Prathima's Miles & Milestones

On a break, not quitting on anything

Even if your plans have changed, even if your timeline is different, and even if this year has not unfolded the way you thought it would — you are not falling behind. Slowing Down Is Not Falling Behind. If you know that it’s time to slow down, simplify, take it easier, savour your days, and adjust your course — until you feel right.

You are not defined by your professional accomplishments. You are not defined by the brands you wear. You are not defined by your possessions. You are not defined by the people who you hang out with. You are you, unbiased, as an individual without external influences. The emotional, sensitive, being.

Sometimes we need to pause & reflect. Hold your horses my friend said. You are not straying from the path, you are finally finding it. You are learning that real growth is not always just constant forward motion. Growth is also staying still. Growth is deep rest. Growth is letting yourself settle, it’s letting yourself blossom, it’s letting yourself see how much good is already in your life before you hunger for more.

Growth is stopping to reconsider where you’re headed before you arrive there. You are allowed to take days to grieve, to do nothing. You are allowed to press your plans back until they make more sense. You do not exist on a single schedule, your fate is not to arrive at each set point at precisely the second you think you should. That’s not what you’re here for. That’s not what this whole thing is about.

After a bad day, there’s always a glad day. You cannot miss the exit. There are no wrong turns. This too shall pass. Let the universe work on it & present you at the divine timings as it’ll be perfectly crafted. Instead of hurrying it up or displaying desperate energy, be in the receiving state.

Count on those people who are with you during your downtime. Life is a living, breathing thing — because it’s an extension of you. It’s the ways in which you explore the corners and contours of your soul, the way you find pieces of yourself through love, through trial and error, through reaching, through settling down. Every part of our lives exists to teach us something. We are not only making progress when we are clearly, discernibly growing. We are also making progress when we take time to simply be ourselves. You are not falling behind, you never have been.

The irony is that it’s often the plans that go wrong that teach us more, and show us more, than the ones that go right. If you’re able to reach for something just beyond yourself, you should applaud yourself and feel profoundly grateful for your courage, your strength, and your grit.

You will face many defeats in life, but never let yourself be defeated – Maya Angelou

May this be the year that you learn slowing down is nothing to be ashamed of. May this be the year that you realize your life isn’t on any schedule but your own — and you can amend that. May this be the year you realize you are not only as good as your latest accomplishment was great.

The journey has only ever been about learning to find peace each day, and it’s often in the quiet, in the unexpected, and in the simplest things that we are given the greatest opportunity to do just that.