The Yoga of Slowing Down: A Journey from Limbic Living to Consciousness

7 days ago
5 min read

Close-up of a brown snail with a spiral shell crawling on soil, surrounded by small green plants. Background is blurred, creating a peaceful mood.

You’d think that being a practiced yogi for over 46 years, I’ve mastered staying calm in the chaos of life. Not so! I speed through life just as much as anyone else. I have to-do lists so long that I would need at least two lifetimes to get everything done. However, I also have consistent practices and strategies to calm myself down and chill out. In fact, one of my new year’s intentions is to slow down.

I remember when I moved out of the Kripalu Ashram in 1996, I bought my first car. About a year later I purchased a radar detector. For the last 25 years, I’ve mounted this old electronic device to my windshield to avoid getting a speeding ticket. But back in December 2025, I leased a new car and for some reason, maybe it’s the new electronics in the vehicle, my radar detector goes crazy and beeps continuously. The sound was so obnoxious, I decided to unplug it. Ah, quiet at last!

I began a personal inquiry about why I would have a radar detector in the first place. “Why do I speed when I drive?” “Am I trying to beat the system? Why?”

The insights that poured forth from this inquiry have changed my life…

...I realized that I speed in the car because I’m trying to catch up. You know, to make up for lost time, to get ahead (as though my life were a race to the finish line)! I have very high expectations and maybe I’m trying to get more done faster to meet some unreasonably high standard I set for myself.

White sports car speeding on urban road, motion blur background, moody low-light setting.

The irony of this is that my radar detector doesn’t actually detect the radar coming from the police until they detect me first! I know this for sure because one kind officer, after pulling me over for speeding, explained to me that if I wanted to beat the system, I should get the latest Lidar radar detector. I was surprised that the cop would tell me this and asked him, “Why are you telling me this?” He said, “Because if you’re going to go through the trouble to have a radar detector, you should get one that works!” Somewhat confused but delighted, I thanked him and then waited while he wrote me up for a $175 ticket! Ouch!

Getting back to my intention to slow down, I decided to turn the detector off and just go the speed limit as a practice of slowing down, at least while driving. It’s been amazing. I’m no longer suspicious of cops lurking in the shadows trying to catch me speeding. I can drive carefree knowing that if I get stopped, it won’t be because I was speeding. Well, in all honesty, I still go about 5 mph over the limit. But that’s a huge improvement.

Psychology tells us that the back brain, the reptilian or limbic brain, is all about survival. It triggers the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) which is our fight, flight, freeze, or fawn response.

It triggers the desperate and urgent attempt to stay alive and avoid danger and pain. When in the limbic brain, there’s no time to consciously consider options. This is our instinctual brain that acts first and reflects later. We need this type of response to move quickly out of the path of danger or imminent threat. The limbic system, when balanced, protects us.

A woman in an orange shirt and jeans sits on the floor, covering her face with her hands, next to a couch. The room has a calm, beige tone.

When we’re stuck in the limbic brain, we are preoccupied with survival and operate in a high state of anxiety. When we’re stuck in the conscious brain, we can ignore our body’s signals and cut ourselves off from our instincts. The place in the middle is the threshold where our limited self meets our unlimited self, where instinct and consciousness meet, where our individual self meets our universal self.

This life journey can be seen as the journey from the back brain to the prefrontal cortex, the forebrain. Brene Brown calls this the hero’s journey from not being enough to being enough, from shame to self-love.

The prefrontal cortex gives us the capacity to think, reflect, discern, and choose. It has the capacity to slow down and resist the temptation of the limbic brain to act impulsively. It’s from this place of witness consciousness that we can bring comfort to our discomfort and give ourselves time and space to consider all options before taking action. This is how we navigate complex situations from a place of balance and ease.

The problem is that when we’re in the limbic brain, it takes over our consciousness, and we get stuck in what I call the “cesspool” of limbic living. This is a highly sensitive, reactive, and impulsive state of being that is on alert all of the time, even when there’s no danger around.

Yoga teaches that life is a journey of self-awareness. We are here to find the place in the middle, between the instinctive self and the conscious self. We need both, but when we get stuck in one or the other, we get out of balance.

In order to get out of the limbic brain we have to slow down!

Take a breath to calm the nervous system. We need to find a way to shift from the SNS to the parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS), so we can rest and digest. Breathing, practicing yoga, walking in nature, taking a nap, drinking a glass of water, counting to 10, are all proven ways to stimulate the PSNS, which is essentially moving from the back brain toward the forebrain to the place in the middle.

For several weeks since I’ve put my radar detector away, I’ve noticed a growing calm while I drive. I still have the radar detector in my glove box. (After all, it was like my security blanket for so many years.) But I think I’m ready to get rid of it for good as I prioritize slowing down and managing my anxiety level. Having it no longer serves me.

What’s one habit, behavior, or pattern of thinking that’s no longer serving you that you would like to let go of? Take a moment to jot down your thoughts in your journal.

A woman meditates in a calm atmosphere against a glowing orange background with swirling light patterns, conveying serenity and focus.

If you’re not already an Ashaya Member, I invite you to join this amazing group of yogis as your way of slowing down. Becoming a member is a serious, concrete action you can take and it’s a message to the universe that you are ready to slow down. You deserve to let go of what no longer serves you. You are worth it!

Every Tuesday and Thursday we chant mantras to reprogram our minds, release destructive thought patterns that stir the limbic system, and replace them with positive, uplifting values of inner peace and joy. Then we practice pranayama, in particular, Nadi Shodhana, Alternate Nostril Breathing, which automatically regulates the nervous system and creates a shift out of the limbic brain.

Once calm, we then go deeper with mantra meditation, which cuts to the deepest level of consciousness where we dwell, savor, and absorb the energy of the universe for several minutes – the practice of silence and spaciousness.

Meditation, in particular, activates the PSNS which helps to maintain peace and calm off the mat as we navigate the complex twists and turns of life.