Carolyn Hidalgo

How Slowing Down Helps You Speed Up What is the power of living in the present moment so many successful people advocate? What tangible results do slowing down, and pausing to take a deep breath bring to our life? How does it allow you to speed up? In our crazy busy world, it seems contradictory. I grew up with a strong value of not wasting time – being productive was critical to success, and I have to admit hard work pays off! So grabbing hold of the practice of slowing down to speed up has been a challenge. Today it’s a principle I live by. What power has it granted me? For starters, more patience, clarity, and a focus on what matters. Silencing my inner committee gave me space to hear my own voice. Last year I found myself writing my first book – realized writing was a huge passion! Slowed down to experience time flies when I write. A message soon emerged – a vision to create more authentic relationships, and a judgment free world. I slowed down enough to be in my own energy and attract an abundance of people who champion me to follow my dreams. I could ‘be with’ believing in myself more than doubting myself, and made a conscious decision to turn off the media. I took the time and energy spent listening to other people’s lives, and re-invested it into my own life. In the process I let go of a lot of the fear-based energy that drives the media where money is the bottom line. And, that helped speed up. Conflict sells, peace does not. Do you receive emails of warnings compelling you to tell everyone you know? 99% of the warnings are false From my experience, 99% of the warnings don’t come true, which can be validated from snopes.com. Today I receive more inspirational, life changing messages that impact my life positively because I slowed down to attract the people who also hold & give out loving energy. I now spend more quality time with the people in my life who matter – laughing, growing, sharing. Slowing down fills me up so I can give back to the people who mean the most to me. This includes strangers in other parts of the world. I noticed an incredibly strong “need to know” when it comes to “the news”. It’s as if without this “knowledge” you will somehow not be able to function. I would feel condemned for not knowing the latest “news” even when it had no impact on my life because the expectation we “should know” is so high. Remember that all news is in the past, and the only thing that matters is what you learn from it and use it to improve your present! Sure we can hear the latest warning, controversy, catastrophe, and stabbing, but slow down to notice the impact this has on your life. Have you asked whether it is relevant to you? Did it cause you to make any life altering decision? Are you changed now because of this new information? Tomorrow there will be more of the same. If there was something I needed to know, I would find out through friends, family, and the community.  Slowing down gave me the space to listen to what I believed is worth listening to, and the time to spend reading what would make a difference in my life instead of being bombarded from what other people think I need to know. By slowing down, and focusing on who matters, and what matters, I broke away from people who drain me, and attracted the people who energize me. Focused in doing to drive results feels different than slowing down inside in the midst of our “busyness” to BE focused so your life FLOWS. It feels like less work yet I am busier than ever. I attract into my life what I want to create now, and slowing down allows me to notice it when it arrives. Oprah says “your life’s journey is about becoming more of who you are.” Slowing down has given me the power to be just that – more of who I am. Impossible things become possible here. Will you consider slowing down, breathing even during those crazy busy moments, and notice what shows up? You could even try turning off the news for a day.  I guarantee you will be amazed at how you’re able to speed up!

I grew up believing the world was black and white, right and wrong, good and bad. My family life growing up was loving, harmonious with extremely little conflict. I followed the rules, behaved appropriately within the established guidelines of what “good” entailed, and was successfully living my life. Or so I thought. The expectations I grew up with became my expectations of what was “good” and “right”, and I believed it because everything was in harmony. Then I was introduced to coaching, which is really self-discovery, and my life expanded. I thought I knew who I was only to discover I had barely met myself! I thought I knew other people, only to discover that the level I could connect was only as deep as I was connecting with myself, which was barely scratching the surface. I was happy, and I didn’t have a clue what it meant to be living a fulfilling authentic life. I was living mostly in my head with an external focus. Self-discovery moved my focus inside where I began to discover my values – what I stood for versus my passions – what I loved. I noticed the kinds of people who energized me, and those who drained me. I began to let go of any beliefs from my upbringing, which no longer served me, and began to follow my heart. I felt like I was experiencing for the first time what it meant to be a human being, not just a human doing. Soon I found myself diving deeper into questions that had always tugged at me – why people suffered, how people could love someone one moment, then hate them the next, why we were still fighting wars. Suddenly I was looking back at my life, and could see things I couldn’t see before. What I liked as a child & into my teens now had a deeper meaning. I began experiencing more coincidences, and numbers like 11:11 that I saw as a child. Other signs in nature began appearing. I felt like something I couldn’t explain was happening, and it was being confirmed by so many of the people I was now attracting – leaders, spiritual teachers, authors. The experience Neo has in The Matrix where reality is the illusion suddenly became my experience. I don’t see the world the way I used to. My experiences with people deepened to a new level of authenticity, and I began having serious conflicts for the first time with people whose values differed from my own now that I knew what mine were! I realized I was blind to who they were because I was living on the surface of my life. I immersed myself in personal growth and spiritual books, and a few authors I couldn’t put down: Malcolm Gladwell, Mitch Albom, and Paulo Coelho. I listened & watched inspirational life changing material, and attended conferences. I was awakening to who I had always been. My life began to flow in a magical way. Instead of “right” and “wrong”, I began to understand it was all about my intentions. I could see how I was creating my own life experience. I learned how to let go of making people wrong even those whose choices have hurt me the most, and I’ve had no other choice but to walk away. Rising above that pain brought a clarity that’s hard to put into words. I choose to live from my head, heart, and soul where love, compassion, kindness and respect can live and breathe. I let go of fear from my ego where criticism, and judgment live, and put trust in myself. My mask has come down, and it has given permission for others to drop their mask. People have accused me of being naive, but as my coach reminded me: my experience has not been one of being taken advantage of. In fact I experience the opposite: abundance of giving and receiving with so many people in my life. A few people’s true colours eventually revealed themselves, but this handful of individuals taught me the most, and I became stronger. It turned out to be the greatest gifts. I still choose to have faith in people unless they show me otherwise, and this has opened up an amazing space with people where I get to be who I am. Connecting authentically being true to myself is the ultimate freedom, and secret to living a fulfilling life.