The Art Of Slowing Down

Slow is the new fast. We live in such a fast-paced, high-pressure society and fill our days with endless tasks and obligations. It can feel impossible to even consider what it feels like to slow down. Join Lydia for a guided gentle journey into your body, into smiling from the heart, savoring gratitude, and take off some of the pressure at this moment. Just for a moment. You are worth it.

Transcript

Welcome.

I wanted to talk to you today about the art of slowing down.

So to bring this into direct experience of your present moment as you're listening to this either live or as a replay,

If you were to imagine slowing down in this present moment right now,

How would that feel?

If you were to slow down in your experience of the present moment in your physical body,

In your emotions,

In your mind,

Imagine what it would feel like,

Feel what it would feel like to invite in slowing down into this moment,

Maybe even into your environment.

And notice what shifts.

Notice what shifts in your breathing as you invite in slowing down.

Notice what shifts in your muscles.

Do any of your muscles suddenly feel like they can drop and relax?

Do you notice if there's any areas of resistance in your body,

In your mind,

In your emotions to inviting in a slowing down in this moment right now?

Now consciously invite a slowing down of your inhale and exhale,

Slowing down of the pause in between the inhale and the exhale.

And notice,

Imagine how your nervous system feels as you slow down your breathing.

You might bring your hand to your heart,

Feel your physical heart rate,

Imagine slowing down enough to feel the heart beating in on your hand or in your chest or both.

As you invite in this slowing down in your present moment,

Notice how it feels.

As you're inviting in this concept,

Now imagine smiling from the heart.

Imagine what it feels like to smile from the heart as you invite in a slowing down of your breathing,

A slowing down of your body,

Of your emotions.

Imagine relaxing your jaw.

As you slow down,

Can you imagine releasing any tension you're holding from maybe intellectual,

Physical,

Or mental pressure to rush to get things done?

In this moment,

If you're able to be practicing some of the invitations of what I've been saying,

In this moment,

Imagine in this moment,

I have nothing to do.

Even if your intellect disagrees,

Let that be okay.

Just notice how these words feel to invite into your body.

In this moment,

I have nothing to do.

In this moment,

You know,

You might even add the words,

I imagine,

I have nowhere to go.

And in this moment,

I have absolutely no one I need to be.

I can exist.

I can breathe.

I am here.

Take a nice deep breath in through the nose.

Take a sigh through the mouth.

Imagine relaxing your jaw.

Imagine as you sigh,

Maybe do that a couple more times.

Imagine that you can slow down in the tension in your neck and shoulders.

Imagining releasing your neck as you sigh,

As you let out that exhale.

Imagine smiling from the heart at the same time.

And imagine this heart-smiling energy,

This invitation to slowing down,

This energy is moving through the whole body.

Once again,

Focus on inhaling through the nose,

Releasing your exhale with a nice sigh with sound.

So sound is an audible signal to the nervous system to relax,

To come out of a fight or flight state,

To move into what's called a parasympathetic state.

So it's more of a rest and digest.

It's more of a nourishing place in your nervous system.

Being in the parasympathetic state of our nervous system is where rest and energy actually comes from.

To slow down is what opens us up to having more energy.

To slow down,

To rest,

To nourish,

Is what allows us to repair,

Allows us to increase our capacity for showing up for ourselves and or others.

Slowing down allows us to come into spaces of curiosity about our lives and ourselves rather than immediate self-judgment or skepticism,

Defensiveness,

Or feeling aggressive in relationship.

Slowing down is the true art of listening,

Where we can release expectation in the moment.

And rather than have expectation of results,

We can come into cultivating an expectation of curiosity,

Of seeing what's here,

What's there,

What else is possible.

Can I start to get curious in this moment about my breath rather than judging my breath?

Can I get curious about any tension patterns I might be feeling in my body rather than judging it or feeling discouraged by it?

Can I get curious about my emotions about a stressful thing in my life or a list of things?

Can I get curious about the emotions I'm having about emotions?

Can I get curious about my fear of the emotion of anger?

Can I get curious about why I feel misunderstood?

Can I get curious about tuning in to what my body's needs are in this moment?

Place your hand on your heart,

Maybe place a hand on your belly,

And invite in a moment of slowing down right now,

Tuning in.

Is there any way,

Body,

That I can take care of you in this moment?

Is there a need I can meet right now to support you in supporting me?

Can I come into a moment of slowing down into self-compassion,

Expanding my present moment and my consciousness right now to hold my human experience,

Whether I'm feeling negative,

Positive,

Any experience in between,

Whether I'm feeling a mixture of emotions or focused on one specific sensation,

Emotion,

Or thought?

Can I hold that from a greater space of loving on myself in this moment?

Can I imagine smiling from the heart?

And as I do so,

Can I feel my body responding to this heart smile?

Maybe there's an area that feels a little lighter as a result.

Maybe the smile comes across my face and I feel a little bit of lightness in my mood shift because I'm smiling.

And this smile,

The beauty of the heart,

Smiling from the heart,

It's completely unconditional.

Cultivating smiling from the heart has nothing to do with how you're feeling,

What's happened in your life,

Any thoughts you're having.

It's always accessible to you right now.

It's an access to feeling grounded in your worth,

Which is unconditional.

You are worthy because you exist.

There is nothing you can add to your worth.

There is nothing you can take away from your worth.

There is nothing you can do,

Think,

Or say or not do,

Think,

Or say to change your unconditional infinite worth.

You exist and therefore your worth is here and exists.

The same goes for potential.

Notice how that feels to experience that concept in your moment,

In this present moment,

In this experience.

And once again,

Take a nice deep breath in through the nose,

Imagining when you breathe in that you're breathing all the way into your pelvis and your entire spine.

And as you exhale,

Slow down the exhale.

Imagine your entire body is releasing as you release through the breath.

You might even start to imagine that as you inhale,

You're breathing in life energy around you.

You're breathing in through all the pores in your skin.

And as you exhale,

The body's integrating the power of your breath.

You're releasing all the gases,

Anything you no longer need to hold onto without needing to think about what or how.

You're giving full permission.

Invite in giving full permission to your body to let go unconsciously,

Subconsciously in your emotions,

In your physical body,

In your psyche,

In your breath,

In your energy.

Notice how this feels to be slowing down,

To be taking a moment for yourself,

For nourishing awareness,

Nourishing compassion,

Nourishing your heart smile for yourself.

Notice as you take this moment as your body,

As your intuition,

As your inner wisdom,

Inner guide,

Inviting you into more in your life,

Into any areas where you might be realizing there's a beautiful intuition invitation to slow down maybe in chewing and eating.

My massage teacher used to say your stomach doesn't have teeth.

So all the breakdown starts in the mouth with slowing down with eating and savoring the flavors and the taste and the experience texture.

Is there an invitation intuitively in your life to slow down in your relationships,

To hold space,

To be present,

To listen while the other person expresses themselves without jumping to feeling defensive,

Without jumping to defending yourself and letting them have an experience,

Letting their experience be valid even if it's different than yours.

Is there an intuitive invitation to slow down in waking up in the morning before reaching to pick up your phone?

Is there an invitation to take a moment to feel your body,

To notice if there's an intention you want to set for yourself that day?

That might even be an experience an invitation now.

Is there an intention you want to set right now for the rest of the day for yourself?

Bring your awareness once again to your heart space.

Imagine smiling from the heart.

Come into a moment of savoring gratitude,

A deep sense of gratitude for yourself,

For tuning in,

For listening,

For participating at whatever capacity you have right now.

To this little guided practice,

Savor a moment of gratitude for how amazing and intelligent and intuitive your body is and how much it's supported you throughout your life to get to this moment.

Take a moment to savor a deep sense of gratitude for your curiosity of wanting to know more in any area of your life,

Of wanting to grow,

Of wanting to develop,

Of wanting to shift maybe in certain relationships or invite in healthier environments for yourself or community.

Notice how that feels to take a moment to savor gratitude.

You might bring your hand to your heart and or your belly.

Maybe even take a moment to slow down enough to tell yourself,

I got you.

I have your back.

I'm here for you.

I'm learning to love you more deeply.

I'm learning to invite in a deeper sense of trust.

I'm learning and willing to validate myself and my human experience without rushing to judgment,

Without rushing to think there's something wrong with me.

If I perceive a failure or if I perceive that in comparison to others,

I'm not in a good place or in the right place or doing the right things,

Can I instead start to invite in a slowing down of welcoming and compassion,

Allowing myself to experience my human emotions,

My human processes right now so that I can feel like I can lean in to the holding,

To the space.

I can lean into the compassion.

I can feel held in this moment so that as I let go,

As I rest,

As I slow down,

I can start to really invite in the clarity of what direction I want to go,

Who I want to be.

Notice who I'm embodying,

How I'm showing up for myself,

And if there's anything that I truly desire,

Not from any outside pressure of media,

Family,

Conditioning,

Society,

But rather from a desire and intuitive knowing in myself,

Is there any area of my life in myself that I want to expand into,

That I want to embody more of?

When I look at my values,

Is my life representative of my integrity,

Of my values,

Of my deep and radical authenticity of who I want to be and how I want to show up in the world for myself and others?

And if your mind is maybe going to areas of like,

No,

Again,

Can you invite in a moment of slowing down before rushing to any sort of judgment?

In what you're noticing,

Can you cultivate and bring in a sense of curiosity?

Curiosity comes from the practice of slowing down.

Curiosity is the opposite of judgment.

So if you want to work on being less judgmental of yourself or others or aspects of your life,

Can you instead start bringing in a sense of slowing down to get curious,

To be open to what else is possible?

Once again,

Invite in a slowing down of this moment in your experience.

Notice how that feels in your body,

In your breath,

In your emotions.

Can you invite in a slowing down in your environment right now?

What shifts?

Imagine smiling from the heart.

Give yourself a moment of grace,

A moment of compassion,

A moment of gratitude for showing up for yourself.

Because when you show up for yourself,

It's the greatest gift to everyone in your life.

Thank you so much for tuning in,

For listening.

Wherever you are in the world,

Whatever time zone or time of day or night,

This is.

Welcome in continued moments of being with yourself,

Of being curious,

Of slowing down and creating space where there used to be judgment,

Where there might have been reactivity.

Inviting in curiosity,

Compassion,

Grace,

And validation that you're allowed to be human as you grow in every area of your life.

Reviews

Just the words I needed to hear - curiosity, compassion and the permission to be human. Thank you 🙏🏼🌺💗

I felt more confident towards the end. This too shall pass, and I am growing. Felt tired, but more connected. 🙏 thank you

Kind and thoughtful meditation.

💖sooooooo gooooood💖

Thought provoking as usual. I love how you suggest smiling from the heart 💜