The idea of slowing down to speed up used to feel impossible to me. 

Why would I ease up if I wanted to get things done faster?

For years my answer was to hustle harder. I burned out in a job that had me traveling almost 200 days a year. Then I overextended in another role, building three divisions of a company while working late nights and weekends, never asking for help. 

For fifteen years I trained my body to believe the only path to success (and safety) was through constant effort.

Even now I can feel the tension in my shoulders remembering that season. I left the corporate world in 2019, and my body still nudges me to keep healing my relationship with “effort.”

The absence of constant effort can trigger scarcity thoughts, shame, judgment, and a wave of anxiety. If I didn’t understand the pattern and the nervous-system roots behind it, I’d slide right back into seventy-hour weeks and burnout.

Instead, I pause and listen. These signals remind me to reconnect with the version of me that matters today. This reinvestment in myself is the hardest work I have ever done. It’s counterintuitive to what we’ve been taught and it’s worth every bit of practice.

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I’ve discovered I love working more slowly and intentionally, even if it means managing how my pace affects others. 

I give more space before I respond so my words land with intention and care…I offer myself grace when life pulls me away from my to-do list, trusting I will return. It might look slower, but I’m sticking the landing more often and I’m happier with the results.

This deep, steady work is what lets me meet the overwhelm of life right now in supporting an anxious kiddo and navigating school refusal. I never planned on spending so much energy in this chapter, yet here we are. 

I use my resources, honor my capacity, ask for help, and look for pockets of joy.

Maybe it’s time for you to slow down to speed up. What’s one small step you can take that honors all of who you are?