Slow Down and Then Slow Down Even Deeper
Until you reach the starting point, where all life is born. Turn this into a daily practice and switch to creative flow within seconds.
When you’re floating in the sea, close to the shore, with your ears underwater, you can hear the cracking of the little stones that move with each incoming wave. Stay long enough and you’ll notice the tingling around your head and the gentle sensations on your spine. While the water massages your skin and makes it feel soft as if you’re carried in the arms of a loving mother. At first, it can be scary, to lay there flat on your back, without seeing what’s going on around you. Especially with a strong wind or current, causing big waves crashing in. It requires a deep sense of confidence and trust, that the sea will carry you all the way. Once you’ve got there, you can close your eyes and rest, coming out reborn each time you go into the water. Being cleansed of all the stress, heaviness, and pressure by the sea. All that’s left is nothing less than a deep sense of peace.
Walking in a forest with small curving trails, you’ll notice that it’s hard to see through the trees, closely stacked to each other. Follow the trails while witnessing the birds, either through their songs or when they occasionally show themselves. See the diversity of the trees and plants, even though this might not be so clear from a distance. Feel the soft but firm earth beneath your feet, giving a sense of groundedness. Hear the cracking of the leaves and stalks with each step. No time to think about appointments, schedules, or deadlines. Tomorrow is too far away with the conscious mind being occupied with all that the senses provide. Keep following the trails until you come to an open spot in the middle of the forest. Time slows down, birds are no longer there, and only a soft breeze of wind remains. Suddenly you’re able to experience subtle vibrations through your whole body when you sit down and touch the earth with your hands. The same deep sense of peace opens up from within, with each breath it becomes more prominent.
Btw: you can meditate on this – it activates the same feelings as in a real experience
Where to get the time and space to do things like this more often? After all, work is calling, as is family, friends, exercise, and your favorite TV series. With all the tasks and to-do’s on your list, everything that requires your attention, it’s a lot already. No way this is going to fit your schedule as well, right?
The answer? You don’t get time and space for this, you MAKE time and space for it. Even stronger, it must be your starting point. Since this is your natural state of being, the a deep sense of peace, joy, confidence, and trust. It requires you to be radical, first and foremost with yourself. Anything that doesn’t fit with a deep sense of peace, joy, confidence, and trust needs to go. Period. Only then do you get all of your work done, all the tasks & to-do’s on your list – AND be present with family & friends – AND have time for exercise & your favorite TV series. Make this your mission and you’ll never fail on yourself again.
Slowing Down to Keep Up With External Stimuli
Slowing down, there are lots of versions of this. Postponing a vacation or traveling adventure, because there’s a deadline to reach. Going on a vacation to do nothing and recover from a busy daily life. Skipping meet-ups with friends, because you’ve got more important things to do. Meeting with friends to escape the rushing thoughts in your head, that keep you awake at night. Sending your kids to a school, so that you’ve got time and space to do all the work that needs to be done (without them demanding your attention). Taking your kids to a restaurant, to get ice cream, or do something fun, to make up for it.
All of these have something in common: the reasons to slow down come from external influences that demand mental time, energy, and attention. No wonder with all the impulses coming your way. More about that later.
Take a step back to observe your environment. With work, especially when you’ve got a lot of meetings, the meetings go via video calls. Camera on, make sure that you look good, and stay focused on the screen, because everyone can see you. Be ready when you need to react to questions or comments because not paying attention is awkward. While listening to all the stuff that’s completely irrelevant and has nothing to do with you or your responsibilities. With tasks, reach your daily KPIs that are required to reach a desired conversion rate. Meaning, a minimum number of calls and emails or content per day. Even if it undermines your quality of work and your well-being, just buckle up and finish the job.
With friends, it’s important to listen to all the stories and sympathize with them, especially when there’s drama involved. After all, you’re here for support, right? Adjust to the values of the group environment, with what you wear, eat, and drink. Follow the common topics, also when it’s social chit-chat, and put the feeling of being bored aside for a while. Socializing is vital, so if that means lowering your standards, go for it. When someone needs your help, you do the best you can at the moment, walking the extra mile. As long as it’s small and doesn’t require that much time it doesn’t hurt. All things can be fixed.
This is what it looks like when something or someone is slowing you down, draining your energy, and sucking you dry. To think that it’s only a big thing that can do this, like a fight, a terminal disease, or a financial collapse is wrong. It’s the tiny things demanding EXTRA time that lead to an accumulation of stress, tiredness, and disease. Once you’re in, you’re destined to get STUCK. Unfortunately, most structures in the modern world are designed like this, making it look like it’s ‘normal’. Spoiler: it’s not.
Alternating Between Tasks in a Harmonious Flow
Stepping into a car, turning on the engine, and driving away to get some groceries. Shifting gears, moving between lanes, passing other cars driving in the same direction. Effortlessly turning the steering wheel, giving directions before making a turn, and being aware of people crossing the road. It goes naturally, so naturally that it doesn’t seem to require focus. The thinking part is out of the equation, making the actions flow over into each other automatically. There’s mental space left to view the landscape, listen to music, and have a conversation. In case something unexpected happens, you’ve successfully anticipated the situation already. Proactively slowing down, so that there’s more time to make corrections when needed.
Giving the brain a rest, while doing simple tasks, activates a state of creativity. It’s different than thinking mode, where you constantly need to pay attention to details. With a state of creative flow, it’s possible to alternate effortlessly between multiple tasks. In thinking mode, this leads to information overload almost instantly, since the conscious brain can only process a few bits of information per second. See this as following these threads that the conscious mind gives you, digging into it for hours, and then finding out it led to nowhere. While in a state of creative flow, you’re able to alternate between numerous impressions, without the need to actively pay attention to it. Instead of actively focusing on something, you’re doing something that requires focus. It’s a subtle difference until you’re able to start from creative flow all the time.
Side note: the term multi-tasking is a misunderstanding of this process. It indicates that you can do multiple things at the same time, which is false. Alternating between multiple tasks is what you do when you’re highly creative. Meaning that you only pay attention to what’s needed to keep things flowing effortlessly. Most of the time, in the strategic and organized world, this is being misused and exploited by giving you an overload of things to do. Ultimately leading to exhaustion. Your state of creativity is the source of all life, your most powerful state of being, and must be respected, honored, and protected for that. It’s not supposed to be used for tasks that are useless and draining.
Going Back to The Pre-Cognitive Roots First
Until a couple of years ago, video meetings didn’t exist, there were no email or smartphone notifications, and there were no distractions from social media or online influencers telling you what you should do. What has been ongoing though, is homogenizing the keeping up with developments in society. From working in factories to sitting still in school, eating the same food as the rest of the village, and respecting the rules the boss gives to his employees (even if they are ridiculous). Long story short, just because the whole world is doing something doesn’t mean that it’s good. Nothing outside of you has authority or power over you and cannot affect you unless you allow it. Having this firmly rooted in your subconscious saves you from unnecessary mental stuff that keeps your brain occupied otherwise. Saying ‘NO!’ is not only a trait, it’s a life skill and one on top of the list.
Walk into an average city you haven’t been before and there are so many nice things to pay attention to. Start a new job and all the new information, systems, and ways of doing seem to run toward you. Join a new community and invitations to do things together are presented from multiple angles. Enough to keep you busy and your brain working at full capacity. Reversely, go to places, work environments, and communities that you’re familiar with and there’s peace of mind. While both the familiar and the new have similar characteristics, the impact of outside impressions on the brain is immense. The key lies within the Central Nervous System and prompting the brain with what information to value first – follow the mind or the body?
Back to the roots of life. A newborn child recognizes her mother through smell, the strongest sense available to us. It has a direct connection to the brain stem and travels 10.000 times faster than any other sense. To provide the child with safety and protection, the mother holds her in her hands. The skin is the largest organ of the body, with touch as the representative sense. Nourishing and feeding the child happens through taste, anything unfamiliar, artificial, or toxic entering her mouth comes out again straight away. Any form of danger is recognized through the ears, and the voice of the mother calms her down. The eyes are blurry the first period after birth, she’s only able to recognize general patterns like a smiling face or a sad face. All of these elements are pre-cognitive before the child can form her thoughts. All of them trigger the Central Nervous System and the brainstem.
Slowing Down to Recognize What You Feel
Children communicate telepathically, in other words on an energetic level. The signals they send out, based on what they sense, carry a frequency that you can notice clearly. Most of the time, they point in either one of two directions, it’s good or it’s bad. Nothing in between, the things they feel are very clear. Interpreting these feelings, making sense of them, let alone putting them into words is a completely different story. Staying present, as a strong, calm, and confident force for their nourishment, protection, and encouragement is vital. Each time when one of the needs of a child isn’t met and the feelings aren’t answered, they get repressed. Repeat this long enough, or worse – ignore, reject, or confront them, and the sensing reduces its strength over time. Resulting in protective mechanisms formed by the brain, that fire up each time one of the repressed feelings is triggered.
Even as a grown-up, your senses are still your first source of information. Overloading the senses with too many impulses, in combination with repressed feelings, puts the CNS on defense. Slowing down to access WHAT you feel brings back the same sensory awareness and clarity you had as a child (that’s different from HOW you feel). What you feel within your body gives a strong indicator of how you enter a new situation or interaction. Is your body tense and painful, or calm and relaxed? What parts of the body do you feel? When you direct your attention to tense parts of your body and breathe into it, do you feel a difference? Which senses are the strongest? Observe yourself during work, with friends or family, while shopping, and feel what your body tells you. Is it draining you or does it give you energy and joy?
Choosing your body first automatically gives your mind a rest. Mostly it’s as small and simple as following your breath and noticing how your body feels. When you’re undergoing something big and impactful, you’ll need a walk, a creative pursuit, or time in nature. Whatever works for you to get back to neutral. Recognizing the signals your body gives, helps to indicate what is draining and doesn’t need your attention. Often these are the little things slipping in that don’t take that much time. If it’s not your responsibility then drop it. Remember the things you value most, quality time with yourself, your family, and friends. A peaceful and joyful state of being. A healthy and energetic body. Environments that get the best out of you. Being selective has a reason: it filters out what slows you down – this is what you can confidently say ‘NO’ to.
Switching From Reactive to Proactive Actions
Start with feeling what you feel within your body. Practice this before you start something new. Pick simple tasks to give yourself a head start. Noticing when you begin with this is enough, the understanding follows afterward. When your brain is at rest, you activate the state of creativity, even when you’re in a completely new environment. Curiosity is the key to success, be curious about what your body has in store for you. The same sensing from early childhood is still there and available to you right now. It’s still the first indicator if something is right for you or not.
Important side note: this also includes the feelings you don’t want to feel. Initial fears, resistance, and other uncomfortable sensations. Discerning what it is you’re feeling if it’s yours, and what to do with it is important. It starts with the practice though, allow yourself some time to get into the habit.
With feeling what you feel within your body as a first indicator, this puts sensitivities into a new perspective. Being highly sensitive means nothing more than having strongly activated senses. With a conscious mind that doesn’t know yet how to interpret this correctly. Luckily you can learn this, by taking a safe distance from a situation. The body holds so much wisdom and processes so much information every second, that any miscommunication between body and mind can lead to confusion or overwhelm. In other words, looking back at floating in the sea or walking through a forest, the deeper the subtleties you’re able to perceive, the more obvious tiny differences become.
Learning the language of the body shows you how to anticipate situations. See what happens – who knows, maybe your body gives you clues before something happens. Switch from reactive to proactive actions by tapping into your body’s wisdom. With having access to and a stronger awareness of small differences in what you physically perceive you can set stronger boundaries. It’s simple now to test out what it’s like to attend a meeting without a camera on, to spot how others exploit you by overloading you with useless and draining tasks, and which responsibilities aren’t yours to carry. In no time, there’s so much that drops off of your shoulders, that you’ve got an overflow of time, energy, and attention available. To get all of your work done, all the tasks & to-do’s on your list – AND be present with family & friends – AND have time for exercise & your favorite TV series.