Some time back in August I was deep in meditation and asked for guidance. The answer I received was: Can you be, right where you are?
Since then, this simple invitation has lingered in my mind. I come back to it multiple times a day, and it has become my reminder to stop and pause. And if you’ve been to a class of mine lately you may have been invited to explore this concept for yourself too.
I’m certainly not claiming to be perfect – I’m not a hermit, I don’t live in a cave, and I need to put my phone down WAY more often than I actually do.
See, our modern society has us running at a million miles an hour. We’re all on this crazy 100mph rollercoaster together. The need to stay busy and keep moving is addictive too.
I recently heard on a beautiful podcast with Andrea Ferretti and Tias Little recently that “speed gets trapped in the body”. This is prevalent particularly in modern Western society, where we often see this systemic need to keep pushing for more and more, even to our own detriment.
It’s time to end the shame around doing nothing.
Sometimes doing nothing is exactly what we need.
Allow yourself to be right where you are.
Stepping off the rollercoaster
I talk a lot about shifting out of unhelpful behaviours and getting out of our comfort zones. I wholeheartedly believe that what doesn’t challenge us won’t change us. But finding softness in strength is what really makes us resilient.
A few years ago, back in the start of my teaching journey, I took on too much and went through burn out*. I really resisted the thought of slowing down, and it felt like my worst nightmare. I would just oscillate between trying to do all the things and then crashing out with crippling fatigue. In the end I had to lean into constructive rest, and honour my need to slow down.
(*This seems to be an absurd rite of passage for new business owners / entrepreneurs and I want to challenge that. Stay tuned for a whole other blog post on that ha! Coming soon)
Ever since that time, I have always been mindful about how I invest my energy, and I really recommend everyone to consider this for themselves. It’s all about finding balance in the ‘energy in’ parts of life with the ‘energy out’ activities.
I don’t think we can always progress and grow without first taking stock of where we are right now. Feel into a slower pace of living, even if it’s for one hour a week of eye masks and lying on the sofa. Perhaps you’re pausing for longer in a yoga pose, or beginning a meditation practice. Or maybe you’re dedicating one day a week to digital detoxing, and leaving your phone on airplane mode.
I invite you to explore this topic by considering the following questions:
- What elements in your life give you energy?
- And what parts of your life drain you of energy?
Choose Your Life
Life gets easier if we slow down and stop forcing things to happen. How would it feel if you let yourself be, right where you are?
We’re always in this struggle for what’s next. We live in such a masculine era just now, with this propensity to push and progress and live on that rollercoaster. But most of us get to curate how our life looks.I get that so many of us have 9-5 jobs, and we have to revolve our lives around that schedule. So, how do you want the rest of your time to feel?
Morning routines and evening rituals are so powerful to set the tone for each day and the next.
Our hobbies and passions and creative pursuits define us, so find practices that light you up.
Spending more time with those who raise our energy levels leave us feeling inspired and motivated.
Most of all, the time in between all of the actions and the buzz, are the times where we are most authentic.
The Sacred Pause – Be Right Where You Are
We find ourselves in the moments of silence, the pauses in between conversation or tasks.
For me, I fell completely in love with myself when I devoted more time to silence.
I used to avoid this at any cost, fearing what I would (or wouldn’t) find. I hated being with my thoughts, for fear that they would bring me down. So I filled up my life with noise, drama, stress and “busyness”, and never really knew who I was.
When I leaned into the quiet, I found the joy behind that fear.
Zero people around me.
No phone to distract me.
No classes to think about or plan.
Releasing the need for drama to entertain me.
Just
The beautiful wholeness of the quiet.
Me.
You?
Take an hour a day, or 20, 10 or 5 minutes, or even just 30 seconds out of your time in your precious life. Can you just be right where you are?
Tali xx