Are you in a big hurry to slow down?

I am. And I'm so not alone. I was just plowing through the 2016 Yoga in America study — 80 pages? Get to the point! — which is about how the popularity of yoga has gone from a wave to a tsunami.

In the U.S., the number of practitioners has lifted into an unassisted handstand, soaring from 20.4 million in 2012 to over 36 million today.

Just last week, about 58 of us put our mats down in a huge tent at Esalen, the renowned retreat center devoted to exploring "human potential," perched on the spectacular coastline at Big Sur, California. We were there to dive more deeply into the now and Zen of Slowing Down, a five-day workshop led by Tias Little and Henry Shukman.

Keeping it simple, Tias is a master yoga teacher and Henry is a master Zen teacher. They are good friends and also students of one another, and their yoga and Zen centers in Santa Fe, New Mexico, are only a mile and a half apart. What a coincidence.

"In an age of acceleration, nothing can be more exhilarating than going slow," Henry reads to us at the start of the week, quoting Pico Iyer.

"In an age of constant distraction, nothing is so luxurious as paying attention.

"In an age of constant movement, nothing is so urgent as sitting still."

Sitting still. Paying attention. Going slow. All that, plus wild waves, passing dolphins and exquisite vegetables pulled out of Esalen's organic garden just that morning and served up at community dinners that have the look, feel and feathers of a Federico Fellini film.

I want to share a few highlights, because Tias and Henry have many wise teachings to offer, but first let me assure you that you don't have to go to Esalen or a remote mountain cave to begin to slow down your own busy life.

As Henry says (I think he's quoting me), "start where you are." Accepting yourself and your life just as they are allows for change to happen, and from that place, you can begin to let go of haste and an accelerated pace of life that makes your muscles tight, your body sore and your heart constricted.

PAY ATTENTION. Paying attention — being in the moment — is a crucial part of slowing down. It can happen anywhere, anytime, and when we did walking meditation outside with Henry, it happened by paying strict attention to the soles of our feet.

When you do yoga with Tias, you pay attention not only to how your pose looks but also how it feels. The deep somatic work he guides us through at the start of class — on our backs, relaxed onto our blankets — requires us to focus on what's going on inside: Is my sacrum level? Can I draw energy up the inside of my leg? This training develops our somatic intelligence, and though I'm still in kindergarten when it comes to spreading my sitting bones, I have felt what a profound self-healing practice yoga can be.

NOTHING TO ATTAIN. "The everyday world we live in values accomplishment, achieving, acquiring," Henry says, as we all nod and know the truth of that and the stress of that. We are all scrambling to have the best house, the best job, the best car. "What if we let ourselves be as we are?" Henry asks. "Why hurry up? Why not enjoy the ride?"

NOTICE PULSATING RHYTHMS. Your body is alive with pulsating rhythms as energy flows in your cells, brain, joints, muscles and tissues. Tias tells us that if we can slow down enough to tune in — through yoga, breathing and meditation — we can help the body heal, stay healthy and even glow.

"It's like a light shining from within," we read in our handouts, a quote from Ged Sumner and Steve Haines. "It's the glow of life that can be seen in the skin, eyes and the aura."

Aura, shmaura: Going for the glow is something we can all do. It's what health looks like, and slowing down is one proven way to make it happen.

For more on the transformative ways of Tias and Henry, check out www.prajnayoga.com and www.mountaincloud.org.

As for Esalen, it's the best place on earth to learn to float your kidneys.

ENERGY EXPRESS-O! FROM THE HANDOUT:

"Old pond / Frog jumps in / Plop!" — Matsuo Basho

Marilynn Preston — healthy lifestyle expert, well-being coach and Emmy-winning producer — is the creator of Energy Express, the longest-running syndicated fitness column in the country. She has a website, marilynnpreston.com, and welcomes reader questions, which can be sent to [email protected]. She also produces EnExTV, a digital reincarnation of her award-winning TV series about sports, fitness and adventure, for kids of all ages, at youtube.com/EnExTV and facebook.com/EnExTV. To find out more about Preston and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Andrea Kirkby