The Art Of Slowing Down

FOR WHEN YOUR LIFE FEELS LIKE A RUN ON SENTENCE

Slowing down and settling in to pause and be with life does not come easy, it’s a conscious practice.

For many of us all we’ve ever known is fast.

Growing up I have memories of my teachers marking up the margins of my essays in red ink with “Run on Sentence”. Over and over again I would carry on without any regard or need for a period to stop one idea before moving on to the next. Thoughts just flowed and flowed and flowed... The intention wasn’t to squeeze in endless words or ideas into a solitary sentence, it just happened.

It never occurred to me to to stop the sentence with a period and take a breath.

This metaphor fits my life as an entrepreneur. Except now, “Run On Sentence” has been replaced by my coaches giving me practices inviting me to pause, or stop, or slow down or do less.

As if I was living a Run on Life.

It’s that my interior is often like a Run on Sentence. The metaphor fits. It doesn’t really matter how fast or slow the world is going on around me, inside it’s usually fast. However, when your coaches keep repeating the same wisdom, eventually you need to receive the practice and consider the possibilities that exist in slowing down and in stopping altogether.

And, yes, admittedly A Run on Sentence interior is exhausting.

So today, I’m here to offer you a practice for that epic, fast, amazingly agile interior Self. Let’s give her some other ways to be than a Run on Sentence.

THE PRACTICE

1) Curiosity first. 

Here are some questions to reflect on what your experience is like.

• What does a Run on Sentence interior feel like in your body?

• ​How has this speed made great things possible and how has it sometimes been a detriment?​

• Where in your work or life could you benefit with a slower speed or a pause? Why does this matter to you?

​2) Practice inserting a period. 

The main idea here is practice. Practice makes possible. If you’ve been speeding down the highway of business building you aren’t going to stop easily — that’s okay — the aim is to practice stopping in other parts of your life. As in a FULL STOP. Here are some ways to do this that involve the body and the mind — because they’re related:

• If you’re out and about in your car or your bike (or even on a walk) today, come to a FULL STOP at each and every stop sign. And when I say FULL STOP, actually let the car or bike settle and stop. Feel the stop in your body — however awkward it might be.​

• After a task today, sit down in your favorite chair and stop your body. Try stillness for a minute or two… without a phone of course. Give yourself the gift of stopping and slowing down. Melt into the chair.​

• Close your eyes, or lower your eyelids and fully release each exhale. We have a propensity for cutting off our exhales (yes, another symptom of our run on lives) and not fully exhaling. Notice the bottom of your fully released exhale and stay there for a second before inhaling. Try doing this for 10 exhalations.​

• Compassionately and kindly close your eyes and notice the speed of your interior. Your mind might be going a mile a minute. Maybe you feel restless and want to “do” something “productive”. Maybe your heart feels anxious or unsure. Say something kind to this fast interior — like “thank you for laboring/ processing/ efforting so tirelessly. It’s also okay to pause.”

3) Notice your experience — with compassion. 

When a car slows down on the highway it notices new things. Some are interesting…like the rest stop ahead. And some not so much. Can you let it all be what it is?

Fast or slow? Which is better?

Ironically, now as coach I’m constantly inviting women to slow down. There are so many benefits for your mental health, your ability to be present with my friends and family, and also for your capacity to do deep and meaningful work without being so swept up and away by distraction.

But let me also say, I don’t subscribe to the notion that there is one speed that is better than another.

The skill of being able to slow down give us choice; different speeds make different things possible.

You get to choose when to go fast and when to slow down.

Go kindly with yourself as you learn a new speed, and in the meantime here are a handful of periods.
……………………………
and some more ……………………………
and a few more for later …………….

Please insert them generously into your day and week.

I’d love to know what you “default” speed is! And I’m endlessly curious about what helps you to slow down — especially if fast is your default. Leave a comment below and let’s chat.