Hi there.
Today I'm going to sing you a song.
I love to sing.
And I find that music,
Including popular songs,
Is such a source of so much wisdom.
It's this powerful combination of poetry and melody.
So how could it not be a source of wisdom?
And it's a naturally occurring opportunity for mindfulness.
Just like a cup of hot tea is a naturally occurring opportunity for mindfulness because we have to slow down and sip it so that we don't burn our tongue,
You know?
And that's an opportunity to slow down and notice the touch of the hot liquid in our mouths and look around and notice the taste and notice anything that is occurring for us in that moment.
And so also is music.
It's this powerful opportunity for mindfulness,
The beauty of it and the meaning of it.
So I love to sing and I love to listen mindfully to the words of the songs.
And I find that they connect to these deep ideas.
And sometimes I make connections that it seems like the lyricist may have intended.
And other times I make connections that I'm pretty sure the lyricist had no intention to make.
And that's OK.
So today I'm going to sing a song by India Aree.
I'm going to sing parts of it.
There's beautiful messages in this song.
It's actually directly about mindfulness,
I believe,
Or something like that.
And these words for me say a lot about mindfulness and also specifically about mindfulness during conflict.
And the song is called Slow Down.
So I'm going to sing just for a few seconds and then talk about the meaning of the words and then I'm going to sing again for a few seconds and then talk some more about the meaning of the words.
And while I listen,
It's an opportunity for you to be mindful and listen to the sound,
Listen to the words,
Listen to your own responses and reactions that come up in response to the words.
And listen with all of your senses.
Notice anything else that may be going on for you.
OK,
So here we go.
I'm just opening up the words so that I don't get them wrong while I'm singing to you.
Slow down baby,
You're going too fast,
You've got your hands in the air,
Feet on the gas,
You're about to wreck your future.
Running from your past,
You need to slow down baby.
So such simple words,
Right?
And they're kind of fun.
But really,
Is there a more perfect message to give to ourselves,
To sing to ourselves when we need it?
That we need to slow down and we need to embrace ourselves tenderly.
Slow down baby,
You know,
To embrace ourselves.
I love that when Thich Nhat Hanh talks about embracing our angry baby inside.
So sometimes we need to embrace ourselves tenderly when we're having a hard time and just slow down.
And here's another,
Here's another verse of the song.
Sometimes you gotta be still before you can get ahead.
Ask the universe for help.
You can't do it all by yourself.
Sometimes you gotta be still.
Take some time to rejuvenate.
Take some time to clear your space.
Chaos isn't good for your health,
No.
So be still,
Right?
Did I say that the song is by the wonderful India Aree?
She wrote it and she sings it so beautifully.
So sometimes we have to be still.
So you see what I mean?
That I really wonder if this song was written on purpose about mindfulness.
We have to take some time to rejuvenate.
So often we feel we have to fix it now.
And you know we have that thing about insisting that reality needs to be different than it is.
Being still and slowing down is the opposite of this.
Being still is saying,
Yup,
Reality is what it is and I am part of that reality right now in this moment.
And the chaos that isn't good for our health is one that we help to create or to add to.
When we slow down and are still,
We're reducing that chaos so significantly.
So these messages,
Be still and slow down,
Are powerful self-talk messages.
You know we all have a self-talk going on and sometimes it can be a pretty nasty voice and often we're kind of pushing it away.
But it can be really powerful to stop and hear your self-talk,
Even the nasty self-talk.
Because otherwise it's just kind of percolating down there,
Subversively affecting us when we're not so aware of it.
So to slow down and be still and hear your self-talk and answer it.
So you can use these words either with the tune or not to answer,
To sound this additional self-talk voice.
So these are great in all kinds of situations and they're also wonderful for conflict.
They're both wonderful mantras for conflict.
Slow down baby.
If we can sing that to ourselves or say it to ourselves in those moments of conflict with the people who are most important to us.
And the conflicts that we have with them kind of get us to go off to the races and we're moving so fast in our minds about all the things we have to fix and do.
No,
Slow down baby,
Slow down baby.
And also be still.
Just take some time to rejuvenate so we can remind ourselves this way to pause during conflict.
Which is maybe the single most important skill of being calm during conflict.
To just pause,
To take a breath,
And to connect to here and now so that we can choose our response and feel good about our response.
And that way conflict becomes a mindfulness practice that we grow so much from.
So thank you.
Thank you for listening and thank you Ndia Ahri for this amazing song.
