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Slow Down Slowly - Instead of a temporary change, one that affects body and spirit.
Some neighborhood signs show children running, with the admonition, “Slow Down.” Traffic laws require that drivers slow down for various traffic situations and circumstances. We who are busy with many things are urged by health care professionals as well as by friends and many organizations that encourage sound spiritual practices, to slow down. Putting on the brakes when driving a car fulfills the letter of the advisories and the law, but is not nearly as beneficial as looking ahead, and taking the gas-saving measure of slowing down slowly. As for slowing down for peace of mind and all-around physical, mental, and spiritual health, most of us have found that metaphorically putting on the brakes is not sufficient. When we slow down slowly, we become personally responsive, taking ourselves seriously about meeting our needs realistically.
On the surface, the difference between walking quickly and walking slowly is only about speed. But consciously choosing to let go of anxious thinking that is likely the cause for moving at a pace that is faster than necessary is to slow down slowly: a decision to take care of oneself for the sake of being able to think and act more freely from the heart rather than an unreflective sense of urgency.
Simply by the fact of slowing down, whether walking, writing, or engaged in almost any activity, our heart rate will physically diminish. But when we take on fully an attitude of trust in the value of going slowly, we do so as whole people, physically, mentally and spiritually. We progress from slowing down temporarily to moving slowly enough as a practice to stay in touch with the movements of inspiration and composed thinking that enable us to be more practically efficient and to be more effective in whatever we do.
We might have learned by reflecting on our experience, that when we pray, slowing down slowly is an important progression. When we turn to God in a communal or in a private setting by saying prayers, we slowdown from thinking about our occupations, concerns and all that occupies us, which is certainly beneficial. Yet, we might sense a need for something that will be more profoundly helpful, healing, or consoling. That is when we engage the internal process of slowing down slowly, consciously choosing to let go of control, entering a more personally satisfying and notably deeper interior space where God is present not so much in the words of prayers but inside our desires, hopes, and all that concerns us. Not only do our heart rates diminish, but also our thinking. In addition, our attention is drawn gently from complete involvement with our immediate concerns to an awareness of being in the warm, accepting presence of God.
Rather than obeying a rule to “slow down,” we find ourselves slowly drawn into Love.
Last Updated 5/16/2026