Today I offer a quick note about slowness. (Gosh, I love punny language.)
In my yoga classes, you can often find me using an example of being in molasses, suggesting that we move with that slow deliberateness that allows balance and awareness to keep up with action.
Slow is good.
Yet, what surrounds me is the get-it-done now, 5-minutes-ago, zippity quick pace for everything including driving, eating and intimate conversations.
I’d like to put the brakes on all of that nonsense. Or at least submerge it in molasses.
The work that I do involves big life stuff – healing, forgiveness, resilience, reversing patterns that have been deeply etched into the stone tablet of your habits. Although awareness can shift instantaneously (and often does), changing actions, and getting different results, is a process impeded by haste.
Changing a life is much more like turning a cruise ship than flipping a switch.
Here’s why it matters: Wanting something badly almost always means wanting it NOW. Patience, willpower and stamina can be in short supply when grand desires are involved.
We want that initial turbo boost to keep us going, however. Energy just doesn’t work that way, unfortunately. The fuel that initiates any process gets consumed quickly, leading to a sense of declining oomph much too soon. That’s why it’s much easier to get excited and get started than it is to maintain, sustain and continue.
By all means, take advantage of the surge of energy that comes with a new discovery, but at some point (usually early on) it’s important to realize that slow and steady will become a much better strategy. Switching to a long-burning fuel, and making patience your partner, will get you much further than any other alternative.
But patience sucks. I don’t like it one bit, and it used to make only rare appearances in my life.
Which is why I get help. With the most important aspects of my life – my health, my parenting, my relationships, my business – I plan for the part where it gets hard.
Showing up at the gym on days one and two, with my new gear and rockin’ playlist is easy. Showing up on days 10, 25 and 100 requires a different set of skills. It demands that I stop rushing towards the end, and immerse myself in the lengthy, and often messy, middle.
Writing the first few pages of the tantalizing story in my head is exhilarating, but the process of writing and re-writing required for a finished piece is hard. Really hard.
It calls for full adoption of the following: Slow is good.
That’s where the magic happens. The resistance to not having the goal appear immediately begins to dissolve. Progress begins to build on itself. Most importantly, the process begins to be a source of nourishment, instead of something to get through, quickly.
When I slow down in my yoga practice, I get to experience the wholeness of my body and breath.
When I slow down in my expression, I can more easily bypass the lizard-brain, fight-or-flight thoughts.
When I slow down in my actions, I get to savor the moment before me, and create less mess to clean up afterwards.
When I align with the energy of slowness, patience becomes pleasurable. That, by itself, can make the uncomfortable process more than worth it.
If patience and gradual, deliberate action trigger your anxiety, I can help. This is exactly what a coach is for. And it is one of my superpowers, specifically because I had to work so hard to successfully cultivate that mindset, and implement it throughout my life.
Does the possibility of guidance and a support structure to get you diligently moving toward your goals feel like a deep, nourishing breath?
Is it time to begin?
Complete information on how to make that happen can be found here. Reach out with any thoughts or questions.
Patiently (mostly) waiting,
