The Art of Slowing Down

When life feels like a crazy ride and it doesn’t seem to be stopping any time soon…. and internally you’re shouting for help.

 I don’t know about you, but for me life has been an unusually crazy ride coming into this new year. I haven’t quite stopped to take a breath, but today I paused. Actually I had a bath (for 30 whole mins), when really I was supposed to be going for a run, and then doing work from home. Then I called my Mum overseas who I haven’t spoken to for over a month. It felt good.  

I noticed feelings of guilt coming up that I wasn’t doing ‘what I should’ be doing, as well as pressure of my long to do list, looming not far away. I took a few deep breaths and closed my eyes to feel how my body was feeling. There was a bit of tension behind my eyes and in my neck. But I kept deciding I needed this time for myself so I put on some music. Two whole hours went by to myself, bliss. I felt rested and could feel the relaxation in my body finally. 

Then surprise surprise, I actually felt like doing the work I needed to do, instead of feeling the heavy ‘should’ around it. Big outbreath…

What does it take for us to notice we really need to slow down?

Maybe it’s pain in the shoulders or in the lower back. I find when I’m busy, my mind is racing ahead of myself and I am not paying enough attention to my body and to spacial awareness. Accidents happen, I drop things. 

This week my mind was in total overdrive after pushing myself hard that I couldn’t control my thoughts. Old doubts were coming in about whether I had said the wrong thing or upset somebody. I was second guessing myself, replaying interactions over in my mind. I found I wasn’t breathing very much and then getting a tickly cough… My adrenaline was pumping. 

By the end of the week I was exhausted by 5pm and could hardly put another foot in front of me. I went to bed while my husband cooked and I slept. My body had caved in and all I could do was sleep, lucky for me! Some of us can’t sleep when all that adrenaline is going at full power. Burn out here we come…

Are you listening to your body?

Is it a walk in the fresh air, somewhere beautiful in nature that your soul is yearning for? Perhaps a good night’s sleep going to bed earlier than usual will do it. 

Any exercise or activity that will physically get you into your body and out of your mind for a while. Something that gets your body moving into a regular rhythm so you can breathe more actively. Dancing, running, swimming, yoga (as long as you make a point of actively breathing), or any thing fun to get the endorphins going.

Can you pause long enough in your busy day to feel “What does my body want me to do?”

When you’re in need of a nourishing massage or some balancing

One of my client’s came up the stairs and said they were ready to be balanced. I like that I work at ‘Balance’ and people think about that when they come to my clinic. It’s been a year now in this space and I feel very grateful for the lovely peaceful calm that is created by all the lovely practitioners I work with there. 

I recently took my daughter to see Renae Bailey, a Reiki practitioner and master of many healing arts. When I couldn’t do the work to help my daughter, I love that there was someone right there at Balance to help her feel better and get through a really emotionally difficult time at school. I’d also like to introduce Rosie Frost, a new practitioner at Balance who has joined us. She is a clinical hypnotherapist, specialising in trauma therapy and Emotion code. We are so lucky with all these resources on our doorstep for each other.

For me, I am continually learning as a practitioner and on my healing journey. This makes me do what I do best, so I can be there for you. It takes courage to go there sometimes, to feel into the parts of us that are needing to be seen but it’s scary. Often our inner child part of us wants to hide when it’s not ‘safe’ in our adult body. So in an Emotional Release Therapy session, how I can help is by creating a safe place for these parts of us to be held and accepted just as they are. 

Emotional Release Therapy and 
Energy Balancing

Have a look on my website to see what this is all about if you are interested in going within to explore what is going on at a deeper level. Particularly if you know you are not operating at your full potential and feel a bit stuck in some areas. I incorporate gentle bodywork such as Craniosacral Therapy and Holistic pulsing with Emotional Release Therapy to help the body to let go of what is not serving us anymore. 

Sometimes in life, we identify with strong emotions such as fear, guilt, shame or grief. It’s important to let these emotions surface and have time for these to be seen and felt. Then it’s just an easy process to let the energy go and be free again to live as we mean to. 

Remember how useful breath is for this release of energy in our body, at any time, wherever we are. In this bodywork, breath is the key to access our sensory body and get deeper into what is really going on at an energetic or emotional level. How is your breathing going now?

This is me getting my student ID photo at NMIT as I’m studying Te Reo Māori this year.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to when we next meet. In Wellness, Wholeness, Happiness and Slowness…  Ngā mihi o te rā ki a tātou
Marcia