Allegedly, moving slowly is yet another way to calm the nervous system. I think I first came across this idea in a short-form video where a flash of text crossed the screen, hovering over an image of a person going about their day. This text would say, “slow down,” after which, the individual would be relieved of all this tension – their shoulders would drop, they would unclench their grip from the steering wheel (how they were filming while driving, I still don’t know).
It was, as most short-form videos are, dramatic. Though my feed has a good amount of content from actual therapists because I like to tell myself that doomscrolling isn’t so bad when you get psychology tips every ten reels, I was skeptical of this particular trick because it seemed too easy. So, I scrolled past onto another reel of some guy grabbing snakes in the everglades and promptly went back into a state of thoughtless social media use. How horribly Gen Z of me.
A while later, I was washing my dishes and heard a voice in the back of my mind telling my hands to slow down. The plate I was washing sagged, freed from a death grip. My shoulders, much as those in the video, dropped. I wondered briefly about confirmation bias, if I was only reacting this way because I’d been primed a few days before, but the same sequence kept repeating: I’d go about my day, then I’d remember to slow down. I didn’t realize how often I walked to places a little too quickly or washed my hands with too much fervor. I wouldn’t go so far as to say this calmed my nervous system, but it definitely made me more aware of what tension I was carrying, and awareness is always a good first step.
On the topic of awareness, I have a habit of holding onto things with a little too much attention (think of that dinner plate in a death grip, but this time, the plate is a memory; the tighter you hold, the more likely it’ll slip or break). In practice, I have a bad habit of sticking to a path once I’ve started down it – a wonderful tactic for projects and passions; a dubious strategy in the context of daily living. More particularly, this habit has kicked me in the face many times during course registration, turning the add/drop period into a conquest of personal pride and willpower rather than what it really is: A period during which to decide which classes to add and drop (who would’ve guessed). Last semester, I bit into my workload a little too hard.
In an effort to learn from my mistakes, this time around I took the add/drop period for what it was. I dropped a class that would’ve taken more time than I could spare. All of a sudden, I had nine extra hours in a week that I could dedicate to slowing down and living. After I dropped that class, the thought of working on personal goals during the school year didn’t seem daunting and scary so much as it seemed achievable. More nights than not, I’ve been able to rest; miracle of miracles, I’ve consistently eaten breakfast.
Growing up, I felt that I was on a fast-moving train. The best I could do, it seemed, was to hurtle myself into the future fast enough that the acceleration of the world around me wouldn’t have the time to push me out of control. I spent middle school and most of high school helping to sort through the legalities of divorce court and the messiness of growing up; schoolwork was something clearer and, often, easier. Over time, working constantly through a problem, academic or personal, became my norm, rather than a necessity. So it does not come naturally for me to slow down.
But I’ve come to recognize that habit doesn’t equate necessity and doing something in a way that is familiar or instinctual doesn’t always mean that thing is done right. Growth, it seems, comes in (jaggedly) equal parts learning and unlearning. Easy though it may appear, this lesson I’m trying to digest is far from simple. Still, it’s helpful that it’s somewhat distillable into one phrase. Any time I find myself on that train of fear and pressure, hurtling away from the present, I am able to bring myself back with two kind words: Slow down.
Kaitlin Tan is a junior from Manila, Philippines majoring in Writing Seminars and Cognitive Science. She is a Magazine Editor for The News-Letter. In her column, she tries to parse through the everyday static for something to hold onto.
