If you’re feeling scattered, distracted, like you have a million things to do, you’re going to appreciate this.
Tell me this sounds a little bit like your day… Your alarm goes off. You hit the snooze button several times before pulling yourself out of bed. This is the only moment in the day in which you will be slow.
From here on out you are on the clock – eating in a hurry, speeding off to work or somewhere with kids, rushing here, scurrying there. Until you finally crash at night in your bed…and for some reason you can’t get to sleep! Does this sound familiar?
The speed of our life has affected us in more ways than we notice. Faster food, faster cars, and faster computers. I used to think that faster machines meant that we would have less work to do as technology would ease our burden.
But the faster the world goes, the faster we run.
Reconnect with your mind, body and soul to rebalance
Get into the habit of checking in and connecting with your mind, body and soul to help maintain balance.
That also means checking in with your feelings – when you are stressed, upset, angry, afraid, anxious… these are signs that you are out of balance. They are all negative and will bring your energy down even further, so it’s no wonder you can behave irrationally and play small.
Try this exercise to help you begin to slow down: Take a deep breath in. Exhale slowly. Repeat this five times.
What did you notice? Did your sigh come out long and peaceful, or heavy and stressed? That little test can tell you more about where you are right now in your life than blood work!
If your sigh is heavy, stressed and near painful, you may want to consider slowing down. Your health is at risk! The speed of your life plays a role with the stress, anger, fatigue, depression, and anxiety you may be experiencing.
These symptoms can create a disconnection between our mind, body and soul. This disconnection leads to imbalance and can lead to dis-ease in the body. It’s why self-care is the 3rd step, the 3rd pillar of my Mentorship Program.
By slowing down, we actually gain more energy to do all the things that keep us busy.
And it feels a lot better to go throughout your day in a calm state instead of a crazed frenzy. You might even meet someone new or notice something different!
How can we begin to incorporate slowing down in this fast-paced world?
8 tips to help you slow down
1. Put on a diffuser with lavender essential oil, or light a toxic-free candle in the kitchen when cooking
Smells can have an incredible impact on your body. I’m actually building out a course around How to Balance Healthy Emotions Using Essential Oils, as a result of how powerful their aromatic effect is on our limbic system.
How powerful you ask?
Check this out: The limbic system of the brain plays a powerful role in creating different emotions and feelings.
It is often called “the emotional switchboard of the brain” because it’s responsible for carrying sensory input from the environment to the hypothalamus and then from the hypothalamus to other parts of your body.
Let me just share with you what the different functions of the hypothalamus (Source):
controls the release of 8 major hormones by the pituitary gland
controls body temperature
control of food and water intake, hunger and thirst
control of sexual behavior and reproduction
control of daily cycles in physiological state and behaviour also known as circadian rhythm
mediation of emotional responses
Essential Oils come in because of their strong aromatic fragrance. See, essential oils contain volatile molecules that can make their way into your bloodstream and many can travel directly through the blood/brain barrier very quickly.
Psychologist Robert Plutchik states that there are 8 basic emotions: Joy, Trust, Fear, Surprise, Sadness, Anticipation, Anger and Disgust.
Now, this is just the surface, and I really dove in after experiencing the Feelings Set for myself, which I’ll be talking lots more about next month, including an upcoming 30-Day Balancing Healthy Emotions Using Essential Oils Course.
Sign up to receive news about this course and when it becomes availableCheck out this link for a guide to the effects on health.
2. Set aside one night a week just for you
If one night a week is too much, start with 15 minutes a day. If you can’t find 15 minutes for yourself, with or without kids, there are bigger things at play that you need to step back and assess.
3. Say no to unnecessary obligations that are causing you stress
When I feel overwhelmed, I stop what I’m doing because I’m aware that I’m not operating at my highest potential.
This did not come easy for me… It took a lot of inner work and coaching to build up this awareness and get to where I am – I often refer to it as the exercising my awareness muscle!
Anywho, back to what I was saying… so, when I get overwhelmed, I stop, I set a timer, and on a piece of paper with a pen (not with my phone), I write down everything on my mind.
Sometimes instead of a list, it ends up being a much needed journal entry, but whatever happens from the time that timer starts, to the time it stops, is RELEASE.
If you have a list in front of you with all your to-dos, grab your agenda or planner, and slot them all in.
When it’s a list of negative thoughts and feelings, make each one into a positive in a list next to it. I dare you not to feel better!
4. Pick one day a week to escape to a park, hiking trail or body of water
Nature is a healer, that’s all I’m going to say about that.
My go-to when I need a serious lift is by the water. It makes me feel like whatever I’m worried about or upset about is peanuts in the grand scheme of things, and I immediately feel more calm.
My breath slows, My heart rate slows, My mind goes quiet. I become present, and nothing else matters in that moment.
5. Promise yourself to only eat when you are sitting down at the table
I get better at this every day is what I tell myself because it’s challenging. I know that if I say that it’s hard, well, it’s going to be hard, but at least this way, I know that it’s getting easier every day.
Start small, like one day a week or one meal. I found it was easier to start with breakfast, then dinner, then lunch… snacking is where my challenge always is, so this really helped me to change my habit around eating at night, on the couch.
I’ll have my days where I’ll plan movie night on the couch, and we’ll do popcorn or something, but it’s a treat and a celebration of me and all that I do to live this blessed life, like when I get my workouts in, even on days when I don’t want to, or when I finished a really tough project.
Life should be balanced and celebrated! Especially at the dinner table with people you love and stories that will last a lifetime!
6. Hold your fork with your opposite hand
Ok, this is a weird one, but I’m telling you this will force you to slow down. For me, it even strengthened the gratitude I had for my hands, for forks, for the food that I eat, for every day that I get to eat fresh, home cooked meals.
Some may even say that this will keep your brain fresh, because you’re challenging your body to change its patterns that we’ve learned over our entire lifetime.
7. Close your eyes for a few minutes in the middle of the day
When you close your eyes to the external world, you can’t help but focus inward on your senses and feelings, and thoughts too, but I’m focused more on the senses and feelings.
This is a form of meditation, just letting yourself go and doing a complete body scan, head to toe, then starting to daydream for a moment… what places do you want to go to? what things do you want to do? if you could live anywhere, where would you live?
Just let yourself go in the moment, and when you’re ready, you’ll be surprised at how refreshed you feel.
8. Chew your food slowly
I come back to this a lot: didn’t mama ever tell you to chew your food!
Digestion starts in the mouth, and this is a great practice that I’ve shared with my clients before when it comes to eating.
Eating is probably one of the first things you can use to start slowing down. Begin with a few deep breaths before beginning to eat. Chew each bite thirty times.
Practice this for one whole week. What do you notice? Consider how else you can continue to slow down each day, even if for only 5 minutes.
Add one new slow down activity per day and keep breathing.
I hope these tips were helpful. I’ll be uploading any courses on my Teachable website, and as always you are welcome to join my free Facebook Life Fulfillment Academy Community.
