The Slow Down Movement: A Feminine Process of Allowing
This morning I was doing my Vinyasa yoga flow that I do every morning. Today, I needed to add more support for my neck into my practice. I found myself wanting to count the head circles to get them over with. As I recognized this, I realized that I was not leaning into the opportunity to go slow and to feel the joy of each neck circle and be in the moment. It wasn’t about how many I did, but about how the neck would feel better with each small movement, and the build up of each one to the next. I was pleased with my allowance and affirmation of slowing into the moment. It’s easy for us to say we are meditating or doing our mindfulness work, but how many moments of this are we actually present? Of course, this is always the practice, to continue to find presence and cultivate gratitude.
At the heart of what can improve our lives, slowing down is the key. It’s so easy to say this, and much more of a challenge to walk this. Many of us are forced into this transition of a slowing down through a health crisis, such as I went through in 2011. I had taxed my body with too much stress: work stress, relationship stress, and the stress of being in school again. Not only this, but my body had been carrying around early trauma stress, more relationship stress through my 20’s, as well as the stress of poverty being in school and low-paying jobs through my college years. Can you relate? So many of us have high-stress lives now, and/or had this reality. It seems to me that at the core of the holistic movement, and the movement that I am leading with you, is to slow down in life.
Slowing down can take many forms, and I’m passionate about getting back to the basics. The basics to me are learning to cook, and taking the time to do so. The next is getting in daily movement our body so much needs to maintain it’s youth and resilience. Slowing down is also learning to relax into life through play, simplicity, finding our passions and following them, and through just allowing ourselves to be. Again, this is the work and it is a practice. We don’t learn to slow down and simplify overnight. I work with clients weekly to make goals that are small and attainable. Sometimes we can shift a lot, but most of the time we make incremental changes to make the habits that lead to where we eventually wish to be.
If someone would have asked me 8 years ago what my life would look like in 2020, I doubt I could have predicted how far I’ve come. I now cook all my meals from scratch daily, have a healthy work life balance, get in daily mindful movement, make time for playing guitar, or other hobbies daily, as well as I take time to rest and disconnect or read, and on other days I have a full social life. No, I’m not perfect and there are areas of this that I still have to really work at, especially in the rest and do nothing arena. But, I have made tremendous progress especially from eating microwaved or other processed meals with not nearly enough veggies or fruit, as well as not having the discipline of a daily mindful movement practice. I used to not allow myself flexibility in my schedule to take a walk in the middle of the day if I needed to or wanted to. I did have the flexibility of a career for many years where I could make my own schedule, but I felt I had to produce to get my goals met. I now do allow myself a lot more spaciousness to not be in the mentality of working harder to get ahead.
I am relearning that working harder does not increase your income. I did work too hard with my business for many years, and I saw very little in return for it. It was only through leaning into the feminine process of allowing, that I began to increase my income. I now teach this, as it’s another passion of mine. We get to be the change. We get to have healthy lives, that are full of wonder and meaning. We get to step into a new reality. Are you with me?
Shooting Stars and Rainbows,
Tanya Starlight
**P.S. If you are ready to change your mindset to allow for more simplicity and more embracing of the feminine energy into your life, check out my free class: Creating Your Vision and Values Grid. In this online class, you will get dialed in to an Affluence Mindset through creating a vision and values grid. Together, we will be creating our grids to get you more aligned with your vision. Once you’re aligned, you can commit fully to your vision, and with ease bring in what you are manifesting.This free call takes place over Zoom on March 5th at 12pm MST. Email me to get the link!