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We live in a world that celebrates speed. We multitask, rush from one thing to another, and often pride ourselves on how much we can cram into a day. But what if this very need for speed is not just a lifestyle choice—but a nervous system pattern rooted in unresolved trauma?
The real issue is not just about being fast. It’s about not being able to slow down.
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Many of us are caught in a loop of doing, fixing, managing—constantly moving, constantly on. We tell ourselves it’s about efficiency or ambition, but often, beneath that speed is something deeper: a nervous system stuck in survival mode.
Trauma doesn’t just come from what happened. It comes from what happened too much, too soon, too fast for the body to process.
And in that moment of overwhelm, the nervous system makes a simple but powerful decision: move fast, stay ahead, don’t stop because stopping might be dangerous.
So we keep going. We keep doing. We keep moving. Until the cost shows up as anxiety, burnout, disconnection, chronic tension, or even physical pain.
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One of the most misunderstood truths in trauma healing is that the mind and the body operate at different speeds. The mind is quick—it wants to analyze, understand, label, move on. But the body? It’s slower. Much slower.
The body needs time. It needs space. It needs permission to feel. And most importantly, it needs to feel safe enough to let go.
When we try to heal trauma by thinking our way through it, we often miss the mark. Because healing doesn’t come from speed—it comes from presence. And presence only arises when we slow down enough to actually notice what’s happening inside us.
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Slowing down is not laziness. It’s not indulgence.
It’s a radical act of nervous system regulation.
When we slow down—whether it’s eating, walking, breathing, or simply observing—we create a space where the body no longer feels under threat. That space allows the nervous system to do what it couldn’t do during the trauma: complete the stress cycle and release the held energy.
You might notice:
• A deeper breath.
• A spontaneous yawn or sigh.
• A softening in your shoulders.
• A sense of “coming back” to yourself.
These are not small things. These are your body’s thank you notes for choosing slowness.
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Healing doesn’t have to be grand or dramatic. Sometimes, it’s in the little things:
• Taking one full minute to feel your feet on the ground.
• Looking around the room and naming what you see.
• Eating your next bite just a little slower.
• Pausing before replying to a message.
In Somatic Experiencing, we call this resourcing. These tiny actions anchor you back into your body, back into safety, and away from the automatic patterns of fight, flight, or freeze.
And often, it’s in these micro-moments that the biggest shifts occur.
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You don’t have to fix everything. You don’t need to rush your healing.
Your body already knows how to find its way back—you just have to give it the time and space to do so.
So try this: pick one activity today—just one—and do it slower than usual.
Watch what happens.
You might just discover that slow is not the opposite of fast.
It’s the way forward.
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