Clare Downham reflects on the value of "slowing down to the speed of life," using two personal anecdotes — a canceled dental appointment and an unplanned shopping stop for walking sandals — to show how slowing and listening to intuition can produce better outcomes. She describes how a slower morning (meditation, yoga, gentle walking) allowed her to hear intuitive nudges she normally misses when life and mind are too busy, and invites viewers to explore slowing down and intuition further through her Everyday Intuition course and by contacting her.
Chapters
So today I want to talk about slowing down. I know there's a phrase slowing down to the speed of life and I don't know who said that, but I feel like I'm kind of teetering on the edge of an exploration of this that I don't know where I am with it really. So you're gonna have to bear with me as I waffle about it. But the last day or so I've not felt very well and I understand there's been a full moon as well. So yay for that. Sometimes that can seem to wobble my energy levels and this morning I was due to have some fillings replaced. So yay me. I haven't had a new filling for a long time, but I have white fillings and they wear out. And they're not like the horrible metal ones, they don't last forever. Average sort of every 10 years or so, maybe every 15 years you have to have them replaced. So booking. Well, I thought I'd have booking for 9:30 to go and get these fillings replaced and yesterday I didn't feel very well and in fact I had, I've got the fillings at the right hand side, but both two at the top next to each other and, and then I, I developed a toothache in the left hand side of my mouth. Really like throbbing, quite swollen. It's had a lot of tea tree. I've got clove oil coming today hopefully. But a lot of soreness and discomfort and just you know what it's like when you, you're in pain. I think particularly tooth pain. It's so like intense, isn't it? So I didn't feel very well yesterday. I didn't feel brilliant when I woke up in the night last night, but by this morning I felt a little bit better and I thought, but, but what was interesting actually rewind a little bit was yesterday this little voice in my head kept saying, do you think you should cancel that dental appointment? It's not going to be very nice to have your mouth pulled open. And if the dentist spots that you've got a little bit of a swelling in your gum, she'll probably want to pump you full of anti or six, which I'm not a fan of. My choice, not truth. So I, but I ignored that, I ignored that. And then, so this morning I slowly and, and you know, I slowly walked to the dentist. Now I am a person who, who if you walk with you might end up in a light jog because I usually walk like I'm on some Kind of crazy mission that's kind of my way. And. But this morning I didn't. I just pottered down slowly and I deliberately sort of walked around the park on the way down, like walk the long way around to get there. Just to give myself a little bit of a. A gentler start to the morning. I really didn't feel well still. So it was like, how can I be gentle to myself? And maybe that's the first point I want to make actually is. And it feels a bit emotional because I don't think I am very gentle to myself as a rule. How gentle are you being to yourself? Or is it. Does it feel like life and business is just this crazy forced march that you've got to just keep, keep going, keep going? Is it. Does it feel good? So this morning I had a slow start. I did a long meditation. It was about 50 minutes. I did some gentle yoga with Lovely Adrienne on YouTube. I absolutely love so my meditation with the mindful movement. I love them. Lovely young long yoga. Nidra. I just brought myself into the day very slowly and then I walked to the dentist. And when I got to the dentist at half past nine, she said, your appointment was for nine o'. Clock. And I mean, here's an interesting thing. Normally I'd have got all Bolshe and I just said, I'm sorry, I had half past nine. I'm pretty sure I'm right. Pretty sure. I had my diary in front of me and I put it in the appointment in when she said 9:30 when I booked it because it was in their dentist when I booked it anyway. So isn't that. So she went. She went off to go see if the dentist could fit me in to do this work and she said, no, she can't. So my appointment got cancelled. I should have cancelled it yesterday. Oh my goodness. It's like. It's like, why don't we listen to. Made so much sense yesterday. But yesterday afternoon, just this voice said, you are not fit to go to the dentist tomorrow and have somebody poking around. And you already saw them out. But I didn't listen to that. However, here's the good news. Then I was walking back from the dentist and again I thought, do you know what? I'm not in a rush to get to my desk this morning. Probably only been here about an hour. By the time you're watching this, while I'm recording it all, you. You might be watching it live. But I had. I have a go outdoors on the. On my walk home. So you go Outdoors is a big outdoor shop, so they sell walking boots and things like that. And my walking boots are really on their last leg. And I just thought, do you know what? I'm just gonna put my nose through the door and. And see if they've got any walking boots. And then there was just this really clear direction to go to go outdoors. Now, normally I would be going so fast through life that I would. I haven't got time to do that. I have got time. I've got nothing in my diary till about 3 o'. Clock. I've got time. Apart from doing this. I'm not thinking about it until 3 o'. Clock. I have got time. What the. What nonsense about not having time? So I went in to go outdoors and I looked at walking boots and I kind of wasn't feeling the walking boot thing at all. I couldn't see anything. That really jumped out me. I have some walking shoes that are Northridge, which is the brand that go outdoors, actually make. And I just wanted some walking shoes. Walking boots, exactly the same. That's these walking shoes, but boots instead. And they didn't have any. But then as I'm kind of putting around, I'm thinking, I. I said. I kind of said. And. And Grace Kelly would love me for this. I sort of said to the universe, I said, why have you brought me here? And as I turned round, there was a sale. Well, they just pile up the boxes and go outdoors. If you've been in Cardos, you know what I mean? A pile of boxes with walking sandals in the sale. And in factual fact, I'm going to Spain later on this month. I'm literally counting down the days now and I need some walking sandals to go to Spain. So I very quickly try. I am quite quick. At once I see something, I know it's right. Tried on a couple of pairs, found a pair that will work for me and came out with some bargain walking sandals. So, I mean, I've got the right footwear to go to Spain now. I didn't have before. How flipping cool is that? Like, how many times are we just going too fast? And when I say we, I am actually talking about myself. And I'd love it if somebody could comment and say, it's not just you, Claire, it's everybody. We're all the same. We're all the same because we are all the same. We really are. So we don't slow down enough to hear. So there's two things about. And I've just been creating a course for insight Time. Are all about intuition. It's called everyday intuition. Because intuition isn't this fleeting, fluffy thing that we have to. I don't know, elusive thing. Fluffy maybe isn't quite the right word there, is it? But anyway, I've said it now. You know, this fleeting, elusive thing that we have to somehow develop or create or fight to get or whatever. It's. It's the essence of who we are. But. But it's like we can't hear it. And one of my favorite metaphors about that, and I can't. Don't know who said it first, but I've heard it quite a few times, is, is this sort of brass band, you know, not only, you know, not only we're going too fast to hear it. I mean, it's like the brass band is on roller skates. I don't know. Like my thinking is like a brass band on roller skates. That would be entertaining, actually. I feel like I need somebody to create a best band that be like Starlight Express combined with the brass band. Where am I going with this? I hope you're staying with me as I ramble away. But. But that, you know, that. That's what it's like, isn't it? When your mind is so busy and. And not just your mind is busy, but your life is busy and your diary is packed and you've got one thing after another after another and no spaciousness. How do we. Well, first of all, there's busyness in the mind and there's busyness in the world. So the business in the mind means that, you know, we can't hear those nudges. And the business of the world means that we dismiss them, you know, like yesterday. You know my wisdom saying, you need to just cancel this dental point. Oh, I can't really cancel it. I inconvenience people. And maybe I won't get another point before I go to Spain. And what is fine, I've been living with this little hole in this filling for God knows how long, and it's fine. Nobody's died. It's absolutely fine. I've got a hole in my filling. I'm fine. It's not causing a problem. But the problem I have at the moment is at the other side of my mouth. And, you know, it's all that it's got. We've got to squish it all in. We've got to get it all in. We've got to go faster. And for me, that doesn't feel good. That does not feel good. And I would say That I, and probably you too, and many of us have just become so used to it. Being noisy in there, it's just become the norm, hasn't it? And the speed of life has just become the norm when it's. It's not. It doesn't have to be that way. So slowing down and slowing down doesn't mean that you don't do anything. I mean, it fundamentally to me seems to mean the opposite in terms of. I notice on days when I'm just like going slower, like yesterday when I wasn't feeling very well, actually, I got some things done. I had some ideas that were helpful. You know, I just moved through the day with a little bit more consideration, actually, and a slower pace. So this is a journey that I'm on. If you want to explore this with me, this slowing down, and, you know, see what there is to see around it, then please do reach out wherever you find. This will be a way to reach out to me, wherever you are and whether you're watching live on somewhere or catching it wherever else it ends up, because they do end up all over the place. I'd love to hear from you. Yeah, definitely. I just love to explore this with people. You know, how can we have a business and a life that is well run and feels good as well? I think slowing down is fundamentally a big part of that. And being able to then hear those intuitive nudges because the brass band on roller skates. I forgot the rest of the metaphor, didn't I? The brass band on roller skates is underpinned or, you know, is drowning out the piccolo. Little tiny, you know, it's like a little tiny flute is a piccolo, just in case you didn't know. And it's so quiet that we can't hear it because too noisy up there and too fast. So I hope that's been helpful. It's actually felt helpful to me to just ponder this subject and as I say, if. If anything resonates and you'd like to explore this further further with me as a three principles facilitator and qualified business mentor, then please do reach out. Take care, lots of love. I'll see you soon.
