Setting Up for Slowness
Oh, this is a good topic for me today. I can feel the stirring rush beginning. We have our first student arriving for camp tonight, the rest arrive tomorrow and camp starts on Monday. As per usual, we are burning the candle at both ends to get everything ready.
The need for speed is alluring. But it's hard on the mind, body, spirit, heart.
Even though I know better, it’s still so easy to fall into that trap. I’ve started training myself so that when I feel that pressure to perform inside like that, feel the immense sense of urgency, the burning-of-my-brain kind of stress, I just stop. I stop everything just for a moment.
In this situation now I force myself to sit down. No phone in my hand. Just sitting. Almost instantly my breathing comes back.
There is a Marma Point between the eyebrows, but just above the centre of the eyebrows a bit. Can you feel a slight bone ridge? The sweet spot is sitting right against the edge of the ridge.
This is Sthapani Marma - in Sanskrit it means “what fixes or holds in place”. This point helps to relieve eye pressure and headaches, but it also helps in calming the mind and balancing the emotions. I use my middle finger to make slower than slow tiny clockwise circles in this spot to help slow me down. Clockwise in this instance is as if your face was the face of the clock. Clockwise looking at you and not from your own position.
I can almost instantly calm my mind and regulate my nervous system with this technique. But really even just the act of doing something almost painfully slow provides the soothing balm to an inflamed mind. You’ll know you’ve pressed the calm button when that involuntary deep sigh happens. Watch for it.
Other ways I set myself up for slowness in my day is I use a to go cup for my tea or coffee in the morning so I’m not rushing to finish it before it gets cold.
There is so much that we do subconsciously to prevent something undesirable.
When I’m seeing clients I often book extra time between stops to allow time to eat, drink and nap if it’s needed.
The illusion of the benefit of the hurriedness just doesn’t have the same hold on me anymore.
Setting ourselves up for slowness should be a priority goal for our day. Especially when we feel the opposite.
