Slowing Down: Finding Stillness Through Somatic Wisdom
In our modern world, everything seems to be moving at breakneck speed: the news cycle is relentless, emails pile up in our inboxes, and we scroll through social media as though we’re running after the next moment of affirmation or distraction. Yet, ironically, the more urgent our times feel, the more we need to slow down. As Nigerian philosopher and writer Bayo Akomolafe reminds us, “the times are urgent, let us slow down.” This call to deceleration is not simply about easing off the gas pedal; it’s about attuning ourselves to a deeper rhythm — one we can learn to sense through our bodies, our nervous systems, and our felt experience. In doing so, we awaken to new perspectives and possibilities that frantic mental activity alone can never fully grasp.
Somatic therapy provides a framework for understanding why slowing down is not just a luxury, but a necessity. Somatic modalities help us tune into the innate intelligence of our bodies. Rather than pushing us toward quick fixes, they encourage a deliberate, measured pace — one that respects the body’s capacity to process life’s challenges without overwhelm.
The Urgency Trap: Why We Rush
Before we delve into the art of slowing down, it’s essential to understand why we’re so drawn to speed. On the surface, speed offers efficiency, productivity, and the illusion of control. If we just move fast enough, we reason, maybe we can outrun our discomfort, avoid our vulnerabilities, and solve problems before they become crises. There’s a short-lived relief in action, in doing more, in pushing forward. But underneath this, our nervous systems might be caught in a chronic state of fight-or-flight, bracing against perceived threats — whether that’s an upcoming deadline, global instability, or unresolved emotional pain.
Speed can be a defense against feeling. If we keep busy, we might avoid noticing what hurts. Yet this strategy comes at a cost. Our bodies can’t sustain these heightened states indefinitely, and we risk burnout, dissociation, or numbness. By investing so heavily in urgency, we end up more disconnected from ourselves and less able to respond creatively to life’s true demands.
The paradox is that to handle the intensity of a rapidly changing world, we need deeper emotional reserves, clearer insight, and steadier grounding. These resources aren’t found by moving faster; they’re accessed by learning how to slow down, tune in, and be present — to ourselves, to each other, and to the ecosystems in which we live.
Bayo Akomolafe’s Wisdom: Slowing Down for Deeper Seeing
Bayo Akomolafe’s invitation to slow down in the face of urgency is more than a self-help slogan. It’s a philosophical and spiritual provocation. He suggests that our frantic attempts to fix the world’s problems might actually reproduce the conditions that created them. By rushing, we remain locked in old paradigms, missing subtle cues, alternative perspectives, and emergent possibilities that can only arise when we soften our gaze and quiet our pace.
To slow down, in this sense, is to step into a different dimension of knowing. Instead of slicing through life’s complexity with the sharp blade of speed, we linger, listen, and allow complexity to speak. In that slowing, we discover nuance and interconnectedness. We might find that what appeared urgent and external is also internal and relational — that healing the world requires healing our relationship to our own nervous systems, our own breath, and the rhythms of the natural world. Slowing down aligns with a more sustainable approach: we don’t have to tear through the landscape of our lives; we can gently float, navigate, and sense where the current might lead us if we let it.
Somatic Experiencing and the River of Life
Somatic Experiencing, developed by trauma therapist Peter Levine, offers a map for how to slow down in a way that honors the body’s wisdom. One of the central metaphors in SE is the “river of life” — envisioning our life energy as a flowing river that can encounter rocks, falls, and obstacles. Trauma and stress can cause our nervous system to get stuck in certain patterns: raging rapids of hyper-arousal (anxiety, panic, agitation) or the stagnant shallows of hypo-arousal (numbness, depression, collapse).
To navigate our inner river effectively, we must approach it not with violent force, but with gentle curiosity. Imagine placing your foot into a swiftly flowing stream: if you rush in too quickly, you risk losing your balance. But if you pause at the river’s edge, dip your toe, feel the temperature, notice the current’s speed, and gradually wade deeper, you find a stable, integrated way to meet the water. This is the essence of titration, a core principle in somatic therapy.
Titration: The Art of Going Slow
In somatic modalities, titration refers to the careful, incremental approach to processing intense feelings or sensations. Instead of diving headfirst into emotional pain or body memory, we move slowly, taking in just a manageable “dose” of feeling at a time. Then we step back, observe, and integrate what we’ve learned. This stands in stark contrast to our cultural emphasis on “pushing through” discomfort. In titration, the goal is not to conquer distress through force, but to gently lean into it, moment by moment, until we gain stability, resilience, and newfound understanding.
Why is this so important? Our nervous systems are designed for survival, not just thinking. When we move too fast or force ourselves to process too much, we exceed our capacity, leading to overwhelm and shutdown. Titration respects the natural pace of healing. By slowing down, we allow ourselves to notice subtle shifts in bodily sensations, emotions, and impulses. We give ourselves the chance to respond to what emerges rather than react out of habit.
This slow, measured approach is not weakness; it’s wise resilience. Much like building strength by lifting lighter weights repeatedly rather than overloading with a too-heavy barbell, titration helps us develop inner resources gradually. Over time, we become more able to handle life’s challenges without collapsing or panicking.
Finding Somatic Stillness in Everyday Life
Slowing down isn’t only for therapy sessions or meditation retreats. We can practice it in the midst of our daily routines. How?
Pause Between Tasks: Before moving from one activity to the next, pause for a few breaths. Notice your body. Feel your feet on the ground. Sense the rise and fall of your belly. This brief interlude can restore a sense of presence and help prevent unconscious rushing.
Micro-Titration of Emotions: When a strong feeling arises — frustration in traffic, fear when reading the news, sadness when recalling a painful memory — pause. Instead of analyzing or suppressing it, pay attention to the sensations in your body. Where do you feel tension or warmth? Is your breath shallow or full? Commit just a few moments to befriending that sensation before you do anything else.
Nature as Teacher: Spending time in nature can naturally slow our pace. Listen to a stream, watch clouds drift, or follow the slow growth of a plant over days and weeks. Nature reminds us that life doesn’t rush to meet artificial deadlines, and that lasting change unfolds in its own rhythm.
Somatic Check-Ins: Set a reminder on your phone a few times a day to simply tune into your body. What’s your posture like? Are you hungry, thirsty, or tense? By regularly checking in, you build a bridge between body and mind, ensuring that you don’t get swept away by external pressures without noticing your own internal state.
Trauma, Urgency, and Slow Healing
When working through trauma — whether personal or collective — slowing down becomes even more crucial. Trauma overwhelms the nervous system’s natural capacity to process stress. Recovery requires creating a safe, stable environment, both internally and externally, where we can gradually revisit and integrate what happened.
In a world that feels increasingly volatile, we are all touched, to some degree, by collective trauma: environmental crises, social injustices, and the lingering effects of a global pandemic. Our bodies might carry subtle residues of fear, anger, or grief. Addressing these not by forcing ourselves to “get over it” but by slowly, gently engaging with what arises can foster meaningful healing. Slowing down, in this sense, is a radical act. It resists the pressure to normalize chaos and instead invites us to metabolize it fully.
Bayo Akomolafe’s Invitation: Surrendering to Mystery
Slowing down also invites us into a dimension of mystery, a space where not everything can be solved or understood through linear logic. Bayo Akomolafe suggests that when we rush to fix, we might close ourselves off from what’s truly needed. Sometimes, the medicine is not in the frantic search for solutions but in the tender, uncertain space of being with what is.
We might not have immediate answers to the big questions our times pose: How do we heal centuries of injustice? How do we stop climate breakdown? How do we bridge political divides? These are urgent matters, but if we remain in a perpetual state of alarm, we may lack the grounded creativity to dream new solutions into being.
Slowing down opens the door to deeper listening — listening to communities, ecosystems, ancestors, and the voices within us that have been hushed by the noise of modern life. In that listening, we may discover alternative ways of knowing and responding that are more holistic, relational, and sustaining.
Movement, Stillness, and Somatic Flow
Slowing down doesn’t mean becoming static or passive. It’s more like learning to move in harmony with life rather than fighting its currents. The river of life flows, and slowing down doesn’t mean damming it up. Instead, it means we enter the current with sensitivity and care. We experiment, adjust our pace, and learn to navigate rapids without drowning or losing ourselves to the rush.
Somatic practices like gentle yoga, qi gong, or slow walking meditations can help integrate stillness and movement. These practices teach us that moving slowly and mindfully can be invigorating rather than dull. There’s sensuality in the subtle shifts of weight across our feet, beauty in the quiet roll of our shoulders, and richness in noticing how a breath expands and contracts our ribcage.
By reconnecting with these simple pleasures, we remind ourselves that life is not only about outcomes and goals. It’s about how we inhabit each moment, how we engage with ourselves and others, and how we remain open to change without losing our center.
Collective Implications: A New Cultural Rhythm
Slowing down is not simply a personal wellness hack. It has collective implications. When communities learn to slow down, they may engage in more thoughtful deliberation, more compassionate dialogue, and more sustainable decision-making. Groups that rush to achieve solutions often reinforce the power structures and patterns that caused the problems. But communities that allow space for all voices to be heard, that treat conflict and difficulty as opportunities for learning rather than emergencies to be extinguished, can evolve more resiliently.
The art of slowing down, informed by somatic principles, can serve social justice and environmental healing. It fosters empathy by expanding our capacity to feel and respond rather than react impulsively. It encourages us to attune to subtle signals from ecosystems and marginalized communities that are often overlooked in the rush. When we slow down collectively, we become more receptive to the whispers of change and the wisdom that resides in complexity.
Integrating Slowness into Daily Practice
As you move forward, consider how you can bring this ethos of slowing down into your life. There is no one-size-fits-all formula; each person’s nervous system, history, and environment are unique. The following guidelines might help:
Embrace Gentle Curiosity: Instead of criticizing yourself for feeling rushed or overwhelmed, approach your inner experience with kindness. Ask: What happens if I slow down right now? What do I notice?
Create Micro-Rituals: Rituals can anchor slowing down in your life. Perhaps it’s lighting a candle before starting work, taking three conscious breaths before eating, or writing in a journal for five minutes at the start or end of the day.
Seek Support: Somatic therapists, counselors, or trauma-informed practitioners can provide guidance in titrating your experiences and navigating your river of life more skillfully. Professional support can help you trust the process of slowing down and staying present with complexity.
Practice Patience and Perseverance: Habits of urgency don’t dissolve overnight. Commit to a practice of slowing down over weeks, months, and years. Notice the subtle transformations that emerge.
Conclusion: The Power of Slowing Down
In a world that insists on constant acceleration, slowing down is both a profound act of resistance and a path to deeper healing. By learning to titrate our experience and listen to the subtle language of our bodies, we create conditions for transformation that no amount of rushing could ever produce. Inspired by Bayo Akomolafe’s reminder that “the times are urgent, let us slow down,” we can reorient ourselves toward presence, possibility, and embodied wisdom.
When we slow down, we discover that urgency is not a command to run faster, but an invitation to be more present. We learn to navigate life’s river — not by clinging to the banks or drowning in the rapids, but by finding our footing, moment by moment, in the gentle pace our bodies need. In doing so, we become more resilient, compassionate, and creative, capable of responding to the world’s challenges with clarity and heart.
Want to dive deeper with me? Click here to ask me any questions or book a session!
References and Further Reading:
Akomolafe, B. (2018). The times are urgent, let us slow down. Bayo Akomolafe. Retrieved from https://bayoakomolafe.net
Akomolafe, B. (2017). These wilds beyond our fences: Letters to my daughter on humanity’s search for home. North Atlantic Books.
Greater Good Science Center. (n.d.). The power of slowing down: How mindfulness fosters resilience. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved from https://greatergood.berkeley.edu
Levine, P. A. (2010). In an unspoken voice: How the body releases trauma and restores goodness. North Atlantic Books.
Odell, J. (2019). How to do nothing: Resisting the attention economy. Melville House.
You May Also Like:
The Gentle Path of Letting Be: Finding Freedom in Allowing What Is
