{"id":255,"date":"2015-09-23T18:12:09","date_gmt":"2015-09-23T18:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/?p=255"},"modified":"2017-01-02T04:12:09","modified_gmt":"2017-01-02T04:12:09","slug":"how-to-slow-down-and-move-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/?p=255","title":{"rendered":"How to Slow Down and Move Forward"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With the light fading away earlier in the evenings, leaves beginning to change color, and the cooler nights, summer is ending and autumn is just beginning.<\/p>\n<p>Before summer ends, it&#8217;s easy to feel a sense of urgency to complete the things you wanted to do, but didn&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, that&#8217;s exactly how I felt earlier today. My inner critics were starting to stir things up and I was well on my way to letting them make me miserable.<\/p>\n<p>But then I looked at this photograph. Its stillness, its peaceful beauty, had a message for me.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"625\" height=\"416\" class=\"size-full wp-image-252\" \n    src=\"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015-09-23_01.jpg\" \n    alt=\"Reflection of trees on lake\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015-09-23_01.jpg 625w, https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015-09-23_01-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015-09-23_01-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015-09-23_01-272x182.jpg 272w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This is the time to reflect. To slow down and appreciate all I&#8217;ve accomplished.<\/p>\n<p>Looking back over a busy summer, my memories waver in and out of focus, like images reflecting off a lake:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Writing weekly blog posts, even when I didn&#8217;t think I had anything to say.<\/li>\n<li>Playing with my sweet, ornery dog.<\/li>\n<li>Coaching some gifted, creative people.<\/li>\n<li>Creating a travel watercolor set for myself.<\/li>\n<li>Sorting through my house, and giving away, throwing out, or selling quite a bit of stuff.<\/li>\n<li>Starting a regular yoga practice.<\/li>\n<li>Completing a rigorous business course.<\/li>\n<li>Having breakfasts with my amazing husband on our back porch.<\/li>\n<li>Facilitating an inspiring 30-day creativity challenge.<\/li>\n<li>Meeting with wonderful friends.<\/li>\n<li>Hosting a transformative vision board workshop.<\/li>\n<li>Making trips out-of-state to see my dear family.<\/li>\n<li>Organizing my office and creative space.<\/li>\n<li>Painting a dozen watercolors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It&#8217;s a lot, actually!<\/p>\n<p><em>Focusing on what you&#8217;ve accomplished silences your inner critics by putting things into perspective.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I still have my to-do list, but I&#8217;ve decided to try something different. Like most creative people, doing things the linear, &#8220;type A&#8221; way drains my energy and blocks my intuitive wisdom. When I operate too much out of my left brain, my stomach tightens, my back and neck stiffen, and\u2014worst of all\u2014it&#8217;s harder to see the magic in this world.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes I have to make things into a game to stay interested and motivated. So I took my to-do list and tore it into strips of paper, with one item written on each piece.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-253\" \n    src=\"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015-09-23_02.jpg\" \n    alt=\"Goals written on strips of paper\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015-09-23_02.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015-09-23_02-150x113.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Then, I put the papers in a pretty red crocheted bowl, and stirred them with my fingers.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-254 size-thumbnail alignright\" \n    src=\"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015-09-23_03.jpg\" \n    alt=\"Strips of paper in bowl\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/p>\n<p>That felt good!<\/p>\n<p>Now, instead of running around in my head, taunting me, my to-do items are written on paper.<\/p>\n<p>They&#8217;re &#8220;under control&#8221; in one spot, but <em>not<\/em> in a list.<\/p>\n<p>What I didn&#8217;t accomplish (yet) is fresh in my mind. Now it&#8217;s time to take a deep breath, wait, and see what rises into my awareness. <em>That&#8217;s<\/em> what I&#8217;ll do next.<\/p>\n<p>By taking the &#8220;should&#8221; out of my linear list, and making it more of a game, tomorrow doesn&#8217;t feel like an endless list of tasks, it feels like a morning of discovery. What will I do? I&#8217;m excited to find out!<\/p>\n<p><em>Being in a balanced perspective helps you think of new ways to solve a problem, or re-energize routines.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re feeling stressed by all you have to do, take the time to appreciate what you&#8217;ve already accomplished, instead of rushing ahead to the next task. Then try making a game out of what you need to do, or changing your usual routine, to freshen up the experience.<\/p>\n<p>Remember, you are in control of your own experience. Make it meaningful to you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the light fading away earlier in the evenings, leaves beginning to change color, and the cooler nights, summer is ending and autumn is just beginning. Before summer ends, it&#8217;s easy to feel a sense of urgency to complete the things you wanted to do, but didn&#8217;t. In fact, that&#8217;s exactly how I felt earlier [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,17,22,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creativity","category-inner-critic","category-inspiration","category-perspective"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=255"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":261,"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255\/revisions\/261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juliebaldwin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}