“Slow down you move too fast ~ You got to make the morning last” — Core Potentials

~ Simon and Garfunkel

Life can be busy, chaotic, rushed, and unstable. When we pile on the chores, the workload, the to-do list we can suddenly find ourselves over our heads and our physical and psychological health can suffer.

I pride myself on being superhuman, yet at times, I have felt super scattered, forgetful, and dumbfounded. I say “dumbfounded” because when I get into this out-of-balanced state my faulty inner voice starts to berate myself for “being so stupid”! This negative voice is shaming and unkind.

"Say goodbye to your inner critic and take this pledge to be kinder to yourself and others.”

~ Oprah

Sometimes life gets too big and has too many moving parts. Instead of slowing down, we get ourselves into the rat race of doing more thinking, “If I get one more thing done” there will be less to do. Rushing to relax is an oxymoron!

Coming from a family with a long line of decorated military soldiers I’ve been taught to march on until you drop from utter exhaustion. When is there ever nothing to do? It’s not until my crazy make work, monkey mind starts to falter, and I start making mistakes from being so anxious, forgetful, and feeling scrambled, that I begin to recognize something I’m doing is wrong.

In my March blog, I talk about how important it is to spot our negative inner human voice that is unreliable. If it’s berating you, then you are not paying attention to your own distress. Being kinder to ourselves when we are run down, tired, and not thinking straight shows compassion and self-care. Recognizing when we are operating with behavioural patterns that make us ill requires that we pay closer attention to ourselves. If we don’t stop and identify what is going on we can quickly lose sight of our good health.

A personal detriment I’ve found to this “go go go” mindset is when I become the “ever-ready bunny” that never dies I forget to feed and hydrate myself. As an “Earth” type rhythm, putting my needs before others can be difficult. “Earth Rhythm” personalities tend to take care of others first. We are just wired this way. It wasn’t until I went to the Canadian College of Natural Nutrition and was forced to do multiple “Food Diaries” that I began to recognize this unhealthy pattern.

The biggest excuses I get from my clients are – “I’m too busy and forget” or “I don’t have time to do all of the energy medicine exercises you gave me.” The Daily Energy Routine is designed to change and balance your irregular energy patterns and takes 10 minutes to do. If you don’t have 10 minutes in your day to look after yourself then you are over-scheduled and way too busy. It’s time to start re-evaluating and re-prioritizing what you are cramming your day with.

HOME SELF-CARE STRATEGIES

Breathe - Take time to focus inwards by concentrating on your breath every once in a while. Purposely slow down, move slower, and notice and stop the inner anxiety by paying attention to how your inner body is managing. Our chest, diaphragm, neck, and shoulders begin to grip when we become anxious and jittery inside. Taking a long-drawn-out breath in through the nose and letting it out slowly through your open mouth with the sighing sound of “Haaaa”, brings down this fiery frenetic energy that can frazzle you.

Bodywork - I tell my Eden Method Fundamental students “If it’s sore rub it more”. Our body holds stress, tension, and unease. It contracts and aches from our coiled-up unreleased emotional energy. We stuff it to soldier on and it can create aches and pains in our bodies that drive us to our doctor’s offices. Tension headaches, stiff shoulders, and sore lower backs can be caused by unreleased emotional stress in our bodies. Get a spinal flush from your partner. It’s a method of rubbing your neurolymphatics points, that line either side of your spine. Have your person start at the top of your shoulders on either side of your neck and spine. They press and move their thumbs in mini circles, moving slowly down either side of your spine, inch by inch, to your sacrum. This will send messages to your lymphatic system to release the stress-induced hormones from all your different meridians and organ systems. If you don’t have someone to do this for you then book a massage, do some yoga, stretch, soak in a hot tub, or take a nap to help break your patterns of stress and suffering.

Emotional Processing - Hold your Main Neurovasculars by gently placing your fingertips on your forehead for 3 minutes. This can help shift you from the fight, flight, freeze response towards a state of calm. It will help get you back into your parasympathetic system. In nutrition school, we were told to remember that we need to “rest in order to digest.” When you are gripping your stomach, or are worrying about your life; holding your forehead and the back of your head helps switch from a cortisol and adrenaline response into producing happier hormones like Gaba and Oxytocin. They are much more soothing and tension-reducing.

Stop looking at your Phone! - I grew up with only a house phone, and if you weren’t available to answer it the person had to wait and call again. People wrote letters that took days to be delivered. Our nervous system has not caught up to our technological advancements. Noticing our emotions is part of my job so I was surprised when I started to get this sudden feeling of panic while I was getting a pedicure the other day. I tend to use this time to stare at my phone and review my emails. I realized I hadn’t answered someone who sent me an email the day before, I had double scheduled myself at the same time on the same day for 2 appointments, and I had a late payment notice for a bill I thought I’d already paid. Now instead of relaxing, I had become incredibly anxious. Going for a “self-care” treatment should not result in getting overwhelmed. If I hadn’t looked at my phone I would have remained relaxed and practiced enjoying the moment.

Sleep – Our modern technologies have sabotaged us. The invention of the lightbulb resulted in the end of following our natural circadian rhythms, we stay up way past the time we should for best health, in the hope of getting more done. I used to train and rehearse for my dance performances for 3 hours, in the evening, weekly and when I got home, I was completely overstimulated. It became impossible to fall asleep before 11 pm, which encouraged my enthusiastic Triple Warmer system, our “warrior energy system” to kick in to keep me alert and wired. My night owl personality loved it and I’d find myself easily working past my bedtime “burning” the midnight oil. The ancient Traditional Chinese Medicine systems knew how to align and optimize our physiology by following the rhythms of nature. When the sun goes down, we are supposed to be winding down. It’s not time to become overstimulated.

Every morning I spend an hour balancing my energies so I can better handle stress in my day. When we don’t learn to “slow down” we can become a ball of irregular energy that gets into patterns of dis-ease. Emotional states such as anxiety and depression can affect your memory and brain functioning. When our thoughts are spinning it’s hard to focus on a task. So remember to take a breath every once in a while. and shut out the world. Slow down, and do Donna Eden’s “Hook up” exercise shown below for several minutes and get yourself more grounded in the here and now. Doing less is so much more sometimes!