Now is always the right time. For breathing deeper, for paying closer attention, for making the most of your time here. Read this poem about slowing down to help you connect with the beauty of your own existence. Feel your heart beating in your chest. Feel your life, while you're living it.

“There is virtue in work and there is virtue in rest. Use both and overlook neither.” — Alan Cohen

Slowing Down

There are times when I’m

Spinning and I

Stop, and see myself

Spinning around with the

Weight of my world on top of

My back.

I have to remember that I don’t lack.

It’s a shocking reminder

In the middle of a

Blackout: I am not without.

I don’t need to shout to be

Heard, to muffle my

Voice, to push to get

Done, to force the

Outcome.

I forgot who I was, but I remember, too.

It’s like the memory of

Peace

Starts rising up with the

Sun.

 

Life feels so much

Harder than it needs to feel sometimes.

Why do I make things

Complicated?

I don’t always need to rhyme.

Right?

Why can’t I just state

How I want to feel and

Go with the flow of

Whatever is

On my mind?

I can.

I tell myself:

I can, and I know it because

I’ve been there

Once or twice.

I can’t seem to remember

How I got there last—

The journey seems so long, and the

Sea is so vast.

Was it just luck, a

Roll of the dice?

I spin and spin, and

Try to figure it out.

That’s the journey!

I finally recall—without a doubt.

I finally just laugh, because

I don’t need to spin to

Figure it out.

I need to spin to

Remember what it’s like to

Stop.

Stop!

That’s what it’s all about.

 

The world spins so I don’t have to.

 

When I stop what’s emptying me,

Robbing my of joy,

Stealing my power,

Halting my ability to laugh

Out loud—

I love.

I stop and love.

I stop to love.

I stop to feel the love:

There’s so much of it here.

So much more than whatever

Drove me around in circles

Before.

I stop and go higher.

I’m above what I just let go of.

I see the

Patterns

I’d been tracing, the paths I was

Pacing

Looking for joy,

Not looking here.

 

The world spins, and

I don’t have to!

 

I decide to be still.

The journey opens up.

The sea has a shore.

There’s solid ground to

Stand on once more.

There’s beauty beyond

My windowsill.

I can see so much more.

I can do so easily

When I stop fighting to

Do more.

I can pour presence into

My nervous system.

Let’s see how that feels.

 

It feels like a

Too-long journey, but it always

Takes no time at all.

The present is bigger than that.

It doesn’t pressure me to

Rhyme everything

I put out into it.

I’m not tethered to time.

Nothing shouts

Here.

It’s all like honey and there’s

No fear.

I can let the world spin

Without me, and I’ve done it

Before.

It’s that sign of

Freedom when you

Stop

Keeping

Score.

It feels like it’s the

Journey that makes

Getting back

Here

All the sweeter.

. . .

Tell me:

Which part of this poem did you need to read today?

Tell me in the comments. I read every single one, and I’d love to know!

With love,

Jen

P.S. Need a little more help letting go? Get my book Sleep Rituals for 100 at-home practices that are all about you and the present moment. It’s more than a book about sleeping better. It’ll help you feel better so you can live and love better. And that’s… everything.