Slowing Down To Speed Up

When something is stripped down, pure and totally authentic, it cannot help but be rich with energy, spirit, and truth.

When we drop out of our thinking and connect to ourselves and the present moment, the answer often shows itself to us. Why ? Because we’ve given it the space to appear.

Without that space, all we have is the same old thoughts and ideas cluttering up our heads.

These ideas haven’t served us well in the past, so why do we think we’ll find the answers there now ?

As Einstein wrote, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

I used to believe that if I wanted to achieve something, or if I had a problem I had to solve, the only way I’d get there was to go up in my head and think my way to a solution.

But this too was just a symptom of over complicating matters—a fear of surrendering to what is.

As I’ve traveled further on my journey of self-awareness, I’ve come to understand the true inside-out nature of how life works. I recognize more and more how the old way of being never helped me, and that when we give ourselves space and clarity of thought, we allow new ideas to form.

Whether we’re stressed, anxious, or trying to work out how best to achieve what we want, the less we have on our mind, the better life gets.

So if we are learning to move away from thinking our way to solutions, what do we do instead ?

We slow down. We take away.

The beauty of these concepts is that we don’t have to learn lots of new techniques to get the results we want. It’s not about adding things but simply stripping away all the stuff that inhibits us.

Trust that going up into your head and doing loads of that really, really good thinking only really takes you out of the present moment.

Usually in these moments you’ll be imagining a past that you think is warning you of something or a future event that scares you from moving forward. But the operative word here is “imagining.” These experiences aren’t real. Yes, it’s very easy to think your feelings about them are telling you something. They never are. You are only ever feeling your thinking in the present moment.

When you become fully aware of this, you quickly reconnect with yourself and fall back into reality, where insights can happen and you can take action.

To better help with this understanding and create a space for insight to happen, I find it helps to get away from distractions strategically throughout the day. Go for a walk in nature; book some quiet time with yourself for reflection; and actively disconnect from your emails and phone for an hour or so.

Little acts like this create exponential results when you allow yourself the space and clarity to fully connect with yourself and the world.

When we’re calmer and more relaxed, everything comes a lot more easily. By creating a peaceful, quiet space around us, we allow our innate wisdom and well-being to come to the surface.

This is who you are before the world put all the thoughts and worries and stories on you.

This is you, uncomplicated, unencumbered. Pure, elegant, resourceful  :-)