Important Lessons from Snails

Do you ever feel like you are moving at a snail’s pace? How do you meet life’s needs moving so slowly? Maybe your muscles ache and you just want to stay in bed for the morning. Or have a long, hot bath. What is stopping you? And what would change if you actually allowed yourself to rest?

On a rainy day recently here in England, I nearly stepped on a snail making its way across the path between my garden office and the house. I stopped and watched it inching its way across the stones of the path. I was in the midst of carrying cushions and furniture back and forth as I cleared up my office after a womb surround process. I suspect the snail had an equally important task in process, but not one I could comprehend. Perhaps it had had a hard day of chewing leaves and felt a need to find a quiet place to sleep. Imagine carrying our beds with us like the snail’s shell? Do you ever wish you could just drop into rest and find safety that easily?

The snail continued to cross the path as I made three or four trips back and forth to my office. Then I noticed something I found truly remarkable. I noticed something strange on the Buddha statue beside my office. There was something – well actually someone – on its heart! It was another snail!

How many of us strive to find the heart of the Buddha, regardless of being Buddhist or not? The Buddha statue is there to remind me and those who visit my office of the potential we all have for deep inner quietude, peace, stillness and knowing. A snail, apparently without being able to see across the garden, found its way to the heart of the Buddha! How did it do it? How can we find that heart and rest there, like the snail?

I appreciate the message these snails delivered to me, reminding me yet again of the importance of slowing down, respecting our need for rest in a too busy, accelerated world.

Having recently emerged from an inspiring meeting with Dr. Gabor Maté at the Breath of Life conference in London, I am reading one of his books, When the Body Says No. Again, this is a reminder to listen to the messages from our bodies. Maté has consistently found that his patients with chronic conditions, autoimmune conditions, etc. have had trouble saying no to something in their lives. I can’t imagine a snail having this problem.

What do you need to say no to? What would support you in slowing down, in listening more fully and deeply to the wisdom of your body and your heart? I hope, like me, you take these snail messages to heart, and find ways to honor the need to move at a snail’s pace at times.

And so, it took a few minutes longer for me to finish cleaning up my office. In the process, however, I felt I was also cleaning up my heart. I had more time to integrate and digest the beauty and the intensity of having just held another prenatal/birth process.

From this heartful place, gratitude spreads, nourishing every cell in my body, and I am ready for more.

Please note that all the work I offer, teach and mentor in – Craniosacral Biodynamics, Continuum, and Prenatal and Birth Therapy – involve this slowing ourselves down, enabling us to self-regulate and listen deeply to our inner knowing.