Last week I went off-grid and spent time in the woods wilderness camping. Think: hiking a couple miles to the campsite, hole in the ground for toilet, no cell reception and the sound of birds and coyote keeping us company. It was awesome. No sense of time other than the sun and moon light, and our internal clocks getting a reboot. Coincidentally I picked up a Scientific American on the way to the campgrounds for reading material... Special Issue: The 100th anniversary of Einstein’s theory of relativity, which shaped our entire understanding of space-time reality. For those who need a quickie primer on the concept of relativity, let me take a stab at it for you (bear with me... I’ll get to weight loss in a hot minute... this is important stuff, I promise!):Space and time are part of one continuum called space-time. Space-time can be thought of as a grid or fabric... it can be bent and distorted (that’s right... time is not fixed!). Time does not pass at the same rate for everyone. Events that occur at the same time for one observer could occur at different times for another. To put this in perspective, Einstein shares his famous explanation:
Okay, so what the hell does this have to do with weight loss and creativity, you ask?
More than you can imagine.
I can't tell you how many people come to me desperate to get quick fixes so they can lose weight, feel better, get back into their mental game and finally heal. So when they hear what I have to tell them, and what I am about to tell you, they usually give me a look of dismissal, followed by disdain. Because I have just told them to alter their reality.
I tell them to SLOW THE F DOWN.
I can feel my Type A sisters rolling their eyes now, saying how they have accomplished a ton because of their ability to power through so much in little time. Besides... there’s not enough time to do everything - how can I possibly slow down?! Then you blast the volume on "Bitch, don't kill my vibe", plug your ears with your fingers, and sing Falalala with your tongue out because... we’re mature like that. I hear you because I am one of you. I know you. And you can't play me.
The truth is this is one of THE biggest secrets. One behind weight loss, energy, creative insight, spiritual growth, and manifesting an amazing and unbelievable life. Let me explain.
On the fast track to poor health
Most people are operating in an old paradigm, under the old definition of time. And it’s killing them. They’re running their fragile body into a state of constant go-go-go adrenaline rush, and it’s slowly (or not so slowly) wearing away their organs, life force and creative fire.
Until somewhere, some time down the line, it all catches up and boom... You're forced to slow down in a really unwanted manner (as in getting hurt, sick, or other reality check in a major way).
If you haven't noticed, and if you’re going too fast you probably won't, life has a way of showing you signs that you should slow down. Perhaps your car breaks down, you miss the train, you forget your keys, ahem... traffic, you have a creative block, good ideas stop flowing, you’re feeling stuck, anxious, disconnected... You get the picture.
Physical signs may include a break out, poor digestion and bad poops, gained excess weight and having a hard time losing it (especially around the waist area), aches and pains, brain fog, tired but wired or flat out exhausted.
Very often, our bodies hold up until you do stop... then it falls apart (ever get sick during school break post-finals?) I see this over and over again, especially with women in this society. And it breaks my freaking heart. Let's take a client of mine, we’ll call her Polly. Polly is a brilliant PhD engineer, cook and artist painter. She is a mother, a wife, and sister. Polly is one of those people that does everything so well, you wonder how she does it all. For years, however, some serious ailments have slowed her to the point of exhaustion and illness. Autoimmunity, diabetes, weight gain, fatigue, brain fog, mood swing, multiple food sensitivities, IBS, list goes on. She has had to stop everything one by one... work, painting, running, she has had to stop her life.
When Polly came to me, she was still asking how many laps she is allowed to run because she didn't want to lose her pace!!
Have you ever stopped and asked yourself what the big hurry is about? Who you’re trying to prove? What are you running from? Where are you trying to go and why do you have to sacrifice your health to get there?
When you slow down, your body, heart and mind will thank you. If you still don’t believe me, here are some facts:
Slow down to speed weight loss
When our bodies are in a constant state of stress (i.e from crossfit, fast-paced life, too many things on your plate or stressful career), our adrenal glands release cortisol, adrenaline, norepinephrine on a continual basis. This process inhibits things like proper digestion, reproduction and repair, and instead exacerbates blood sugar dysregulation, fat retention, poor immune function and that hated tire around your waist/mid-line. Continue to run on empty and you can forget about losing it.
Slow down to skyrocket creativity.
The super conscious mind is the source of creativity. All major breakthroughs, inventions, works of art, etc throughout history came from this place... as the result of super conscious functioning. But tapping into this super conscious mind and accessing creativity cannot be forced - in fact, it favors a relaxed state. The harder and faster you try to force it, the less it gives.
In one study
Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships
, researchers found that stress stifles creativity. They demonstrated that norepinephrine - a chemical compound found in the brain that’s identified with subconscious response to threatening situations (as mentioned above) - inhibited the creativity and complex thinking capacity of the test subjects. It happens in business too... another study found that stress within the company led to less creativity from workers. Not good for business.
You might not feel like you’re “creative.” But creativity is not about picking up a paintbrush or an instrument... creativity is self expression, thinking outside the box and a way of improving on the existing way of doing things. It’s creating a life you love and doing it with more ease than pain.
So how do we slow down? Of course we can meditate, take long walks, SLEEP, chew slowly for godsake (these are all critical). But how does one actually find the time to do them?
You create the time, by switching to “Einstein Time”...
Switching to Einstein Time
As Gay Hendricks so eloquently discusses in his book The Big Leap (btw go out and read it now), you no longer need to worry about “beating the clock” and getting everything done in a day. To switch to “Einstein Time” is to take charge of the amount of time we have.
We are where time comes from.
Scratching your heads yet? It’s as simple as this: we are the producer of time, the source of time. It’s not an “us vs them” relationship with time... in other words, stop letting time own you. You’re not a victim. Start believing that you create it.
To put this in perspective, let’s say you have a fully booked week - appointments, work, meetings, kids stuff, all very important and hasty... hardly any time for eating right? Then a friend offers you a free ticket to a sold out never-gonna-happen-again-in-your-lifetime concert by your favorite band in the world. Front row, VIP backstage passes. Do you go? But you don’t have time right? Wrong. You make the frikin time and you go. There you have it... you just created time.
Stop looking at time as something you have to beat or as an excuse to not do something. You must start looking at time for what it really is - a bendable, flexible reality that comes from you.
The old “Newtonian” way of looking at time as a fixed factor is not reality and it’s not serving you. So, it’s time to step into Einstein Time, take control and make the time to Slow The F Down. Because your health, mind and sanity depend on it.
If you’re down to start creating time on your terms, then I challenge you to try the following and begin implementing ways to slow down right away:
Stop saying the phrase “I don’t have time to do that.” Notice when you have complaints about time (i.e. time is running out or there’s not enough time) and instead, start taking responsibility for creating time by focusing on the fact that it comes from you (meditate on that for a bit...).
For everyone else, I’m working on t-shirts that read “I’m Time’s bitch.”
Now I want to hear from you! Do you struggle with time? And what are some ways that you are going to slow down in your life? Let us know in the comments below.
