Slowing Down: A Prescription
for Personal and Community Health

“Faster is better” could be our culture’s byline: fast food, supersonic travel, ultra fast Internet. The demands of everyday life seem to be pushing us to respond with ever increasing urgency.  The ancient coding of our nervous system that enables us to effectively respond to emergencies supports the feeling that slowing down could result in life-threatening consequences.

This kind of activated nervous system condition is all too common. It is at the root of most physical illnesses and emotional overwhelm for the simple reason that it does not allow the body to create the biochemistry needed to heal and repair itself. It is also at the root of communal distress because it sets the lens through which we experience time, ourselves, each other and the world around us.

Through this compressed, speeded up (fight/flight) lens what we encounter becomes a demand, something to manage, defend against or flee from. Loving contact and openhearted flexible way of being is difficult if not impossible in this state. All this creates the perfect environment for interpersonal conflict and suffering.

The prescription for both personal and communal health therefore must include two words: slow down—bring ourselves mindfully into the present moment, by breathing deeply and dropping attention down below the respiratory diaphragm, moving from mental activity more and more into comfortable embodied sensation.

This begins to shift the nervous system to a slower, more settled place, a place of rest and repair. Peripheral vision softens and widens, the heart rate slows, blood pressure may go down, tissues hydrate, compression is relieved and a host of other physiological events take place.

So, too, the lens through which we experience ourselves and the world around us begins to shift to a more open and spacious space, creating an environment for healthy, loving contact.

What we experience in ourselves is often what we create in the world around us. Slowing down is not only a prescription for our personal health but also is necessary for the health of our relationships, families and the larger communities in which we live.