Hello my loves,

I can honestly say that this week has been the busiest I’ve experienced for a year. Personally and professionally, there’s been a lot going on, and all of it is amazing. In the world around me too, things are picking up to an almost-forgotten pace, as restrictions ease dramatically in the state where I live. At some points this week, it’s felt like the pandemic never happened at all. Whilst I’m thoroughly enjoying the open, bright energy all this has brought, this week something else happened too. Something that wasn’t so welcome.

As the world picked up around me, my internal energy did too. And that was lovely – to a point. The nothingness of 2020 was hard for everyone to take, but the opposite energy is dangerous too. For me, there's a gorgeous equilibrium in life where you’re busy enough to feel validated and fulfilled, but you have the emotional space to enjoy what you’re doing, and to enjoy time not doing it too. This week, I streamed far past this, overtaking it at 125kph in the left lane with my middle finger out the window, screaming hahaha look at me go world, look how much I CAN DO!! No, Rachel. Have you learned nothing at all?

It’s a tendency that I know I always have to monitor, the drive to do-do-do, and it’s a double-whammy because it’s one of those societal narratives that is parroted to us over and over from the time we’re born. Hard work = success, you’re only valid if you’re busy, life is a linear trajectory and you better push if you want to get there (wherever there actually is). But what if there was a different way? A gentler, lovelier, infinitely more pleasant way? What if the slower you went, the more you accomplished? What if you stopped, what if you breathed, what if you rested. And what if all of that meant not that you got through less of what you need to do, but that in fact, you accomplish more.

It’s a mind-boggling equation that I’ve worked hard to master over the past few years. Professionally, I’ve had a lot on my plate over that time, as I started to live my purpose and passion, and give that a physical expression in the world. Initially, I threw everything at it. I thought about it all the time, and almost every waking minute was spent either thinking about or doing something towards my work. About a year in, my beloved gently suggested to me that I might want to have a day off. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I’d had plenty of days off, thank you very much, the last one was only just last… oh. Right.

As I reflected on what he’d said, I realised not only had I not had a day off in over a year, I’d not even had a second off. I’m not kidding, I was so swept up in the passion and amazingness of it all, and the joy of realising that I could actually do this, I’d forgotten something crucial. A relentless pace leads to burnout. Even if it’s your passion, even if it’s your life purpose, even if everything you’re doing is for you. It’s not busy work that brings rewards. It’s slow, grounded, essential and intentional work that leads to a gentle, productive rhythm of life that is an absolute joy to experience.

Allow me to flesh out this scenario a little further by returning to this week. It’s Thursday morning, and there’s a tight, cotton-woolly feeling in my chest. I know it all too well. It’s the feeling I get when I’ve let the world catch me up in its swirl, when I’ve unconsciously slipped into a level of reactiveness that is actually extremely counter-productive. I haven’t felt it for a while, and if I’m honest, I thought I might never feel it again. I’ve done a lot of work on reframing this aspect of me. But there it is. Unmistakeable. I’m caught in an energetic whirlwind of my own making, and I need to get out. Right now.

And so, I enact the protocol. The Slow the Fuck Down Protocol (SFDP). The most important aspect of the SFDP is reframing your energetic state. For me, this sort of stress comes from the fear that I won’t get everything done. It’s a good old fashioned lack mentality, where the subconscious fear of not being a Very Good Girl, and doing all of my jobs, is sending me into a spin that is totally counterproductive. I look this fear in the face, acknowledge that it’s there, and send it love for its desire to protect me. Then I give myself permission to release it.

In its place, I summon a new energy. One of zero attachment to timelines. I’ll get done what I get done, and that’s what’ll be done. If I’m tired, I’ll nap. If I’m hungry, I’ll eat. If I need a walk, I’ll go for one. I also remove all distractions. I shut down my emails, and put my phone in another room. Then I quietly make a start on whatever it is I need to work on today, and see how it goes. If I get through that task, I make a start on another, if I feel like it. If I don’t, I give myself permission to do something else for a while. I can come back to all of this later – and often, once I’ve taken some time out, that’s exactly what I feel like doing. I also check and respond to emails and messages at spaced-out points during the day, rather than having them fly at me in a relentless flurry. And on days where there’s something that absolutely needs to be done, I won’t even open my emails or check my phone until I’ve done it.

If you’re in the corporate world, you might feel like the SFDP isn’t an option for you. Let me confirm that it is. It’s probably even more important. Yes, you have meetings and commitments and a job to do. All of that is true. But you’ll do that job most effectively if you also make time for you. That can be as simple as blocking out time for a lunch break every day. Non-negotiable time that can’t be used for work, 30 minutes or an hour every day where you do something for you. Remember lunch breaks? Weren’t they great?

You could also pop some ten-minute blocks in your diary to just breath and focus on something else for a moment (and I am not talking about Instagram!). In one of my last corporate roles there was a little private meeting room off to the side of one of the floors, and if I was feeling overwhelmed, I used to stop what I was doing, and go in there and meditate. Just for a few minutes, but lawd did it help. After a while, colleagues actually started commenting on how much calmer I seemed. Anyhoo, all I’m saying is that you can, and should, make time for yourself in your day. If you were in an hour-long meeting, you wouldn’t be responding to emails, so it IS ok to shut them down for an hour to help you focus.

Now, let’s get back to me, shall we ;)? It’s Thursday morning. I’ve enacted the SFDP. I’ve released the frantic fear mentality. I’ve removed distractions. I’ve made a slow, pleasant start on my to-do list. I’ve done one thing at a time, quietly and calmly, and what do you know? It’s all done. And it’s not even lunchtime. Not that getting everything done should be a measure of success, but I do find that when I come from a grounded energy where I put what I need first, time seems to open up, and it all comes to pass. I get my stuff done, with time for me too. Like I said, it's the perfect equilibrium of doing and being.

And so my loves, we roll on to another weekend, one of the last of the summer. For me it’ll be a slow one, and I’ll savour every second. For you, I hope it's blissful, and brings you nothing but beautiful things. And if you have a minute, at some point along the way, it might be fun to ask yourself the question I pondered this week: how slow can you go? 💛

Love, Rachel xxx