Some thoughts below on guaging the 'right pace' (for you) at this time.
What i’m noticing through this time of working from home is much more space and time (obviously very privileged to be able to say that), to notice more.
I’ve been working with a practice of connecting to ‘centre’ lately in yoga, or feeling for a physical centering point in my body, like a pendulum swinging back and forth would eventually reach a stillpoint, a place in the middle where gravity draws it to settle and rest. and the more I’m working with that, the more I notice it throughout the day too, notice whether my body is resting in it’s centre, when sitting working, when standing making meals, when in a moment in-between, just to be. I try and feel : where is my centre right now? - am I forward of centre? Am I back? Am i more over to one side than the other? As a result of this, what I’m noticing more and more is whether there is a feeling of being pulled ‘off my centre’ by something - maybe its the feeling of having to do something, a feeling of urgency about something, and its pulling me forward. Often, if I catch myself in this place, having unconsciously arrived there, I notice I am not breathing - such is the urgency of the feeling of having to do something, that has pulled me ‘off centre’.
So then, when I notice that, I take a conscious breath. I find my centre - that place where it feels like I am resting and settling my weight not too far forward or back, or more over to one side than the other, not too high or too low, but just right. I remind myself that the best thing I can do right now, is to breathe. And to bring my attention to the here and now. And perhaps not to even be conscious of my breath, but just to be for a moment, just to be.
I sense what is beneath it is a restlessness, to get lots done, and wanting to do it all immediately. So, as I breathe, and find my centre, I remind myself that the small things that we can do each day are often significant - maybe one day that’s washing up, having a shower, getting dressed. Another day it may be sitting down and finally sending an email that I was sooo putting off, for ages. Whatever it is, when we do something, however small a task, and it feels like it required effort, we have met resistance, that feeling that pulls us away from doing something. And the more we meet resistance, the easier it is to carry on doing that.
So, the practice that has been really helpful for me, lately, is coming back to centre (a physical sense of weight centering in my body), notice when I have been drawn out of it, and then come back again, when I notice and remember. Also, what wisdom does my centre have for me? Do I need rest? Would I appreciate a slower day today? Can I stay with a sense of my centre, and still breathing, even when starting that task, that I’ve sooo been putting off, typing one word at a time, which then continues, one word at a time, until suddenly, it flows.