The Slow Down

A Pursuit of Stillness

Something clicked for me in the last few weeks... I’ve always found it hard to slow down. I used to HATE savasana at the end of a class and harboured very negative feelings towards a teacher who held a two and a half hour Yin class on one of my trainings. 

Over the years I have tried to drop my resistance to stillness, but other than doing yoga, I don’t seek out stillness in my day to day. 

That’s been the biggest shift for me, which was triggered when I injured my knee a few weeks ago. When I asked the physio at work for advice he said the best thing would be to rest for a few weeks. I low key was going to ignore this, before I realised I was going on holiday for a week and wouldn’t be doing my classes anyway. So, I decided to be smart and listen and for two weeks I rested.  

Long story short, after two weeks I went to my favourite Rocket Yoga class. Anyone who has done Rocket before knows how physically demanding it is. Normally I take it at my own pace and rest often, but this time I felt so strong and open. I literally didn’t want it to end. After the class I felt so energised and in tune with my body. The rest was literally the best thing I could have done and I came back to my practice feeling physically and mentally so much stronger. 

It was a really simple yet clear message from my body that sometimes the practice you need is the one you don’t do. It’s the ability to stop and rest. And when you’re ready to come back, you will be stronger. I’m leaning more into respecting my limits and noticing when and why the need to push through tiredness, discomfort and pain comes up. In the past I followed a routine rather than listening to what I actually needed. Now I know that maxing out my energy will never reward me in the long term. I’m totally slowing it down, and moving in a way that feels right. Creating strength and space in my body that will evolve over months and years, not days and weeks. 

So that’s one way I’ve decided to slow down. There are so many more parts of my life I’m bringing this mentality to, and I will share them here every week to remind myself and anyone else who might have forgotten: a slow life is a good one.