We are offering you a question today to set you up for the month to come with Bite-Sized invitations towards transformation. The subject for March is Restraint. Think of restraint as a way to tune your inner radio station to a calmer, less stressful station. Hayley Curtis defines restraint as coming into alignment with cosmic timing, with the understanding that it is safe to take your time.
As with all our inner work, remember to be gentle and patient with yourself as you ponder these thoughts. If you want to print out the image, get a screenshot if you are on a device, or right click and copy then paste into a word document.
Or you could write it in your journal and free-write on what comes up for you when you ask yourself, “What energy do I want to bring into my life in the coming year?“. And don’t worry if your answers are different each time you ask … I ask myself the same questions over and over, and each time, something different falls onto the page!
Slowing Down as a Conscious Choice of Love
I used to live in a perpetual state of stress and reducing that stress used to be the only reason I had to slow down, trying to calm myself down, trying to force a pace that might let me catch my breath, that might let me catch up with myself. But it never really worked that way, because all I would do is increase stress in another part of my life, the part that kept count, that kept the tally of the To DO list.
Slowing down as stress relief doesn’t work, not if you’re bringing your guilt and shame with you.
When you’re stressed, slowing down in this way just becomes another item on your To Do list that you actually don’t do very well.
Slowing down is more than that.
Slowing down is a conscious act of love.
Loving yourself enough to not rush from one thing to another. Loving yourself enough to sit with a concept for as long as it takes for it to sink down into the bones of you.
Slowing down only works its magic if you do it with an open heart.
Slowing down to allow yourself to come into rhythm with Gaia is a gentle thing; it is a deliberate action.
It is a choice. It is about opening up space inside yourself.
Slowing down can be dynamic, a deliberate alignment with the seasons, with the ebbs and flows of nature, with the ebbs and flows of life.
Some journaling or contemplation prompts to ponder this month:
Where in your life, right now, are you feeling stress?
Are you able to slow down your breathing as a way of reducing stress? What happens to your mind, when your breathing deepens and slows?
Where are you thinking that time is running out? What would it look like to bring more spaciousness to that thought?
What if you were safe to take your time? What if you were safe to be patient? Can you plant a seed of intention in your heart, and then simply wait? You are not a plant that can be forced to grow.
Where are you trying to rush your healing or your inner work? What would it look like to slow that down? Can you give yourself the gift of contemplating "restraint" for a whole month?
The Tortoise and Armadillo have messages for all of us.
“Why do you rush so? I come to remind you of a bygone age, when the dew of creation still sat upon the quiet earth. Still yourself. Slow way, way down. Calm your energies. Rise before dawn and do nothing other than listen to the birdsong. Feel it in your belly. Let it open you. Listen for a whole hour. Pause in your day. Pause often. Pauses can be as short as in-breaths, or smiles. The gifts of this Earth are manifold. When you lie one day on your deathbed, what will your final thoughts be about the life you have just lived?”
Richard Rudd from the Dream Arc.
“I am Armadillo. Whatever projects or decisions you are working on or considering right now, stop, pause and take a deep breath in! Sometimes in life, we get swept along by the current without properly breathing in the full weight of the present moment. What effect is this process you are in now having on you, on your chemistry? What effect is it having on others? Are you meeting resistance anywhere? Are you one hundred percent sure you are moving in the right direction? I am a journeyer, so come with me. Stop what you are doing, at least for a few days. Let these days be empty and filled with peaceful things and space. Get away from everyone and everything. Go to the forest, or the mountaintop, or the open plain or desert. Feel all the space around you. Open your arms to the winds and just breathe in the scents of the quiet earth.“
Richard Rudd from the Dream Arc.
When we slow down, we are able to hear our own inner wisdom. When we slow down, we are able to hear the whispers of that wisdom we all carry in our hearts.
Often, we are stressed because we feel out of control, we see a thousand plates spinning around us and we feel impelled to run from plate to plate, frantically trying to keep them all spinning. Often, this stress we feel, these plates we’re spinning, they’re not actually about us. They are about the expectations the external world puts on us.
We have no control over the exterior world. We may think we do. We may think that we have everything tightly wrapped in our control.
But we haven’t. We have no control whatsoever over the outer world. We have no control over world leaders, politics, the economy. Not as an individual. We may as well try to control the sun, or the wind, or the tides.
What we do have control over is our inner world.
What we do have control over is the story we tell ourselves, the choices we make, the attitude we bring.
What we do have control over is the truth we tell ourselves in the quiet stillness of our inner sanctuary.
You might want to read this essay … The Beginning of the Journey … where I talk a lot about the stillness I find in my inner world.
One of my words for the year is “Stillness”.
I really love this concept of outward action and inner stillness being a balanced cycle. It is not sustainable to be in outward action all the time. I love the vision of filling my inner cup up in the stillness of contemplation, then pouring it out in action. Then filling it up again. Isn’t that just perfect?
Some Quotes to Inspire You
We can never really be stuck; we just aren't accepting where our rhythm is.
Richard Rudd
Even when he is still, the selfish man is busy. Even when he is busy, the selfless man is still. Ashtavakra Gita
Whatever may be the tensions and the stresses of a particular day, there is always lurking close at hand the trailing beauty of forgotten joy or unremembered peace.
Howard Thurman
I have learned to offer no resistance to what is; I have learned to allow the present moment to be and to accept the impermanent nature of all things and conditions. Thus have I found peace. To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease, and lightness. This state is then no longer dependent upon things being in a certain way, good or bad. It seems almost paradoxical, yet when your inner dependency on form is gone, the general conditions of your life, the outer forms, tend to improve greatly.
Eckhart Tolle
A returning to true rhythm and walking the path of slowing down isn't just about lowering your stress or improving your health. It's about so much more than that!! It's about returning to the field of miracles and synchronicities!! That is your true home ... the field of MIRACLES and Synchronicities!!
Hayley Curtis
You might want to listen to these mystical sounds that will help you to breathe deeper, shed stress and move closer to the frequency of the earth: Schumann 432-1 Root Chakra Breathing (found on Epidemic Sound) …
You have reached the super secret part. We didn’t want to overwhelm our readers who are not into the Gene Keys, so left most of this post general and universal.
For those of you who wish to know the Gene Keys magic behind this question, we have a special post just for you…. simply click on the image and use the password…. shhhh….. BREATH (case sensitive).
Although contemplation of your own inner life is a solitary journey, it can be helpful to share thoughts with fellow travelers. Please always feel free to share your insights or questions in the comments.
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