In early August we spoke of the importance of slowing down. This energetic invitation continues. And apparently I need it...
In late July, I began experiencing some health challenges that slowed me way down. And if that weren't enough, I followed this by breaking my toe. The universe obviously wanted me to get the message. To the point of exclusively sitting and observing.
But I didn't initially embrace this slow down. I was unable to engage with nature in my usual way by taking walks and listening for guidance, wisdom, clarity. Forget hiking, bike rides, cleaning my house. Time to keep that foot up. My usual ways of calming and settling my soul appeared forfeited. I wanted to heal faster. I wanted to feel better now. I started feeling sorry for myself, and all the old, unexplored trapped emotions began to wash over me in wave after wave leaving me feeling lost, alone, like a victim.
Thankfully, I was able to turn to my toolbox of energy healing techniques, journaling, yoga and guided meditations to generate the clarity and shift I needed.
Here's what I've learned, or perhaps, remembered :-)
I recognized that the invitation to be still was a gift to allow whatever is moving in me to come to the surface to be explored and ultimately released. That I could feel a sense of ease, joy, and glory in these moments of perceived challenge if I would choose to let go of my expectations, the movement, the business as usual mindset. I could connect with nature and guidance by sitting on my porch and listening to the wind and the birdsong. No movement required.
That slowing down is one of the greatest forms of compassion we can offer ourselves. It gives us the opportunity to see clearly. To become aware of what we are truly feeling. As in"Wow, hey I actually have been wanting to slow down and just listen to the wind and feel my oneness with nature. I just told myself that I had to be productive and creating to be worthy."
That self-compassion is essential. It can be giving ourselves permission to be aimless, or shiftless, and free. To have no agenda other than to feel good, to relax, to enjoy the unfettered, unstructured moments. And to make space for many of them. One after the other. To accept that all the body wants is to feel loved. That the heart wants to be heard and acknowledged. That the mind really needs a break from the planning, prioritizing, thinking.
It can be difficult to feel the pace of the world around us and not be drawn in to it. Self-compassion is holding ourselves when we want to pick up the pace. When we find ourselves rushing along to catch up.
Have you noticed how when you are driving down the road doing the speed limit, or maybe even a few miles over it, and here comes a car tailing closely behind you? Some may feel the inclination to step on it and drive a bit faster, as if urged by the driver behind them. This is certainly an experience I must be mindful of as I can have this tendency to feel uncomfortable and need to step on it as if being pushed from behind. There is an inclination to move faster when we are surrounded by life moving faster.
Another telling moment for me is when I notice I start to get antsy and my body feels restless and I think I gotta go, I gotta do something, I gotta move. Truly, that is the time I need to be still the most. There is something moving in me, shifting, that needs the space to do it. And by offering myself that gift of self-compassion I am recognizing it and I am acknolwedging it. I am allowing it to be to be transformed to whatever it wants to be, to whatever it needs to change to, whatever I am being called to and whatever I am calling myself to. Ultimately, to experience life with ease, joy and glory in every moment.
This August is calling us to pause, to give ourselves space, to take a break from our pre-conceived identities, to nurture ourselves with good food, a hot bath, or a nap, even. To sit in the hammock with a good book, and not one that is educational, but rather purely entertaining. To do absolutely nothing and be ok with that. To take a breath and recognize that this breath is the entirety of the universe in this moment, all of time and space experienced, and there is nothing more to do.
As you continue navigating your moments, your days, your month of August, I invite you to explore where you can slow down. What most needs space in you right now? What can you let go of to create more room for stillness? What feels like ease to you? And maybe, self-compassion is giving yourself permission to be exactly where you are, and the forgiveness for any judgements you hold about it.
Yours In Possibility,
Rachel