Slowing Down in a Noisy World

Now that we have established what a noisy world it is, let’s turn our focus to our inner landscape.  Perhaps it is just as loud and chaotic as the outer.  Perhaps this is why we take comfort in all the outside distractions.  Who wouldn’t want to drown out an inner voice that is unruly or unkind? 

I get it.  If we haven’t had a lot of practice going within, we might encounter a landmine of worries, fears, critical, or depressive thoughts.  It’s only natural to want to escape back into our safety hatch of ‘out there’ escapism: pick your favorite distraction of choice. 

But what if I could offer you some pause, here?  A slowing down of thoughts.  A re-routing of your internal GPS. 

When both your worlds - inner and outer - are feeling chaotic and out of control, may I invite you to do the opposite, and slow down?  Literally.  Slow. Everything. Down. 

Your movements. 

Your brain activity. 

Your breathing. 

Have you noticed that because technology has sped up exponentially, everything feels like it should be faster, including our ability to get tasks done?  Aren’t we super frustrated when we have to wait in line?! It seems outrageous in this day and age.  The speed of technology is wiring us for immediacy and instant gratification.  Emphasis on the word ‘instant’. 

But our brains, our nervous systems, and our bodies are not well equipped for instant anything.  We need time to process.  Time to breathe.  Time to heal.  Time to relax.  Time to slow down.  

But we are being given the message that we don’t have time!  That everything needs to get done now!  Or yesterday.   

This is causing us great distress and confusion.  Shall we fire up a show on Netflix and tune all of this out? 

Or, shall we unplug?  Unwind.  Connect to ourselves a bit more. 

If we do not slow down, we will continue to experience copious amounts of stress.  If we do not bring awareness to our internal stream of thinking, we will continue to spiral and feel anxious.   

Pick an activity that forces you to slow down.  Ever tried Tai Chi?  Ever tried to just exaggerate your body movements to a very slow pace?  Ever tried, consciously walking very slowly?  Or consciously cleaning your bathroom very slowly? Or washing your dishes very slowly?  Try it.  It is a very relaxing experience. (Ok, maybe not the cleaning bathroom bit.)

Slowing down our bodies forces us to actually become aware of each of our movements.  It is the opposite of what we normally do – being stuck in our heads on auto-pilot. Once our body slows down, if we check in with our thoughts, they, too, take on a gentler, less frenetic quality.  The mind and body work symbiotically. 

I hope you’re realizing at this point that we won’t be able to hear a wise inner voice without slowing down our rapidly firing thoughts. This begins by slowing our physical movements down, too.   

Let’s you and I connect again after you’ve experimented with this exercise first.  Try slowing down or exaggerating slow movements at different points throughout your day, for a week.  Notice if you find this frustrating, or, freeing.  All of your insights about this exercise will be important information for you. 

Then in our next segment together, we can see how it feels to finally find the voice of our inner guidance. It is a voice so gentle and calm, you might not even realize it's there amidst the frenzy.

(In case you missed the 1st segment of this article, here it is: https://www.trueselfawakening.com/post/finding-silence-how-to-cope-with-too-much-noise )