I wrote this article on our Substack on September 15, 2025, and wanted to re-publish it here in case you aren’t a subscriber yet. If you love what you see below, consider heading over to Substack, where you can subscribe for free, and get articles like these directly in your email inbox twice a month. Looking forward to seeing you there!
-Dr. Alicia Swift, Astreya Wellness
Introduction
At Astreya Wellness, we believe in making health and wellness accessible – which also means fun and interesting because, if it’s not those things, most people’s eyes glaze over and they start dreaming about ice cream or wine or cigarettes while you talk about the vitamins in kale or whatever. So, this morning, as I was editing this post, a silly little song came into my head and I decided to include it:
🎶 If you hate going slow, then clap your hands 👏 If you hate going slow, then clap your hands 👏 If slowing down is really scary and it doesn’t make you merry, if you hate going slow, then clap your hands 👏 🎶
See? Wellness doesn’t have to be boring.
And with that, let’s talk about how going slow is the antidote to burnout, what going slow means, why it feels so bad, and ways you can overcome this. We will wrap up with a short exercise you can do to explore this topic on a more personal level.
Going slow is not fun…but it works
I will be the first to tell you how completely and absolutely frustrating slowing down can be. In modern society, our new normal is to do as many things as possible, as quickly as possible, and often at the same time:
- answer emails while in a meeting while taking notes while responding to a text from your partner…
- watch tv while playing a phone game while playing with your dog while eating popcorn…
- go for a walk while listening to a podcast while taking photos while checking your smart watch…
Sound familiar?
After many years of “go, go, go” and “faster, faster, faster,” a once-normal middle-of-the-road pace often feels indescribably boring, and very much like failing.
Take this business, Astreya Wellness, as an example. When I started working on it in February 2025, I thought I would have my first product launched within one month…three months, max. But here it is September, 7 months later, and I still have zero products.
And you know what? I am trying to let that be okay.
Because I have decided that my full-time job is my health and my happiness. Everything else is part-time and secondary – with work coming in last place.
Society teaches the opposite, which is why:
- 91% of people surveyed have unmanageable stress at work (Deloitte, 2015),
- 71% of people surveyed say they have no work-life balance (Deloitte, 2015), and
- 82% of the global workforce is at risk for burnout (Mercer, 2024).
I don’t know about you, but I find those statistics astounding. On the individual and the collective level, we need to slow down and have better work-life balance.
Definition time
So what does “going slow” mean, really? To me, it represents things like:
- Setting smaller goals and/or longer completion timelines
- Choosing to pause certain projects or activities to avoid overwhelm, and focus on fewer things at a time
- Determining a path forward that is more enjoyable because it is slower
- Taking others’ pace and progress with a grain of salt
- Refusing to push through signals from the body that beg for rest
- Sitting with uncomfortable emotions like boredom, confusion, or frustration, rather than rushing to the next thing as a source of distraction
- Having self-compassion when a slower life does not align with expectations (societal or individual)
- Experimenting to find a pace that is sustainable (i.e., learning how to run a marathon, versus a sprint)
- Cultivating a sense of inner calm, safety, and peace
- Taking frequent breaks to stretch, move, and reset
- Reaching a new understanding that productivity is not a measure of value and worth
I’ll give you an example. As part of my pursuit to recover from burnout and return to better physical and mental health, I moved to sunny California to be near the ocean. I started taking daily walks on the beach with my dog to relax. It was the best part of my day – I timed it according to the sunset, and I loved seeing how the beach changed each day due to the constant work of the waves. But then, I decided I Wanted to Lose Weight, in all capital letters. I started walking faster and faster, trying to beat my time from the day before, tracking stats closely with my Apple watch and picking everything (meaning myself) apart to “improve.” But after 2 months of this, I realized I had started to hate my daily walks.
And so now, I walk as slowly as possible. I take my shoes off and wade through the water. I stop to watch the surfers, or the birds, or my dog. I sit on the beach to watch the sunset. I stopped caring about my heart rate or step count or calorie burn.
I have decided that slow progress I love is better than fast progress I hate.
Brain science
Now, the mind is tricky. It wants to keep us from slowing down – even though slowing down is the medicine we need in Western society – because the brain is biologically made to avoid change. Change is scary, and the brain hates scary. It equates scary with certain death. It also equates going slow with losing praise and validation…which it equates with rejection by our community, starvation, and…certain death.
Our brains are stuck in 10,000 BCE (I made that number up, but you know what I mean), when we needed to be loved by neighbors and scared by tigers to survive. This is why, when you try to slow down, the mind will create thoughts meant to prevent change, like:
- I am disappointing.
- I am a failure.
- What will people think of me?
- Nothing ever goes my way.
- I am so lazy!
When you start slowing down, the first step is noticing these thoughts, and knowing they are normal. You can even thank them, because thoughts like these are actually signposts that point back to our inner wounds, and the compensatory behaviors we learned as children to protect said wounds. These include behaviors like people-pleasing, perfectionism, the need for external validation, a victim mindset, an internalized critic, procrastination, etc. For me, going back to my first example, not having products on the website has made me feel like I am not a real business owner (need for external validation), like I am a failure (internalized critic), and like nothing goes my way (victimhood).
Here are six ways that I gently push back against these thoughts:
- Self-compassion: When I notice these thoughts, I have compassion for them, like a big sister would, and challenge the narrative with kindness, such as, “well, actually, that’s not always true” and “I can do hard things.”
- Journal: Get a pen and paper, and ask your inner child or inner critic to step forward to tell you their perspective. Write down whatever comes to mind. By giving them a voice, they will often quiet down, and you will have more insights into what is triggering them. As part of this process, ask them what they need, and they will likely tell you. I did this exercise recently, and my inner child wanted more fun, so on Wednesdays, I have a new ritual I like to call “beach burrito,” which is exactly what it sounds like. It’s awesome. My inner child loves it.
- Change the statement: This works well for thoughts that start with “I am [blank]”. You can gently push back against them by stating instead, “This is [blank]”. For instance, if you catch yourself thinking, “I am a disappointment,” you can say, “Actually, this is a disappointment. We will try again tomorrow. I know things will go better then.”
- Find the core wound: Find out what core wound(s) your negative thoughts are pointing to, by asking yourself why these thoughts are coming up, and what they are trying to ultimately protect you from – rejection? sadness? wasting time? losing money? You can sit and think, or journal about this. Once you find the core wound, you can more easily find ways to self-soothe.
- Therapy: Working with a therapist is so unbelievably helpful at countering negative thought patterns – highly recommend for anyone and everyone!
- Quick reset: Use a short somatic practice (90 seconds is a good target) to get out of the mind and back into the body, while shifting your stress at the same time. Examples include humming, giving yourself a hug, dancing, or going for a walk. We have a course coming out soon that is focused in great detail on this step – can’t wait to announce it! – so if this interests you, stay tuned!
Wrap-up Exercise
Over the next week, start noticing when you feel like you need to go fast, rush, hurry, or speed things up in your daily life. In that moment, ask yourself if it’s really necessary. Is it truly life or death if you are late to a lunch by 5 minutes, or you need an extension on a project, or you haven’t hit that goal yet? Nine times out of ten, it doesn’t matter, and you can choose to go slow instead.
If you have the interest and bandwidth, also take 5-10 minutes a day to journal about the past 24 hours, doing the following each time:
- Write down the instance(s) you felt rushed (example: late to a work meeting), and what your mind was telling you in that moment (example: “if I am late, they will think I am irresponsible”).
- Read over your list, and write down any patterns you notice (example: you feel most pressured in your work relationships)
- Finally, write 1-2 sentences about how you can set yourself up for success next time that situation comes up (example: take 3 deep breaths before you get in the car, wake up 10 minutes earlier).
And that wraps up this week’s post! Let’s take a deep breath in and out together, and set an intention for the upcoming week:
It is okay for me to slow down and enjoy life.
Feel free to write this down, put it on your cell phone background, and say it out loud whenever you need a reminder. Have a peaceful and restful week!
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