This quote (Source Unknown) is a great reminder to slow down! Not just to rest the body but also to allow any suppressed thoughts and emotions to rise to the surface to be felt, seen, heard and healed. It is amazing what comes up when we just stop and rest in quiet.
I remember a therapist once asked me if I ever take time out to do nothing. I replied ‘yes I stop to meditate and do Qi Gong’ to which she reminded me that although these practices are great, I was still doing something. She suggested I take time to just sit in quiet and stare at the wall and it was then I realised just how many thoughts started coming up that I had been bypassing by doing, doing, doing all the time.
I then did a Vipassana Retreat a few years later and it blew my mind just how many memories and emotions came up in those 10 days of silence. Stuff I hadn’t though of for years or had forgotten about. It was like a lifetime of unprocessed baggage resurfaced but this time I was just the quiet observer, not getting caught up in the thoughts, just acknowledging them without attaching an emotion to them. This was a very healing journey and I left the retreat a whole lot lighter.
I still get caught up in my thoughts at times but if I catch myself doing so I am reminded to be that quiet, non-judgemental observer again.
I still catch myself going full steam ahead and doing, doing, doing a lot but now try to make time to stop and ask myself ‘Am I doing as a way of distracting’ and when the answer is yes, or I am unsure, I stop and check in with myself.
If I forget to do this I know that I am easily exhausted by the end of the day, then kept awake by my busy mind when my tired head hits that pillow and has nothing to DO! This then affects my productivity in the days ahead.
‘When you slow down you feel. When you feel, you heal. And when you heal, you grow. Sometimes slowing down is the most productive thing you can do.’ - Source Unknown