This week I am teaching full time and have thrown myself wholeheartedly into it. Yesterday after doing a full days teaching I carried on working on my computer into the night and although at the time I felt great, this morning I woke up with sore shoulders from bending over the computer and was verging on a migraine. Thankfully a full blown migraine never actually came and although I was a bit sore and achy today I managed to get through the day fine. The thing that I think that actually helped me today was slowing down during the day, breathing in and out slowly, dropping my shoulders , taking a longer lunch, thinking of friends during the day and praying for them.
It is really hard sometimes in our busy lives to slow down but so important for our wellbeing. I found this prayer on the St Leonard’s of East Kilbride website and thought it summed up really well what I need to remember to do, I hope it is helpful to some of you too.
SLOW ME DOWN, LORD
Slow me down, Lord, Slow me down!
Ease the pounding of my heart
By the quieting of my mind.
Give me amid the confusion of my day
The calmness of the everlasting hills.
Break the tensions of my nerves and muscles
With soothing music of the singing stream
That lives in my memory.
Help me to know the magical restoring power of sleep.
Teach me the art of taking minute vacations,
Of slowing down to look at a flower,
To chat with a friend, to pat a dog,
To read a few lines from a good book.
Remind me each day of the fable
Of the Hare and the Tortoise,
That I may know that the race is not always to the swift –
There is more to life than increasing speed.
Let me look upward into the branches of the flowing oak
And know that it is great and strong
because it grew slowly and well.
Slow me down, Lord, and inspire me
To send my roots deep into the soil of life’s enduring values
That I may grow towards the stars of my great destiny. Amen
