{"id":270716,"date":"2021-01-18T15:45:19","date_gmt":"2021-01-18T20:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wanderlust.com\/?p=270716"},"modified":"2021-03-17T13:05:34","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T17:05:34","slug":"mary-beth-larue-what-ive-learned-from-slowing-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wanderlust.com\/es\/journal\/mary-beth-larue-what-ive-learned-from-slowing-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Mary Beth LaRue: What I’ve Learned From Slowing Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

Longtime Wanderlust collaborator, Mary Beth LaRue, has a new series on Wanderlust TV called Slow & Steady<\/a>. Check out all her slow flow programs on WLTV here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Our culture loves the hustle. Just a scroll through social media is peppered with the phrases \u201cBut first coffee\u2026\u201d or \u201cHustle and heart.\u201d And some days that\u2019s true. Some hustle is absolutely necessary\u2014extra caffeine, too. But after a couple of years of running myself into the ground, becoming used to tight shoulders and a tight jaw and a writing a page-long to-do list every Monday I asked myself one question: <\/span>Why exactly was I doing this?<\/span><\/i>
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\n<\/span>My best friend Jacki, and my partner in Rock Your Bliss<\/a> and I often talk about the \u201chustle to worthiness.\u201d We\u2019ve been programmed to believe that until the clothes are perfectly folded, the to-do list is complete, our workout has been \u201ccrushed\u201d and we\u2019ve plated a perfect looking dinner, we are not worthy. Just a scroll through Instagram is full of these exact images. But we aren\u2019t talking about the cost of this perfection: our mental health, our breath, our inner relationship, our human-ness. We aren\u2019t robots.<\/span><\/p>\n

So I started with an experiment. Every weeknight at 8 PM, I\u2019d put my phone on Airplane mode and not take it off until I\u2019d meditated in the morning. The first night I felt kind of panicky. What if someone tried to reach me and couldn\u2019t? Well, then they couldn\u2019t. When I woke up the next morning I took my time making my coffee and sitting in my yoga space taking slow, deep breaths. And when I my phone came off Airplane there were a couple frantic texts. But they were frantic only because someone needed something from me and I\u2019d put up a boundary and took some time to start my day on my own terms.<\/span><\/p>\n

Guess what? That\u2019s okay. And not only is it okay, it feels good.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since then I\u2019ve stuck to this pretty regularly. I\u2019ve spent more time outside in the park with a paperback and my journal. I\u2019ve definitely taken more deep breaths. And I\u2019ve started every morning on my own terms, rather than a habitual Instagram scroll and some frantic texting. I\u2019ve learned the beauty of the pause, or the space in between the chaos. Pressing pause is such a wonderful tool to garner more peace and gratitude. It\u2019s good for your stress levels and your ability to express kindness. It\u2019s one of the few things that combats that need for perfection, and it\u2019s so easy to do. <\/span><\/p>\n

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How to Find That Sacred Pause<\/strong><\/h3>\n