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Slow down!
- Gretchen Strand
- Nov 20, 2025
- 2 min read
Over the past few years, I have come to realize something that has completely changed the pace of my life: slowing down is not the same thing as falling behind.
We live in a world that celebrates constant motion. Hustle harder. Stay busy. Work late. Be productive. “You can rest when you’re successful.” It becomes a race that no one actually wins, because the finish line keeps moving.
For the longest time, I bought into that. If I wasn’t exhausted, I wasn’t doing enough. If I wasn’t racing toward the next goal, I was wasting time. Slowing down felt like losing.
But then life forced me to pause. And in the pause, I realized how much I had been missing.
When we move too fast, we stop seeing the life happening right in front of us. We rush through our mornings, power through our tasks, blink and somehow another week has passed. We miss sunsets, conversations, quiet moments, small details, and the simple joy of being alive. We start living in the next five years instead of the next five minutes.
But slowing down has taught me that rest is not quitting. It is resetting. It is allowing your mind and body to breathe long enough to notice the beauty that was there all along. It is realizing that the world will not fall apart if you take a night off, say no, or choose peace over pressure.
Slowing down has given me clarity, presence, appreciation, and a healthier relationship with my own ambition. I am still driven, and I still have goals, but I am no longer sprinting my way through the journey. Life is too valuable to be lived purely on fast-forward.
There is power in choosing a slower pace. In putting your phone down. In eating a meal without rushing. In walking instead of running. In listening fully. In pausing long enough to say, “Look at where I get to be today.”
Some days are productive. Some days are restful. Both are necessary.
Success is not how fast you move. Success is how deeply you live. Slowing down doesn’t mean you’re losing time. It means you’re finally tasting it. And life is a lot sweeter that way.
Brilliant perspective, moving.
Maybe slowing down sometimes is the only true way to realize which parts of our lives were never meant to be rushed through. Hydrangeas remind me of that. Their colors change depending on the environment they’re in. If they turn blue, it means the environment is too acidic, hence detrimental to the overall health of the flower. In the chaos of life, a fading blue hydrangea may seem like a lost cause. A once-beautiful flower, to be eventually removed, replaced, and forgotten. Though in other gardens, with proper patience, care, timeliness, and a stable environment, it is salvageable, although it can still be challenging. It often makes me wonder how strange it is that flowers often don’t…