Written by Joy Seunarine
Slow Me Down Lord
Wilferd Arlan Peterson
“Slow me down, Lord.
Ease the pounding of my heart by the quieting of my mind.
Steady my hurried pace with a vision of the eternal reach of time.
Give me, amid the confusion of the day, the calmness of the everlasting hills.”
As a young girl, my mother received a gift of a Wall plaque, and these were the opening lines. These words stopped me in my tracks. I think it was the first awareness I had that we could be mindful about our inner state; that we can consciously choose to slow down and quiet ourselves.
My passion is teaching the skill and art of listening to our bodies. To create time to stop whatever you’re doing, tune in and attend to what your body is saying is of utmost importance. Connecting to self in a loving, compassionate way is a precursor to creating a sense of wellbeing. Is your heart racing? Do you feel rushed? Do you feel a tension across your forehead? Do you feel emptiness in your stomach, do you feel pain that you’ve been ignoring and pushing through? Do you relish the flavours and textures in your healthy salad?
Reflecting on the importance of self-care, which is our focus for this month of April, I recall the impact these words had on me. They informed who I have become and what I do. I believe good self-care starts with turning inward to assess our inner state. We often think of self-care as negotiable, requiring massive amounts of time for which we don’t have time. Or expensive retreats that we can’t afford. But the truth is that sometimes all we need is a moment. The power of the pause is a term I learned in my coaching training.
Pausing between activities is a great way to ease into self-care. Going from one activity to the next utilizing the power of a pause allows you to clear your head, your body and your energy. A mindful breath creates a space to shed the energies from the previous activities. It brings you into presence in the the present moment. Think of it as rinsing out your energy field. Notice when you make this a regular practice, what happens to your productivity and focus.
Hoever, sometimes a moment is not enough. Crisis, bad news, or a heated argument can leave you spinning. There is still the potential to shift. I run monthly circles where I teach different tools to help you move your emotional state. Breath work, tapping, movement and drawing are some activities that take longer and are effective at creating a shift. My proprietary protocol, Four Steps to Joy, provides a framework to move through states of weariness, heaviness or density.
It is possible to change angst to calm, anger to determination, rage to ecstasy. Like the water trickling through the river bed, we always have the potential to flow metaphorically -through rocks, fallen branches, eddies and dirt. Our feeling states are just like water. Discover flow.
Please share any moments that you’ve found that refreshes you. The first sip of hot coffee, a flower whose colours arrest your attention, wind blowing in the trees or a hug.
About Joy Seunarine:
