In this Mindfulness in Action episode, we’re practicing patience in real time.
If you listened to last week’s solo episode, I talked about impatience, rushing, and how so many of us move through life like our self-worth depends on our productivity. This practice is about noticing that urgency in the body and gently turning the dial down.
You don’t have to cancel everything or suddenly become a completely calm person. This is about slowing down just 2%, enough for your nervous system to notice that you are no longer rushing. You are just moving.
I guide you through a simple walking meditation to notice your default pace, where urgency shows up in your body, and what changes when you soften, breathe, and move a little more slowly.
This is a practice for anyone who feels like they’re living in fast-forward mode and wants to come back to the present moment.
More Episodes I Think You’ll Love:
– The Urgency Trap
– How to Build a Life of Contribution with Tom Rath
– Other Mindfulness in Action episodes
LISTEN TO SONYA
If you want to work towards your goals and more, check out my self-paced online course: Moxy & Grit Mindset Academy.
Episode Transcript
Sonya Looney 0:01
Welcome back to another mindfulness in action. I’m so excited that you’re here. Make sure you guys do the grow the good introduction in the recording before that part. But okay, if you listen to our last solo episode, it was about impatience, about how we are literally rushing through our lives because our nervous systems are on high alert, and that we’ve been taught that our self worth is contingent upon productivity. So that not only do we need to be productive every single second, but we need to be rushing, literally running and sprinting through our lives to get more done. So something that I’ve been working on is paying attention to that feeling. I still rush. I was rushing, rushing, rushing, trying to get my kids’ lunches made this morning, and then rushing through eating breakfast and rushing them, trying to get them out the door. So this is not-you’re not going to get it fixed right away, but just noticing in your body when you’re rushing can be really helpful. And then slowing down just 2%-it not about you know canceling everything that you’re doing and never rushing, but it’s about just slowing it down, turning down the dial of intensity just slightly, and you’ll still get the same amount done. Like think about when you’re rushing and you’re like dropping things, and you’re you’re like everything’s crazy, and or even if you’re a cyclist, like if you try to go fast on the downhill, you actually get worse. If you try to rush yourself, you actually get worse. So if you back off just a little bit, you can actually flow and be smoother in your own life and not feel so stressed all the time. So this is. I recommend this as a walking meditation. So I’ll do it with you. So just stand in your environment. It could be in your house. It could be outside. Feeling your feet on the ground. Noticing where the weight is in your feet, if you’re standing on one foot more than the other, and even noticing the impatience that you might have right now to get started, I feel impatience with myself to move forward quicker in the meditation, noticing where your mind is going, letting that impulse be the first thing that you observe rather than obey. Maybe even noticing where you feel it in your body, which we’ll get to later, I feel my impatience in my throat and in my solar plexus. Something saying, “Come on, let’s get them. Let’s get a move on here. Taking a few breaths to let it dissolve, feeling the shoulders drop. Breathing in, know you’re breathing in and breathing out, letting it all go. And now, just start walking at a normal pace. No instruction other than just walking at your normal pace, noticing your default, noticing if you’re performing for yourself. Is this different than how you normally are walking from one room to another, or to your car, or through the grocery store? If you are walking differently, making note of that. Noticing how fast, how wide your steps are, how far ahead your attention is traveling, and now searching in your body for urgency. It might show up in your posture, like maybe you’re leaning forward, maybe your shoulders are up in your ear, maybe you’re clenching your jaw, maybe it’s a feeling in the body, like I mentioned a second ago, tuning in. I’m feeling an impatience to move on to the next thing. That feels like agitation, like a tightness again in my throat and my solar plexus, it feels like I want to scream because I’m being held back. How does that feel for you? Now slow your walk down by a couple. Like turning the dial down one notch, not like a moving meditation walk where you’re walking as slowly as possible, noticing every single piece of your walk, but just noticing what it feels like to move just slightly slower. No one watching should be able to notice. It’s just slow enough, slowing down that your nervous system notices that I am no longer rushing. Now I am just moving, inhaling and exhaling, softening. That this is a more natural state than the one we put ourselves in, the frenzied, frenetic state of rushing that does not help anybody. As you’re going at this pace, what are you noticing? Are you noticing more around you?
Sonya Looney 6:05
Are you noticing a feeling inside you shift? How does it feel for me? It feels like a relief. It feels like my body going a sigh. Thank you. Noticing if you’re forcing, or if there’s something inside you trying to to force you forward, like I was just describing in myself. Noticing if you feel like you’re being pushed from behind to move forward, or from within, or if you’re just being carried along, flowing, remembering this feeling of toning it down just a bit. And as you come to a close, my challenge to you is to notice all day today when that feeling of rushing is there, when you’re moving faster than you need to, when your nervous system is keyed up, when there’s something in you saying move, move on, move on, move on, and not giving yourself the second to breathe. Noticing your state right now, how does it feel to have thought about this and to have embodied turning it down a notch, pausing, asking yourself, “What am I getting from this when I’m rushing? What is it costing me? And also, what might this even look like from the outside to be in fast forward mode? We listen to our podcast at two times speed. Maybe you’re listening to this meditation at two times speed. We do things so fast. We speed when we drive. We scroll without actually looking at something. Let’s practice slow looking. Slow looking in the world, slow looking in our life, to be there for our lives rather than rushing for it, rushing through it. Thank you for showing up today for your practice, for moving with intention. If you haven’t listened to the impatience episode I recorded last week, make sure you listen to it. And every month we are putting out an episode that is a interview with a guest, a solo episode from me, and a matching mindfulness in action practice. Thank you for being here, and we’ll see you next time.