The theme for the past month or so seems to be Slow Down.

While life may be hectic, and situations may be making you feel totally overwhelmed and confused, and you may be stressing out on how are you ever going to get it all done…     

the Universe is saying slow down, this isn’t a race.

I’m not saying to abdicate your responsibilities and plop on the couch and eat chips and watch TV.  Instead, notice that in the rushing about and scattered thinking how you might be missing what is going on in your life.  What feelings you might be stuffing, ignoring or denying.

Also notice if you might be doing any of the following:

• Reacting instead of acting.   
  • Reacting is based on past experiences and programming, acting is based on assessing what is truly going and making some decisions about what to do next about it. 

• Doing more and more on auto-pilot.
  • You know that sickening feeling you get when you realize that somehow you drove in traffic all the way home and have absolutely no memory of the drive.

• Forgetting things.
  • Forgetting common words for stuff you use all the time.
  • Forgetting where you put stuff.
  • Winding up in a room   and forgetting why or what you went there.

Take a deep breath. This is not senility setting in. Your brain is just on overload, juggling all your “to-dos”, “should dos”, “didn’t dos”, worries, fears, and relentlessly time traveling between the past and future.

• Feeling exhausted.
  • This can be whether you’ve gotten sleep, have trouble sleeping, are over-sleeping more frequently, or nodding out while trying to work.

• Experiencing “Oatmeal Brain”
  • You know the feeling where your head feels stuffed, not necessarily from a cold or allergies, which can contribute to this too. It feels like you’re slogging through oatmeal when trying to use your brain to think through or do something.  
  • A similar feeling – for those of us in the digital age – is like you lost your high-speed connection to your brain and have to make due with a ultra-slow dial-up connection.”

• Eating because you don’t know what to do, how to do it, or are avoiding doing it.
  • You sit down to get some work done and suddenly you need a cookie, a drink, a bag of chips, chocolate, coffee, whatever your particular thing is. You go eat, and repeat the process throughout the day, grazing your day away. 
  • This can be conscious or unconscious. You may be aware or even justifying why you need to heed the call of the food (conscious).
  • Or you might suddenly realize you have an empty cookie bag in your hands that was full earlier that day (unconscious).
  • Or you may find yourself staring into the fridge or the pantry and have no recollection of heading there to get something to eat (unconscious auto-pilot).

If you find that you are doing any of these things,

it is time to come back to the present moment.

Breathe.  

Ground. 

Unwind.

My guides keep telling me that we are not in a race. Not everything needs to get done “now.” Some things may not need to get done “ever.” They say that we are wound up so tight and trying to move so fast that we are missing out on huge chunks of our life.

And one reason why we may be so busy doing is because our human mind is trying to keep us safe which can get in the way of us being who we came here to be.  Busy seems productive and good… right? Hmmm. It depends.

Keeping busy is a wonderful distraction because we can rationalize (ration lies) to ourselves that this is good, important, needed, whatever.

 Be still. 

 Pause here a moment and notice the vibrational difference in these words. 

Say them to yourself (inside voice or out loud voice, your choice) and notice how your body feels.

“Be Still.”

Now do the same for:

“Stay Busy.”

Do you notice a difference in your body or in the energy?

Play with this. You might find “Be Still” feels lighter, peaceful or good in some way. And “Stay Busy” might feel buzzy (as it does to me), or heavy, or discomforting in some way.

Great. Now repeat this exercise with “Be Still” and “Stay Busy” and notice what thoughts pop into your head with each. You might want to write them down. They could be clues to why you are staying so danged busy!

My request to you – seriously!

How can you slow down and stay more present in your life?

Can you:  

•  Cut your to-do list in half
•  Gift yourself with more rest
•  Let go of some mental clutter
•  Let go of some things that aren’t really that important
•  Let go of things that really aren’t your responsibility
•  Ask for help
•  Get support
•  Be more gentle with yourself
•  Call a time-out for yourself
•  Go play
• Let go of judgments about what you can/can’t do
• Erase the word “should” from your vocabulary (at least for now… although once it is gone you may not ever let it back in  the door)
• Meditate, pray, sing, dance, walk, chant, sit in silence
• Ground and protect your energy daily
• Pretend you’re a kid again in lay on the ground and watch clouds go by
• Spend some time in nature… even if it is just in your backyard, or a potted plant in your house
• Breathe deeply three times to center and bring yourself back to the present when you go spinning off
• Affirm that you have more than enough time to handle everything that needs to be handled by you
   

Those are some of my suggestions. I’m sure you have the perfect ones for you.

I’ll leave you with the words from a light-hearted and yet profound Simon and Garfunkel song (59th Street Bridge”):   

“Slow down, you move to fast. You got to make the morning last. Just kicking down the cobble stones. Looking for fun and feeling groovy... "

Slow and steady. Breathe. Be present. Allow the enchantment back into your life!

Love and blessings,
Karen                                                                                                                                                                                              

PS. If you’re looking for some support in getting unstuck, slowing down or deciding what to focus on, I also offer private consultations: spiritual counseling, intuitive consultations, numerology services and past life therapy.