Slow Down
- olivierbranford
- Apr 24, 2024
- 7 min read
Updated: Jan 29
Does your nervous system feel dysregulated? Are you in a permanent adrenalised state, like your adrenal glands are working overtime? Do you find it hard to climb down from your emotional ceiling? Do you feel like your parents and your relationships have been ‘weaponised’?
Rollo May wrote "It is an old and ironic habit of human beings to run faster when we have lost our way."
It sounds like it’s time for you to slow down, breathe, and even perhaps just listen. By listening to what the Universe is trying to tell you, you will heal.
Sydney J. Harris said "The time to relax is when you don't have time for it.'
When you feel an inner sense of overwhelming urgency, that is the biggest indicator that you need to slow down, as you won't be productive. Leo Babauta wrote that "Instead of focusing on how much you can accomplish, focus on how much you can absolutely love what your're doing."
It’s time to focus on BEing. Trust that everything will unfold as it should. Trust the process, and just BE. Be totally present in the moment. Go with the flow, like water: Flow into every situation and fill the space.
This, of course, is against the dictates of our ‘Hustle Culture’. It would have you believe that you can’t work long enough hours, drink too much coffee, have enough probiotics, skip too many breaks, miss too many holidays, do enough 'Life-Hacks', and that burnout doesn’t really exist. Yet, the faster you hurry, the slower you go.
When it comes to healing and recovery, shortcuts make the journey longer. The journey is the destination. We can’t 'Life-Hack' the system. Life comes with an element of suffering. It’s an opportunity to grow. We simply need to find the meaning in the suffering. A pain free existence simply doesn’t exist. Suffering is nutrition - it has to be digested for it to have a benefit to us. The here and now is beautiful. We are allowed to be exactly as we are. Like a tree. If we have a wound the wound needs to heal. We can let Nature take its course but we do have to look after the wound. And slowing down is a way to do just that.
You are allowed to be gentle with your Self. You are enough. You don’t have to hustle for your worthiness. You are giving away your personal power and getting stuck in ego by grinding your self into the ground.It won't end well, and you will simply be replaced. If you want to find peace, or increase your performance, or both, then please, slow down.

Slow down, please
If you calm your nervous system dysregulation then everything else will fall into place. You can do this via the breath with breathwork, which relates to the Chi and the Tao. Breathwork may be combined with meditation, mindfulness, yoga, and walks in nature to bring peace and serenity to a dysregulated nervous system and give you emotional balance. Yoga is also a scientifically proven method for calming your nervous dysregulation and is recommended in the ‘Bible’ of trauma, ‘The Body Keeps the Score.’ You see, the 'issue is in the tissue' – all that unprocessed buried emotion from your childhood trauma is buried deeply in the thicket of your tissues. For more serious childhood trauma you may also need EMDR.
Meditation has proven benefits on your brain circuitry, literally rewiring it, allowing you to drop out of catastrophic thinking, slow down, and perform better in all areas of life.
Big walks in nature gently bathe your nervous system in what it needs. Paracelsus wrote "The art of healing comes from nature, not from the physician. Therefore the physician must start from nature, with an open mind."So get off your phone and head for the woods. As Monty Don wrote "That first snowdrop, the flowering of the rose you pruned, a lettuce you grew from seed, the robin singing just for you. These are small things but all positive, all healing in a way that medicine tries to mimic."
Surrender all thoughts and actions that are not of your Higher Power. They are a total waste of time.
Seek spiritual bliss, not oblivion with the poison of your own choosing.
At times you simply need to stop everything. The key is simply to have the courage to stop (not many people are brave enough), meditate, receive the clarity that this brings, and face your feelings. In that pause you become the observer of your thoughts - the silent witness. This involves not giving weight to anything: There is no need to label. Nothing is good or bad - it just is. Don’t give value to thoughts.
Busyness is a trauma response. It may feel like it is protecting you, but it is not. And it is not serving you.
Drop out of your mind and into your heart, and there you will find peace. Learning the basics of a spiritual worldview, and the mental, emotional, and behavioural principles that this entails, is key to reclaiming your inner peace and personal power.
Oh, and get some good kip!
All is well. Realise this and you will know peace. This is the basis of spirituality. We came to this life to learn and grow from the inside out, evolving into the person we are within. We’re here to love, accept, and trust ourselves completely while walking the path of our dreams. Walk, don’t run, and then you will avoid tripping up.
Namaste.
Olly
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