,

Enjoy this,

You know,

One wild and precious life that we have,

As Mary Oliver would say,

Then we need to find a way to be in a constant state of okayness with what's going on around us.

And the more that we can be okay and again,

More present and again,

More clarity and again,

More direction at the end of the day,

It ends up kind of speeding up time.

But it doesn't speed it up in a frenetic way.

It doesn't speed it up in a way that feels aggressive to the system.

It all feels very natural.

Right.

And it all helps us get to where we ultimately want to go.

Not that we need to want to go anywhere.

Anyways,

We don't have to want to.

We can be okay with being here.

There's nothing.

Yeah,

There's nothing wrong with that.

But like,

If you do also want to move forward,

I would argue that slowing down is actually the best way to get there or one of the better ways to get there,

Certainly.

So like going back to like kind of cycling back to the beginning,

When we feel like we need to rush,

It's because we are not okay with where we are.

And I would argue that collectively,

There is a lot of FOMO in the air.

And this comes from our engagement with social media,

Which you all know,

And I've said a million times,

And I don't really need to get into again,

I feel like but however,

It is there,

It is present.

No,

We're spending a lot of our times looking at advertisements,

Because that's what they are.

And we need to,

You know,

Call the thing by its name.

So we are spending a lot of our time looking at curated images,

We are looking at advertisements,

Like some of those curated images are indeed advertisements,

I would argue most of them are,

Whether that's an advertisement for a lifestyle,

Or it's an advertisement for an actual product is irrelevant,

Because it's still an advertisement.

And when we're not looking at that,

We are looking at actual advertisements that are being provided to us by the algorithm.

Okay,

And then even if you're on like a regular website,

Like you're just you know,

You're looking for a recipe for butter chicken,

As I have recently.

You know,

There's advertisements on that website,

Too.

So there's a lot of like stimuli.

And there's a lot of things that are coming into our minds and coming into our field.

And the reason why this is problematic is because advertising is designed psychologically to make us want things that we don't have.

Okay.

So if people's lives have become advertising,

Then it's normal that to a certain degree,

We want the lives that are being shown and sold to us.

Okay.

And what this tends to do is it makes us feel like we need to be farther ahead than where we are,

We need to be someplace else,

We need to be doing more,

We need to be working harder,

Or meditating more,

Or whatever it is that we're,

That we're being sold to everybody's different,

You know,

We need to have the luxury car,

We need to have the dream vacation,

We need to have this other thing,

Whatever it might be.

But the images and the advertisements that we are being sold to,

They tend to make us feel like we are not enough,

Number one,

And that we're not doing enough.

And when we feel like we are not doing enough,

It tends to create this internal pressure that can sometimes be good,

Or certainly,

Actually,

No,

I want to take that back,

I would not say that the internal pressure is good in and of itself,

It is not inherently good.

However,

It can create an internal pressure that can be used for good,

Because we can use it as fuel to move us towards what we want.

But is that the best way to move towards what we want?

I would say probably not,

In all honesty,

Because what it is,

Is,

Again,

It's a sort or a form of striving,

At the end of the day,

We're kind of moving towards something because we think that we,

We think that we have to,

Or we should,

Or we think that we need to,

Because where we are isn't good enough,

Right?

There's,

There's still a little bit of maybe negativity under the surface.

Sometimes we want something just because we want it.

But I want to question that for a second,

I want you to question that within yourself.

I want you to think about some of the things that you have been wanting recently,

Whatever those things are.

And like,

Maybe perhaps in this case,

More from an achievement standpoint,

As opposed to a material standpoint,

But you can do both,

It's fine.

And I want you to think about where you first saw that thing.

And I want you to think about whether you had that desire before you saw whatever you saw.

So like,

If you're thinking,

Let's say,

Let's take an example of like a vacation,

Okay,

You're thinking of taking a vacation to an X location,

Okay?

Have you always desired,

Just inherently desired going to that place?

Or did you see an image of it somewhere and then decide like,

Oh,

I'd like to go there too.

There's nothing wrong with that.

There's nothing wrong with being inspired.

I don't want to be misunderstood here.

Okay.

From that space though,

What is the prevalent emotion?

So you think about this vacation and you feel what it's really important that we ask ourselves these questions and that we kind of like,

Investigate,

Literally investigate into our own thought process into our own,

Like kind of how did we get here?

Like literally what were the steps from,

From wanting this thing,

Like seeing this thing to wanting it.

And what does what,

What does the wanting it make me feel?

Because if it makes me feel like I can never have it,

Or that's never going to be my life,

That's probably longterm causing a little bit of damage.

And if it's causing you to think things like,

I need to be doing more,

I need to be working harder.

I need to be,

You know,

Like,

I need to be farther ahead than where I am right now.

Like I should be doing so much more.

I should be so much farther ahead.

I've done X,

Y,

Z,

Or I have like,

You know,

This degree,

Or I've worked this job,

Or I have this experience,

Or,

You know,

I've dated so many people,

Or I've been running for so long or whatever it is that you're working towards.

Right.

Because when we're having these conversations on the podcast,

We are having them in a very open kind of generic way.

We're not talking specifically about your thing,

Because I can't speak to the thing of,

You know,

However many people are watching this.

So you need to insert your thing and then take yourself through this process,

Which you are capable of doing.

And I encourage you to do pause the episode,

Go and have that conversation with yourself and then come back.

But it's important to understand like where the want came from,

Where the desire came from,

If it's a genuine desire,

And what that desire is making us feel.

I will be really like honest,

If it's a genuine desire,

It's going to make you feel pretty good.

Okay.

In general,

It should be making you feel pretty good.

That does not mean that the other desires are not also genuine.

You may need to reframe the conversation that you're having around those desires in order to make them a little bit more positive.

Okay.

In order to have them be something that fuels you and not something that weighs on you necessarily.

Okay.

So the point of this episode is like slowing down time by accepting where we are and learning to be here,

Because here is the right place.

This is where you are meant to be.

And that can be one hell of a pill if where you are is not somewhere you want to be.

And again,

Please go through that process that I just said,

And assure that this is actually what you want.

Like the thing that is making you feel achy or longing or desire,

Just like having this desire for it.

Make sure that it's actually something that's aligned with your values.

That is something that you actually want in life.

And it's not something that you think that you're supposed to want because your mother wants it for you or because your sister has it or because you know,

Whatever,

You see your friends or because of the images on social media for the love of all things holy,

Please free yourself from that.

Free yourself from the bondage of social media.

So yeah,

Here is the right place.

And we need to really lean into accepting where we are in order to use that as a foundation for getting to where we want to be in a really healthy place.

So how can we actively slow down time?

Well,

We can do what I said at the beginning,

Which is decide not to rush.

The more you rush,

The more you are feeding that frenetic energy,

The more you are attracting that frenetic energy,

The more that it's going to kind of trip you up over time.

Okay,

And I've definitely definitely been in this.

And I will be honest with you,

Be mindful as well of the moments where the frenetic energy is not yours.

So sometimes we end up in situations where we're feeling really rushed.

And we weren't,

Maybe we weren't,

Let's say we start off the day and everything's fine.

And then we get to this point where we're feeling really rushed.

Sometimes that energy is not ours.

Sometimes it's from our partners or our friends or our family,

Or again,

Sometimes it comes from the collective.

So sometimes you may find that if you go onto social media,

And I'm never,

I am not going to stop talking about it.

I'm not,

I'm sorry,

If you don't like it,

Then like,

It's been nice having you.

But this is an important conversation that I think we all need to be mindful of,

Especially,

I will argue for our children,

Like we need to be having these conversations now with ourselves and our friends and our family,

So that we can make educated decisions about future generations that we are not potentially currently making.

But anyways.

So like,

Were you feeling that way before you engaged with whatever you were engaging with,

Whether that was something online,

Or it was like a conversation that you had with a friend or family member?

Because sometimes we can take on energy that does not belong to us,

And we can just as easily let it go again,

If we choose to.

But we have to be in that position of being aware of what's going on internally,

Being aware of what got us to that point.

Like,

Did we wake up that way?

Because we had a bad dream?

Because we've,

Whatever,

We've been stressed or anxious about something else?

Like was,

Is that ours?

And potentially we're passing it on to other people,

We need to think about that as well.

Or did it come from someone else?

So there is a certain amount of like,

Being aware of the way that you're feeling and what's going on.

And then we need to choose the energy that we want to embody.

This is the easy part of this,

Because then the second step after that is actually embodying it.

But you need to choose the way that you want to feel.

You need to be intentional,

And you need to set an intention about how you want to feel.

You can do this during your morning routine.

You can do this while you're in the bathroom at the office.

You can do this while you're having a walk or driving in your car,

Like it doesn't matter where you are,

You can set an intention for today went this way.

And now from this point forward,

I want it to go this way.

Like my intention is to bring this energy to the situation or to my life.

Okay?

You always have that fresh start available to you,

Even when it feel like you do.

And I know that that can be really hard.

And I know it can be a challenge,

But you do you have it there.

It's a matter of choosing it and taking steps towards it.

How do we begin to embody?

When we think about embodying an energy or an intention,

We need to think about how that thing would feel.

So if we think about something that we've hopefully,

I wish this for us all experienced.

If we think about love,

We know how to embody love,

Because most of us have a baseline awareness of what love or being loved or feeling loved or being lovable or being loving feels like.

We have a pretty 360 degree experience of what love is.

Okay?

So we can tap into that feeling and begin to move in the world from that loving space in this case.

Okay?

What I will say about this is that sometimes we want to embody things that we do not have prior experience with.

Okay?

Maybe you're working towards a new goal and you're experiencing something that you haven't really experienced the thing that you want to embody.

Okay?

At that point,

You need to kind of guess.

You're going to kind of manufacture that feeling for yourself and adjust as you go along.

Okay?

If we go back to the main point of this podcast,

Which is about slowing down time,

How do you think you could slow down time in your life?

What feelings could you embody that would help you slow time down?

Think on that for a second.

What came to mind for you?

What was the first kind of knee-jerk reaction?

Some examples would be things like peacefulness,

Calm,

Serenity.

Okay?

Patience.

Yikes!

Something that we probably don't really want to embody,

But we would all do well to embody,

Especially in this current climate that we find ourselves in,

We do need to have a little bit more patience.

But those are some things that if we can set the intention to be patient with ourselves,

Patient with our partners,

Families,

Friends,

Family,

Friends,

Co-workers,

Whatever,

Bosses,

If we can set an intention to be calm,

If we can set an intention to breathe deeply,

Okay?

And if we can actually do those things,

Like if we can then actually breathe deeply,

All of a sudden we are in that embodiment of slowing time down.

We are living that reality.

One of the things I do with all of my clients when I start a session is we take three deep breaths.

Why?

Because you would be surprised how often in the span of a regular day we are not breathing,

Or we're holding our breath.

It is actually mind-boggling.

Because that is a stress response,

Right?

When we are stressed,

We begin to hold our breath,

We tend to breathe in through our nose,

Which also can be triggering,

And it just kind of perpetuates.

And so the first thing that we can do to bring ourselves back into the present and back into our human vessel,

Right?

Into our bodies,

Is just taking a deep breath.

And if we were all to collectively do this at regular intervals throughout the day,

Our days would be so very different.

So very different.

And just to throw a little tantra in here,

Because why not?

Because why not?

Just to throw a little tantra in here.

If you have a partner,

Breathing together while hugging is insane.

It just really helps you regulate,

Because the hug in and of itself,

Like holding on to somebody and hugging somebody,

Is regulating in and of itself.

And breathing deeply together and like matching your in-breath and out-breath with the person is just so intimate,

And it is so relaxing.

So,

So,

So grounding.

Like deeply,

Deeply,

Deeply grounding.

So bonus points if you feel like taking a deep breath that way in the middle of a hug with your partner or whoever.

So that's one way to slow down time.

Another way I think to slow down time is to look for things to be grateful for.

Okay.

I don't know how long you've been in my universe for,

But y'all know that I just don't have a great relationship of gratitude.

Don't like it.

Not that I don't like it.

I mean,

Obviously it's super important,

But I think that we need to be really mindful of the ways that we use gratitude,

Because gratitude can be a prison that keeps us trapped.

Which is,

And it's a conversation for another episode.

I promise I can get deeper into that and explain exactly what I mean,

But there are,

There can be a negative side to gratitude,

And it can in some ways keep us stuck.

So we do,

And I will now actually,

You know what,

Like while we're all here,

I'm going to write that down.

Okay.

And that's another,

That's another episode.

So the note has been taken.

We're good.

But gratitude can help bring us back into the moment because basically what it is,

Is it's looking for something in this moment that feels good.

That is having a positive impact.

Like we're shining a light on something that we feel is going well.

And we are so quick,

So quick,

So quick as a collective,

As a global community of humans to point out what is going wrong.

So,

So,

So,

So,

So quick.

And so taking a second,

You know,

Again,

The deep breaths and so on,

And then taking a second to be grateful for something.

And like,

Let that something be easy.

Okay.

But taking a second to be grateful for something can really bring us back into the present and into the now,

And just really,

Again,

Help us slow down time.

When I say make gratitude simple,

Whenever I think about something that I'm grateful for,

My first answer is always exactly the same.

Every time.

The easiest point of reference for me is Mila,

My dog.

For those of you who don't know me or her,

Whenever I think about the thing I'm grateful for,

She is the thing that I am most grateful for.

It probably should be like food,

Water,

Shelter,

Oxygen,

But really it's just Mila.

Mila is the thing that I am most grateful for.

And when I think about that,

It's like it,

When I think about how grateful I am for her,

Aka how much I love her,

Um,

It just makes everything in my world so much better.

So much better.

Cause like thinking about that and like,

It's like you tap into this whole other energy and then you can bring that energy to the things that you're doing next.

Right.

And,

Um,

Gratitude is actually a huge part of my coaching practices.

It's something that I do every session with clients as well,

Actually,

Which I've never,

For some reason did not click onto,

But anyways,

But yes,

It is.

It's a huge part of my practice as well.

But yeah,

Just again,

Finding ways to tap into a calm and peaceful moment in the now allows you to slow things down,

Really being present with what you're doing.

So in this case,

We're talking about mindfulness.

You're having a coffee,

Drink the coffee,

Drink it,

Taste it,

Savor it,

Swish it around in your mouth,

Close your eyes,

Smell it before you drink it.

If it's not coffee,

It's tea.

If it's something else,

Whatever,

It doesn't matter.

You know,

You're eating and you're not like shoveling food into your mouth,

But you're taking small bites and you're really tasting what you're eating.

All of these things built up over time are going to slow your life right down in a really positive way.

When I say that we're slowing down time,

It is to give us a better chance of actually accomplishing the things that we want to accomplish.

If we can chill the fuck out,

Then we will be better able to get to where we want to be because we're not in this like frenetic,

Frustrated,

You know,

Kind of harried space.

We're just relaxed and we're okay with what is.

That's a huge difference,

Right?

If you are rushing and you are trying to move faster to accomplish something,

You are inherently not okay with what is going on right now.

You can't be.

You can't be.

It's not possible to be both.

So like if we can slow down,

We can be in the energy and we can,

Sorry,

We can embody the energy and be in the energy of what we want to bring to whatever we're working on.

What do I mean by that?

If we are working on something,

Whether it's a project at work or we're trying to make dinner or we're like,

You know,

Trying to exercise or whatever it might be that we're working on.

If we're coming at it with like,

I just got to get this done.

I have so much to do.

Oh my God.

I have so much to do.

Oh my God.

Oh my God.

Oh my God.

And like,

There's,

You know,

The kids need to be taken to soccer and the dog needs to be taken out for a walk.

And I have to do a lot of laundry and I have to dust the living room and I have to do this and that and the other thing.

And like,

We're building all of these expectations,

But if we can just be okay,

And we can bring a calm energy to what we're doing,

We can get everything done faster.

I have this conversation with my partner on a weekly basis.

I literally tell him all the time,

Faster is not better.

And it really isn't.

I genuinely believe that faster is not better.

Faster tends to mean more mistakes,

Less presence,

Less enjoyment of the thing that you are doing,

Less clarity,

I would argue,

And far less direction.

Because the only thing that you know when you're trying to move faster is the destination of where you're going.

You are ignoring all of the stepping stones along the way to where it is that you want to be,

Because you're so focused on the destination.

And what's going to end up happening is even if you do get to the destination,

And I would argue that you will potentially and not necessarily in the energetic,

Emotional or mental state that you want to,

But even if you do get to the destination,

There's going to be a little bit of this kind of like,

Huh,

When you get there,

There's going to be a bit of a question mark of like,

One,

How the hell did I get here?

Because you move so fast that you weren't really paying attention to what you were doing.

And two,

Like,

Is that it?

Because see,

You rushed past the markers and the milestones along the way to just get to this end goal that is completely and totally arbitrary.

And I know that a lot of people don't like to hear that,

But it's true.

Our goals are important to us,

But we need to understand why they're important to us.

We can't just move arbitrarily towards them,

Because when we get there,

We're going to be like,

Well,

What was it that I was hoping to get from this?

We need to be clear about that first.

We need to be clear about what we're hoping to get from the thing before we get the thing,

If that makes sense.

So slowing down time,

Mindfulness,

You've heard all of this before,

I am not reinventing the wheel.

Mindfulness,

Intention,

Okay,

Being really clear on how you want to feel,

Embodiment,

Embodying that feeling,

So whatever intention it is that you've set,

Then you're really moving in a way that allows that intention to come to life,

Okay?

And just acceptance and surrender and faith that things are all working out.

All of this sounds easier said than done,

And I get that.

I really,

Really,

Really,

Really get it.

Like,

I genuinely get it.

But that is the secret.

Like,

If we can do that,

Then we are going to have so much more time and energy to do the things that we actually want to do,

And we're going to do them in a way that allows us to enjoy the doing of the thing,

And not just the final destination,

Which I would argue we will not enjoy unless we learn to slow down time along the way.

Okay?

Okay,

I'm going to leave you here.

It has been delightful spending this time together with you,

And I hope you found this useful.

If you'd like to learn more about me or my podcast or what it would be like to work with me,

You know where to find me.

And yeah,

If you have any,

You know,

Comments,

Critiques,

Questions,

Or concerns,

Please,

Please feel free to send them over.

If you liked this episode,

Then it would mean the world to me if you would share it or rate or subscribe or follow or all of that good stuff,

Like whatever it is,

Whatever it is that floats your boat,

Really,

At the end of the day.

But it would mean the world to me,

Because feeling like I am positively impacting people,

And God,

I really hope I am,

It just is,

That's it.

That's the whole point of this.

So,

Besides the joy of being here on its own,

Like I find this joyful,

Having these conversations is,

It's,

It's my gem.

So yeah,

But if it resonates with you,

If it resonates,

If it lands,

If it has had an impact on you,

And you would feel up for sharing that with me,

It would mean so much to me.

Otherwise,

I am grateful for you.

I am grateful for Mila,

Always.

And I will see you on the next episode of the podcast.

Bye.