Hello From Katie 💗 Slow the F*#k Down
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Welcome to Meditation for Anxiety. I'm Katie Kramitzos. I'm the creator of the Women's Meditation Network and your guide here. I am so grateful you've taken the time to be here with me right now. This episode is made possible thanks to the generosity of our sponsors. And after a message from them, we'll begin today's episode. If you'd like to listen ad-free, become a premium member by following the link in the show notes.

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I want to take a moment to just personally thank you so much for being here and for listening to these meditations. It really means the world to me that you're here and you're pressing play and you're using these meditations to help you calm down, to help you sleep, to help you really get to know yourself and find the calm within.

That's exactly why I create them. So thank you. Remember, if you ever have a request, if there's ever meditation that you are craving that you can't seem to find across all of our 20 podcasts, just shoot me an email and let me know. Katie at womensmeditationnetwork.com. I would love to create it for you. And of course, I would so appreciate a reading and review on Apple Podcasts.

Not only does it help me hear from you and what you've been experiencing through these meditations, but it also helps us be found by other women just like you who are in need of these meditations. So thank you so much.

Today I wanted to share a few thoughts I have about this craving that I know that we all feel at some point in our lives, this desire to really slow down. So thank you for humoring me with this cheeky title. I hope you find something here that really resonates. When all of it feels like it's just too much, you can stand in the storm and feel the rain touch, the parts of you that ache,

for calm and for peace. Remember the water will wash and release. Let it all go. Let it all be. All that weighs heavy on you. Slow it all down. Then you will see peace is already in you. I wrote this meditation during the summer of last year. And like most of my meditations, the words that my fingers typed onto the screen were a catharsis.

A way I could process what I was feeling, hoping for some understanding and relief from the fast-paced treadmill I felt like I was on. I couldn't catch my breath.

We had moved into our new home weeks prior, and rather than feeling the spaciousness and energetic exhale I had expected, I felt completely overwhelmed, unhinged, and lost. The summer became a series of tiny sips of air while my kids were home full-time and I tried to work. Tried being the operative word there. And we all tended to the land that we were now responsible for.

I felt buried under the weight of responsibilities. As we transitioned into the school year, I thought for sure life would slow down. A routine would help, right? Wrong. Instead, we found ourselves in a bit of a rat race. Lots of driving between two schools, sports, making dinner, doing homework, having battles over the resistance to doing homework, going to bed late so we could squeeze in taking care of the animals and land somehow.

I craved slow. I danced with dreams about homeschooling and diving headfirst into the slower life we had taken a step towards. I didn't know all the answers. I just knew I needed to slow the fuck down. Might you too crave a slower pace of life? Do you feel like you're in a bit of a rat race? If so, let me give you an option that isn't so social media sexy, but is, in my opinion, a lot more doable.

On social media, someone who is quote-unquote looking for a slower pace of life sells their suburban home and possessions and moves out to the woods and takes you on their journey of living off the land. How do I know? Because I love watching these folks and if you can tell from my summertime cravings, have a somewhat idealized version of wanting to do this. Hey, I built a chicken coop last week. I'm on my way.

But you don't have to move to the woods to slow down. You don't have to completely uproot your entire life in order to feel peace. You just have to pause and breathe. Go ahead and take a deep breath right now. And then another. Did you feel it? The gentle softening of your body? The slight loosening of your mind? Our breath can slow us down internally so that we can know how to slow our lives down externally.

When we take the pause that meditation provides for us, we are consciously choosing to step off the hamster wheel of thoughts and emotions that is constantly moving in our minds. And when we do, a space of stillness opens up inside of us that gives us an opportunity to hear the whispers of our intuition, our internal compass for life. We use our breath to guide us here.

To me, this is the true magic of meditation and the reason why I practice it, create it, and share it with you with such passion. Everything you could possibly imagine is waiting here for you on the other side of your breath, including direct guidance on how to give yourself the slowdown you crave. So what exactly do you need to slow your life down, to feel less rushed,

Less stressed. Take some deep breaths and just sit with this question in meditation. Holding it with an open palm as you surrender to the entire process. Perhaps the whispers you hear are simple steps you can take to make dinner time easier. Or an idea to help you with kid drop off and pick up. Or maybe you think about the babysitter you had years ago and you get the nudge to call her again for some support.

Maybe you have a vision of you spending more time outside in nature after work more often. Or you letting go of activities that are a little too much right now. Or even an idea that can simplify your whole schedule. Or in my case, maybe you hear your intuition calling you to spend more time outside with your kids. Less scheduled, less devices, more space. More time doing farm chores and playing with the chickens. Whatever whispers you hear...

Trust them and then courageously take action upon them and then see how life feels. You can always adjust and evolve. It's your life, your pace, your rules. I love you. Namaste, beautiful.