Summertime Downtime – A Good Time to Slow Down & Listen to Your Soul
“When you honour the calling of your soul, even when it needs to be quiet & still, what is going to come forth from that is going to be way better than what your ego mind is trying to push forth right now.”
– Marie Forleo
Sometimes we don’t realize how exhausted we are…
Until we stop.
That happened to me recently. I had just returned from a rather epic road trip to Calgary to visit family and was back home again, unpacking and happily puttering in my lovely garden on Vancouver Island when suddenly, I couldn’t keep my eyes open. So I took a nap.
The next day it happened again. So I napped again. And when I woke up, I had the wisdom to just sit in my beautiful garden, looking at the gorgeous flowers and listening to the birds….and my soul.
And what did my soul whisper to me?
“More of this, please.”
More solitude.
More quiet.
Less people.
More writing.
More beach time.
More garden.
More hammock.
More reading.
More reflecting.
In other words, I needed the reminder that, for me, summertime is downtime. Although I am blessed to have a phenomenal amount of energy, I know it’s important to balance that with plenty of rest and relaxation.
I think another reason I had the wisdom to rest when my body told me to was because on the drive back from Calgary, I had listened again to an outstanding podcast by Marie Forleo, entitled: “Should You Keep Going – Or Move On? How to Know for Sure.”
I suspect Marie’s message planted the seeds in my mind that although this can seem counterintuitive to our egoic mind…
Sometimes doing nothing at all except resting & taking care of ourselves is the best action we can take...because we are making space for whatever is coming next. Click To TweetYou can listen to the short (15-min) podcast here. Enjoy!
How about you?
Are you in slow down mode this summer...or busy bee active mode? Or a nice balance between the two, perhaps? Click To Tweet
Maryanne Pope is the author of “A Widow’s Awakening.” She also writes screenplays, playscripts and blogs. She is the CEO of Pink Gazelle Productions and a co-founder of the John Petropoulos Memorial Fund. To receive Maryanne’s blog, “Weekly Words of Wisdom,” please subscribe here.