Slowing down to speed up.

A nutrition coaches education.

Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, do more, do it now, be better, be quicker. And so the metal mill turns.

I have just arrived at the finish line of my nutrition diploma. A momentous moment, longed for, and carrying with it some interesting insights. The clearest of these came with my case studies. Each student had to complete 4, meeting each person a minimum of 3 times.

So the idea is simple, meet the person and give great advice. Done! Right?

Well not so, I have found that the information that can be given can indeed be a true gift for that person, life changing. However, I have also found that the packaging that this gift comes in is of the utmost importance. In this case the packaging is of course little ol me.

The true challenge is in judging exactly at what level to give the advice. What depth of information will you impart and how will you be when delivering it. It is at this level precisely that the slowing down will ultimately speed you up.

I found that for some of my sessions I was under-prepared, and then arrived in a rush, treating the appointment like anything else that day; something to be gotten through as quickly as possible. This approach isn't beneficial for either person in this case. My client doesn't get the full potential of the session and I leave more unsure of myself, knowing that my performance was off the mark.

At this point then my advice to myself is to slow down. This feels absolutely counter intuitive at the moment, I am deeply entrenched in the sentiments of the first sentence above — go, go, do, do. I find it hard to do, to trust, but this seems to be on point. I also marvel how this seemingly unrelated, simple insight has spilled over into other areas of my life. I have struggled for years to clarify my motivation for a meditation practice. Well I’ll be damned if I haven’t been on my cushion more in the last few days than I have been for months. Its simple is it not, slow down, trust that and in fact you will get more of what you should truly get done done.

I enjoy this feeling of interrelation; in trying to teach I have been taught. In studying nutrition I have focused my meditation. In writing this I have brought rational thought to an area of stress. The experiment continues!