Life often feels like a rollercoaster with highs and lows. This month, that ride took me up a steep hill—and then into a sudden, deep valley. Let me explain. I’m one of those people who sets goals each week to help me hit the bigger milestones for the year while also earning a living. Lately, things were going well: I received encouraging reviews for my new fantasy series, and my book Windwalker was doing great in the All Author Cover of the Month contest. Between promotion, juggling multiple projects, and writing Book 4 of my Dragon’s Oath series, I was moving at full speed.
Then I got the news. A good friend passed away unexpectedly. Everything stopped.
Racing Through Life without Living It
Have you ever felt like you’re rushing through your days but not living them? That’s where I found myself—burned out, emotionally drained, questioning the pace I’d kept.
Burnout is more than feeling tired. It’s prolonged stress that leads to emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion. It’s especially common among neurodivergent people and high achievers—those of us who push harder, dream bigger, and forget to rest.
Today’s workplace doesn’t help. Downsizing often means the same workload on fewer shoulders. According to a 2023 Gallup report, 44% of people worldwide said they felt a lot of stress the previous day.
Some life lessons I seem to learn and then relearn. This is one: Slowing down isn’t laziness—it’s wisdom. I like to think of taking a necessary pause as a door to emotional health and creative clarity. It’s in the stillness that we begin to feel again. To think more freely. To create not just from hustle but from heart.
Culture of Speed
We live in a world that treats busyness like a badge of honor. I have a friend who equates her happiness with her busyness. Our hustle culture glorifies the grind—early mornings, late nights, inbox zero, side gigs, productivity hacks. There’s an unspoken belief that sneaks up on me—that if you’re not constantly doing, you’re falling behind. But at what cost?
There’s a silent reality related to this relentless pace that sneaks up on us. It doesn’t just drain our energy—it drains our sense of self, and there is an emotional toll. It can manifest as anxiety, numbness, irritability, or just that vague feeling of being disconnected from life. For me, stress eating is another side effect. We scroll endlessly, work endlessly, worry endlessly… but rarely feel fully present. What happened to being spontaneous once in a while? No time for that.
And creativity? It needs space. It needs silence. It needs time to wander and wonder. But when life is a never-ending to-do list, creativity shrinks. We stop thinking in full sentences. We trade imagination for efficiency. We become productive outputters instead of balanced humans.
It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that slowing down isn’t giving up—it’s getting back in touch. With ourselves, with our values, with what actually matters.
Emotional Benefits of Slowing Down
Slowing down creates space—not just in our calendars but in our minds and hearts. That’s where we reconnect with ourselves. Going for a walk often grounds me. I become aware of the tension I’ve ignored, the sadness I’ve buried, the quiet voice asking for something different. It’s also how we rediscover life around us. The sunlight through the trees. A kind stranger. The taste of food when we’re not multitasking. And our relationships deepen. Without the constant rush, we show up more fully—for others and ourselves.
Emotional benefits:
- Reconnection with Self: Space to reflect, process, and feel.
- Greater Awareness of the World Around Us: More beauty, more gratitude.
- Deeper Relationships: Real connections beyond small talk.
Creative Benefits of Slowing Down
As a writer (or in any artistic endeavor) I’ve learned that creativity doesn’t thrive under pressure—it thrives in stillness. Inspiration often comes when we’re walking, daydreaming, or doing nothing at all. It gives inspiration a chance to catch up with us. Ideas often arrive not when we’re staring at the screen, forcing them out, but when we’re walking, resting, or daydreaming. It’s in the quiet that creative sparks begin to flicker. Slowing down allows our minds to incubate ideas. We connect dots we didn’t even know were there. Our work becomes more profound because it comes from a deeper place. As Author Lori Soard says, “I am not running a race with my writing but am telling a story that is dear to my heart.”
Creative benefits:
- Quiet: Creativity needs quiet to emerge—ideas bloom in stillness
- Incubation: When not constantly outputting, your brain has the space to connect ideas in new ways.
- Authenticity: Slow living lets you create from a place of alignment rather than pressure.
Most importantly, we reconnect with our why. We create from truth, not algorithms. That’s where meaningful work originates. A slower life rhythm allows us to remember who we are, what we care about, and what we want to say. And the work reflects that.
How to Begin Slowing Down
The week when my friend died, I hit a wall. I’d been pushing through deadlines, saying yes to everything, living by the calendar instead of my internal compass. On paper, I was doing all the right things. But I felt disconnected from myself, from my work, from anything that made me feel truly alive. I needed a break. I knew it, but I didn’t have the time. Everything stopped anyway. Grief forced me to pause. But slowly, my priorities realigned. I started choosing slowness. I walked. I ate lunch without my screen. I read for fun. I even did nothing sometimes. At first, it felt indulgent. Unproductive. But it was exactly what I needed.
In that stillness, inspiration returned. Ideas for Book 4 of my fantasy series came to me—simple, clear, and honest. It wasn’t the result of grinding it out. It was the result of making space. I felt more connected to that one idea than I had to weeks of overworked output. It reminded me that my best work doesn’t come from pressure. Slowing down didn’t fix everything, but it gave me something better than a quick fix—it gave me perspective.
The Quiet Rebellion (And a Gentle Invitation)
Slowing down in a speed-obsessed world is a quiet act of rebellion. A radical kind of self-love. It says: My worth isn’t tied to my output.
- Your best ideas? They’re waiting in the stillness.
- Your truest self? She’s there, too.
- Your deepest peace? It’s not in your next achievement. It’s in the space to simply be.
One Last Question: What’s one small way you can slow down today?
Pause.
Breathe.
Take a walk without your phone.
Drink your coffee without multitasking.
Or just ask yourself: How am I, really?
You deserve a life with more heart and less hurry. Give yourself the space to daydream.
