Slow It All Down
Speaker 0: You're listening to Takeout Therapy. I'm your host, Rebecca Hunter. I'm a private practice therapist, an anxiety specialist who's doing things differently. In about twenty minutes, I'm here to teach you how to deal with an everyday difficult element of life in a healthier way. This podcast is unscripted totally unedited.
Just my straight up advice from years of experience. This is not therapy. It's just personal growth for people in a hurry for change. So let's get to work. Hello.
Hello. I'm so glad you joined me for today's episode. Today, we're gonna talk about something really, really important And this is what I teach in the therapy office, like, kinda right away. And it's basically like why you're moving so fast and can we get you not to do that? My work really specializes with people who are tweaked out.
They come in. They've got a lot of stuff going on. And, yeah, there's usually, like, a problem area and I'll put quotations around that because the problem is that they're moving too fast. So I'm gonna give you insider scoop today. And how to slow down so necessary You know, my friend, we were not built for this.
This shit is bananas. This life that we are living all these activities, this going here, this going there, all the technology use, all the physical exercise, all the things, all the social interactions, all the opportunities. It's not all bad. Right? But the problem is, we just get going and going and going and sometimes we are moving so fast and then we don't feel good.
And we're like, I don't know why I'm I don't feel good. I'm juggling these plates and one keeps falling on my head that, like, I don't get it. Right? We have to stop moving so fast. So I'm not saying, like, give up your life and become a monk.
I'm saying slow down because there's no time when we're moving so fast to work on ourselves to make a lot of changes that need to be made. There's no time to look at the bigger picture. It's just like, well, what do I have to do today? I gotta do the laundry and I gotta go here and I gotta go there and I gotta do work and I gotta figure out what I'm gonna eat all week. Right?
And everything is just moving too fast. Our interactions are so fast. We're just texting each other. Like, I have wonderful, amazing, beautiful friends that I sometimes don't even have a chance to check-in with, do you have this situation? Right?
Everything's just so fast. Like, if you're not on snap chat, then you're dead. No. I'm just kidding. But seriously, I mean, can we go beyond texting?
Can we slow down. Can we write letters? Can we send cards? Can we make phone calls? We got a lot of plans, my friend, and not enough downtime.
And I've had spent the last couple of episodes talking a little bit about the importance of just kind of like taking some downtime. Go it alone was an episode about just taking some time for yourself. Right? And this idea about slow down came from the episode called advice from mom. It's just one of the things that always comes up in the therapy office.
So when we decide. Okay. Yep. You're right. Okay.
I need to slow down. Then it's kinda like, well, how do we do that? Right? Because the balls are in the air, if you know what I mean. But if we can figure out the logistical how to, which I'll tell you in a couple minutes, then we can start to really see things clearly.
Like, it's super interesting when we slow down interactions and relationships, like, you know, somebody text you and it's kinda like something that you don't really love. Right? It's a it's it it it kinda bothers you. Instead of answering right away. Right?
We wanna wait and just slow down. If we're able to do that, we can kinda see things differently. We can bring in some different perspectives like we talked about recently. Right? What's another version?
We can there's an opportunity when we slow down to, like, change the dynamics of things. Okay? And here's the deal. Small, like, tiny, tiny actions they just build on each other. And so the process of slowing down, it actually kind of calms the nervous a step and improves our mental health.
But we start with this idea of slowing down because it's something that we can all grasp and they're and they're easy steps to remember. So here's how you do it. Here's how you slow down. And what I would say is I just challenge you Every week, when you listen to this podcast, I just challenge you to try what I'm talking about for one week. And then the next week, you can just do something else if you want to.
But if you liked the way it was going, like, keep it going. Right? So how do you slow down? People are always asking that because there's so much going on and we can engage with a lot of it. One thing I want you to do is a few times a day.
Just notice if you're moving fast or slow. Look for signs of you're moving fast or slow in your body. Maybe your mind will tell you right away that you're moving really fast and you're feeling overwhelmed. But all I'm asking you to do is the first step is to notice. Now, you might be going, well, Rebecca, how am I supposed to notice I'm moving so fast.
I know I won't remember to do that. And you're right. You won't. And so I'll tell you the same thing I I tell. All my clients when we're trying to set a new habit even when it's noticing.
You want to use the tools that you use in your life to help you with the new habits. So get yourself a set a couple timers or alarms a day. You know? You can set an alarm to just go ding, You know, it doesn't have to go. No, friends, you can set a simple timer.
That goes off a few times a day that just like a small little reminder to go like, hey, How you do it? Are you moving pretty fast there? Right? This is an opportunity to just slow down. You can put up sticky notes around your house.
And what I'll say is this works really well for about a week and then your brain will get used to sticky notes and you'll never see them again. So you have to move the locations of the sticky notes, but you can just put a sticky note on to slow down. Right? And so what do we do when we are reminded to notice how we're doing? You just sort of take up space in that moment and say, Like, let me take a couple deep breaths.
That would be the first step. Bring some air in into your belly. Just try to take a nice deep breath is the point really. You want yes, your chest to expand a bit, but also your belly. It just takes longer.
And if that doesn't feel good, then find another breath that feels good or just breathe naturally for a few moments. But notice your breath. And then give some intention to how you can slow down. So the question's really like, am I moving fast? Yes or no?
Okay. If and the and the time period in which you'd make that decision is your breaths. Right? K? That's the bridge between between the Is this going the way I want it to or is this not going the way I want it to?
And then if you're moving too fast, I would say Think through all the things you have going on in delay.delay delay delay your responses, delay your reply, delay your communication. Just take a beat. Do not give people twenty four seven access to you, my friend. You will regret that. So slow down.
Just pull back. Right? Maybe get off the technology and take a little break. Maybe have a little snack, delay, spend a few moments in breath and just creating some intention. Around what's gonna come up next.
And listen, if you're really moving too fast and this slowdown is like a light bulb moment for you, you might need to change a lot of things. Right? But what I'll say is if you just start small you'll start to see the big pieces that need to be changed. That's the point. When we slow down, slow your role.
Right? You give opportunity a chance to reveal itself to you. So maybe you're like, I'm working overtime. I'm working all this time at my job. I actually don't really like my boss.
Maybe this stuff starts coming up when you're slowing down. Maybe this stuff starts coming up when you notice. And then you can, like, make some changes there. Maybe you set your little timer and it goes off and you're like, how am I doing? Am I moving faster or slow?
Oh my gosh. Like, I'm feeling so rushed today. I have so much on my plate. Okay? This is the breathing.
You're just breathing. Right, and assessing yourself. So then it's like, okay, how can I slow down? Well, frankly, what can you do later? Right?
Have you had enough time to take care of yourself? Is that part of the reason you're feeling this way? If you slowed down a little bit, could you do that? Yeah. So all these other clear intentions start coming in when we just slow down.
That's it. Just slow down. I hope this is helpful for you. Reach out and let me know. And thanks for listening.
I'll see you next time. Thanks so much for listening to Takeout Therapy. Please forward the podcast along to a friend, or take the time to write a short review. That way more people have access to what's essentially free mental health help, guys. I'd love to connect with you off of social media.
Like for real. One of the ways we can do that is through email. Subscribe to my newsletter so I can keep in touch with you. And of course, I always welcome questions or suggestions. For those of you who have interest in working with me, I specialize in helping people get rid of dysfunctional levels of stress.
Both through my online classes or in person work. Come check out my website at rebekah hunter m s w dot com. Okay. Thanks for playing. Please tip your waitress on the way out the door.
See you next time.
