This is the Word Vomit #3. You can unsubscribe from this section without unsubscribing from my main newsletter.
There are so many frameworks and approaches to understand self and take care of human pet—and this popped up into my head as maybe a helpful, shortcut, simplification to regulate oneself. Does your mind need quicker or slower waves?
to do slower
slow down
read something longer
do something boring
do physiological sigh: (very slow inhale and normal exhale with audible sigh)
there is this beautiful qi gong exercise i like to do which quick description is: do the crawl hand movement except one hand goes opposite direction and you always look at the palm of one hand and, switch to the other hand at the bottom of the movement, do it for a few minutes and switch direction of arm movement
slowing down is maybe like connecting to longer processes, it feels like peacefulness, acceptance, inter-connectivity. Other things that work here are:
focus meditation (take one sensation and just attempt to keep your focus on it, you will fail billion times, so just be okay with it and keep coming back)(or be with your body parts, put your attention into feet)
slow breath
do nothing meditation (Practice nothing, the most profound of all practices)
listening to very slow music
I often benefit from slowing down my mind. My brain waves run excitable, they jolt, jump around, here I let them be more peaceful, stay grounded in one spot or slow movement
also there are these other qigong exercises, like just standing still, or holding belly
do a deliberately slow movement, or a movement in slow motion (i just poured my tea in morocco very slowly from considerable height, it was awesome)
to do quicker
sometimes i also may benefit from recognizing when my system needs speeding up, maybe it’s hard to recognize it when it is in slow mode or one it is slow and feels something “difficultish”, in the is moment of sadness, loneliness… no no no… maybe this is a wrong model. Mark Brackett has a couple of great lectures and a great app How we feel—where he lays out emotions on two axes. positive/negative, high energy/low energy—so let’s not mix this app, pawel… we are just focusing here on recognizing slow/fast, and slow doesn’t mean even low energy, there can be a lot of energy and focus, but channeled differently, maybe channel into inter connectedness or focus on what is rn
to have quicker:
drink coffee
do excitable body movement (sprints, something as quickly as possible)
expressing bolt: jump excitedly, shout, murmur, do the weirdest noises and poses your body wants to do, or your mind is curious about trying
energetic music (plus dancing)
publish something online where your friends are
honestly examples for quicker waves are way harder for me, maybe bc my system is there more by default, other things
therapy (connection w therapist makes me often feel excited, like i am my most sociable afterwards and I need to call a friend and laugh and be silly)
I am sure there is more, i may add more later. If you have any, please let me know what works for you. But maybe my biggest takeaway is that, even rn writing this, i feel how much my system needs the slower waves, it loves l o v e s s l o w n e s s