Um, when's the last time you slowed down? I want you to think about that. When is the last time you have genuinely, legitimately slowed the heck down? Because I can almost assume that it's been a long time. We live in a world that literally shapes us to live, exist in, and sustain a hustle mentality. That is a very dangerous place to keep yourself in. Your mind, your body, your spirit were not created to be in hustle mode all of the time. It is why you can legitimately get sick inside of your physical body from burnout alone. It is why you can get serious headaches inside of your mind from burnout alone. It is why your spirit can so easily feel at unease. You feel uncomfortable. You feel anxious because you are nonstop hustling. Your spirit can't even overcome the hustle mentality that you're in. It can't help you find peace. It can't help you calm down because your hustle mentality is way too loud. God did not create you to be in hustle mode all the time, but that's where it gets unbelievably hard because we live in a world that basically shapes us to be in hustle mentality all the time to the point where we as human beings need to train ourselves to no longer be in hustle mode to slow down and to go at a healthy, steady pace. You would be amazed at what a healthy, steady pace can do for you when it comes to the success of whatever thing you're trying to put out into the world. When it comes to you having very clear ideas, when it comes to your confidence, when it comes to long lasting peace, when it comes to long lasting joy, when it comes to your physical health, you would be amazed. And you would think that because of all the benefits we can get simply by slowing down, you would think it would be easy for us to implement it, but it's not. It's not in our nature to slow down because we live in a world that tells us differently. We're surrounded by media that tells us differently. We struggle with playing the comparison game where we're constantly seeing people's success and their achievements to the point where it makes us feel like we're not good enough. So we have to hustle, we have to chase, we have to thrive every single day in order to feel like we are enough, in order to achieve that thing, in order to get to that destination that we see. And the funny thing about all that is the answers that you're seeking in regards to your future, the solution that you're looking for, the next step can really only come when you first take the time to slow down. Why is that? Well, there's three aspects to slowing down that I'm learning about. One, the physical body. Two, the mind. Three, the spirit. When your physical body, when your mind, when your spirit are all in this hustle mentality, it feels impossible to slow down. It feels impossible to stop your anxiety, to stop the stress. It feels impossible to get clear. But it's not impossible. You just need to teach yourself to slow the heck down. Because here's what happens when you do. One, going back to the physical body. When you slow down, you give your physical body the permission that it needs to rest. You might not even realize that you are not giving your body permission to simply sit down and to rest. You have to go here. You have to do this. You have to work out. You have to cook dinner. You have to do these tasks for your boss, for your clients, for your customers, for your students. You have to finish this over here. You have to do this home project. You have to work on this creative thing. There are 80, 000 things. That you are making your body do because you are believing that you absolutely have to do them right then and there every single day. You have to hustle your way through that. There is a big difference between working hard and hustle. A person that works hard, works smart. When you work smart, you know that biologically speaking, your body needs rest. It needs genuine sleep. It needs to sit down. It needs a Sabbath day out of your entire seven day week in order to fill itself back up again so that it has enough energy, it can produce enough health to sustain the rest of the week ahead. That. is working hard. You put in great effort, but you're working extremely wisely because you know when to rest your body. Hustle is different. Hustle is when you work hard, but you do not work smart. You work hard in an extremely unhealthy way. You are nonstop. You don't know how to sit down. You don't know how to rest your body. That hustle can lead you to complete depletion. It can lead you to getting sick. It can lead to health problems that could potentially happen in the future all because you did not prioritize being intentional in slowing down now. When you slow down, you give your body permission to rest, to catch up with itself, to restore up enough energy to get through the rest of the week. And that is needed for you to be able to do what you are called to do, to complete what you're wanting to complete, to sustain the life that you have and all the responsibilities that come with it. Second thing, going back to the mind, when you slow down, you give your mind the space it needs to think. To be in constant hustle mode doesn't just mean physical hustle. It also means mental hustle. Your thoughts are nonstop. It is a mess up in there. You have all these thoughts, all these things that you're thinking of. This giant to do list just sitting in your brain, all of these ideas, all of these worries, all of these fears, all of this stress just sitting in there that is on a constant hamster wheel to the point where you feel like you're on this never ending roller coaster that you don't know how to get off of. It's draining. It's exhausting. Your mind cannot think clearly when it is a mess in your thoughts. In order to stop the never ending chaos of your mind, you need to slow down. You need to give your mind the space it needs to think clearly, to organize your thoughts, to minimize what you are making a really big deal in your mind and therefore you're super anxious about it. Minimizing that to something that really isn't that big of a deal. Why isn't it that big of a deal? Because you trust God. And when you slow down, you give your mind the space that it needs to think clearly, to think about that next step, to think about what should be prioritized, to get focused on the right thing right now, rather than the wrong thing. Your mind can't do that. When you are in hustle mode, slow your thoughts. Slow your mind. It can help you get more clear and organized to the point where you have this divine peace throughout your day. Third thing. When you slow down, you give God the room to speak. God cannot speak clearly to you in the way that he wants to when your mind is too loud and when your body is nonstop moving. All of that chaos is so loud. It is so vivid that it quiets the words that God is trying to speak over you. It dims the peace that God is trying to bring to you. This is especially if you're listening to this and you're like, man, I just, I've just been waiting to hear what God wants. I've been wanting answers from him. I feel like God is so distant. I saw this beautiful post on social media once that said, the reason why you feel distant from God is because you moved, not him. He's been right there the whole time. You moved. It may not have been physical movement, but maybe you mentally moved. You're distracted. You pivoted your mind from focusing on God, His kingdom, all that He has for you, trusting Him, having faith in Him, and instead you're now focusing on your human anxious thoughts, your stress, your hustle mode. If you want that divine peace, If you want clarity from God, you gotta give him room. You have to quiet the noise so that you can hear him clearly, so that you can hear him better and you can get more consistent at hearing him more clearly and better every single day because you got dang good at quieting the noise in your mind and quieting the hustle mode that your body naturally wants to go in. When God speaks, you get peace, you get clarity, you rebuild back up your trust again to the point where everything literally feels like it's going to be okay. Even when things do not make sense. Even when you're having financial stress, family stress, personal stress, you know it's all going to be okay. Because you finally gave God the room in the life that he needed to speak into you, to help you, to aid to you. Sometimes, my friend, all you need to do first is slow down. But like I said earlier in this episode, slowing down feels so impossible a lot of times. It's difficult to do that living in the world that teaches otherwise. It's difficult when a lot of times we're just in constant survival mode. We're just trying to keep things afloat, we're just trying to keep ourselves afloat and it gets to the point where you don't know how to get out of hustle mode because you're in that survival mode of keeping yourself and the things around you afloat. But eventually my friend, if you don't slow down, you will sink. Your body, your mind, your spirit can only take so much. I'm truly starting to believe that when you're in hustle mentality all the time, you can't see God. You think you can. But in actuality, you can't because he's hidden beneath the surface of your nonstop chaotic thoughts of your to do list of all the responsibilities that are stressing you out. You are in this hustle space that pulls you away from God without you even recognizing it. Does God call us to work hard? Absolutely. But remember, there is a difference between working hard and being in hustle mode. When you work hard, you are working wisely. You know that you need to rest. You know that you need to fill yourself back up in order to pour back out. When you are in hustle mode, you are not working wisely. You are on nonstop go mode, depleting yourself, and without you even realizing it, going further and further away from God. It's time to change that. It is time to normalize slowing down and allowing that to skyrocket your success. Skyrocket your future skyrocket your growth more than you could have ever imagined. So, I want to talk about how. How do we start slowing down? How do we learn that? How do we get good at that? How do we normalize it in our everyday lives? First thing, you need to practice it in your everyday mundane tasks. I'm talking about those normal things that you do every day. You do it so habitually that you don't even realize it. For example, brushing your teeth. That's a norm for you. Taking your dogs out for a walk. That's a norm for you. Eating throughout the day. That's a norm for you. Mundane tasks that you do every single day because it is so normal. I want you to practice slowing down within those mundane tasks because it starts with what we do every single day that feels so normal to us. You already do it every single day. You now just need to be mindful in slowing down. You actually doing it in order to help you practice and prepare for the bigger variations of slowing down. So the next time you sit down to eat, eat slower. The next time you brush your teeth, Stop rushing your way through it and brush your teeth slower. The next time you're out going for a walk or walking your dogs, walk slower. Practice these habitual things because it's going to help slow down your nervous system so much to the point where you are going to notice that you just feel better. You're going to start to notice that when you slow down through these everyday mundane tasks, it minimizes your anxiety, it minimizes your stress rather than adding on to it because you're going about everything much more quickly than you need to. Just practice it. I was doing this the other day when I was walking my dogs, and I noticed that I was walking so fast. And I had to pause and I had to be like, okay, why am I walking so fast right now? And it was unintentional. It wasn't like I was walking fast to try to burn more calories or anything. I just was walking so fast. And I had to ask myself why? And I realized that it's because I'm thinking about so much on this walk right now, and because I'm thinking about so much that I have to do today, so much that I'm worried about, because my mind is at an all time speed, it's causing my physical body to also be at an all time speed. So now my heart rate is up, my nervous system is up, everything is just chaos. So, I slowed down. I started walking much more slowly and I noticed that as I did, my nervous system slowed. As I did, my anxiety started to go down. As I did, my thoughts started to calm themselves. And I was actually able to enjoy a nice slow walk and intentionally praying to God. Because before when I was walking fast, I couldn't really pray to God because my mind was everywhere. I was too anxious. And when I tried to pray to God, I just, my mind just got way too jumbled. But when I slowed down, I could breathe. My heart rate slowed. I could pray. And I just felt straight up better. So practice it, my friend. It starts with you practicing it in everyday tasks. Notice how fast you go about things, how fast you eat, how fast you walk, how fast you do these everyday normal tasks. Notice that and just slow down a little bit. Just slow down. And because you'll start to feel better when you simply slow down through those mundane tasks, you start to get a glimpse at what it could be like to slow down in the bigger variations of life. Second thing that I'll say in regards to how you can get good at just slowing down. before you speak. And I mean, speak in any regard in a conversation, in a YouTube video, if you're a YouTube video creator in a podcast, if you're a podcast creator in your social media videos, if you're speaking on stage, anytime you have to speak, pause before you do. This gives your mind the space it needs to catch up with what you want to say next. Not only that, but the right thing you want to say next. The wise thing you want to say next. Rather than speeding your way through speaking or responding and then finding yourself messing up your words, hesitating, getting angry, and probably acting out in a way that you wouldn't have acted out had you have taken the intentional time to pause before you speak. This is something that I personally learned a few years back in my career. I was working for a company called ConvertKit. They are now Kit. An amazing company, and my role within the company Was to create educational content for their customers and a part of that educational content was weekly live webinars When I first got into this role and was hosting these live webinars and teaching in them. I Talked so fast When I tell you I was just so nervous and I was trying to say all the things all at once and get through the hour long webinar that I just talked so fast. And it was to the point where I remember people in the live webinar room would type in the chat and say, can you slow down a little bit? You're talking really fast. Or can you go back to that other slide? You're moving too fast. But I didn't realize it because I'm just in this hustle mode and I'm just go, go, going and talk, talk, talking and not taking the time to pause. So, then I started to work on that. I started to practice talking a little more slowly, but then also pausing through every couple of sentences I said. And I remember it felt slow. Like in my mind, I remember being like, man, I'm talking really slow. I'm taking way too long of a pause. But then when I would look back at that webinar replay. It was completely normal. If anything, the pauses that maybe were a little bit long were actually nice because from an attendee perspective, they could have the space to just kind of soak in what I said previously and prepare their mind for what they were about to receive from me based off of what I was about to say next. So it was beneficial on both parts. And I took that skill and I started bringing it into even conversations, even random arguments that I might have with a family member or my fiance. I was terrible at this at first, but honestly, I'm starting to get better where if there is a disagreement happening, I pause before I speak because that was a skill I learned back when I was hosting webinars, and I knew that it was going to help me in conversations where there were differing opinions. Pausing before I spoke helped me to calm down and it helped me to speak more with wisdom and kindness and maturity so that my emotions weren't skyrocketing and completely taking over. So I want you to think about what that could look like for you. If you are a hothead, what does it look like for you to pause before you speak in the next disagreement that you just might be in? If you create YouTube content, what does it look like to pause before you speak in the middle of you creating that video so that you're talking at a good pace, so that you're pausing, you're giving your mind the space that it needs to think of what to say next and how you're going to say it? Even with social media content, honestly, whatever it is where you are speaking, pause before you do. It really helps you calm down and speak from a more wise and mature and confident and prepared headspace. Last thing that I want to say and how you can get good, how you can normalize slowing down. Be aware when you are reaching your limit. Be on guard about it. A lot of times you feel yourself getting tired. You feel yourself burning out before it even happens, But you push beyond that because you just gotta get it done. You just gotta go, go, go and do, do, do. This is hurting you, my friend. It is not helping you. You think that it's great because you're getting that thing done and you're just pushing through when in actuality, you're just exhausting yourself. You're stressing yourself out even more. You're increasing anxiety that does not need to be increased. When you realize that you're starting to feel burnt out. You're starting to feel tired. You're starting to feel over it. You're starting to feel upset. You're starting to feel highly emotional to the point where you're about to cry. Wherever you're at, whether it's work, in a conversation, with family, whatever you're doing in that moment and you feel that coming on, that is you reaching your limit right in that moment. And when you reach your limit, you need to love and respect yourself enough to pull back. For example, if you're working and you had a long day at work and you realize that at 2 p. m. you're about to explode. You're overworked. Something just happened in the workplace that made you upset. You reached your limit. You need to step back. You need to take a break. You need to go out to your car for a minute. You should not force yourself to just push through. It is going to hurt you rather than help you. Your mind telling you to push through and that it is okay to push through is a trick Let's say you're working on your business. You have all these creative ideas. You're working on this project You can't wait to get it out there into the world You notice that as you're working on that project, You're starting to bump into mental roadblocks You're having writer's block. You're having creativity block. You're confused. You're trying to figure this out over here and something's just not clicking, something's not working, and now you're getting frustrated. You need to pull back. Stop pushing through. Stop trying to find the solution right then and there. You need to pull back. If you're in a conversation with someone and you find yourself getting upset, getting heated, getting so mad, you are reaching your limit. You need to pull back. Step away. Get off of your computer. Get off of your phone. Get out of that conversation in a polite and kind way because you know and you recognize that you have reached your limit. This is a beautiful way to help you slow down, to stop getting in this unhealthy habit of overworking, of hustle mode, of feeding your anxiety without you even realizing it. Stop building that habit and start instead building the habit of slowing down. Because like I said towards the beginning of this episode, when you slow down, you give your body permission to rest. in that way it fills back up in order to sustain pouring back out throughout the rest of the week. When you slow down, you give your mind the space it needs to think, to think clearly, to get organized in your thoughts to the point where that light on whatever that next step is is shining so clearly because you finally calmed the chaos in your brain. When you slow down, you give God the room he needs to speak, to provide answers, to provide divine peace, to provide vision that you need to be who he's calling you to be and to do what God is calling you to do. Let's please work on normalizing slowing down. I truly believe that as more people learn the art behind slowing down, they're going to find more internal and external success in their life than they ever could if they were to remain in hustle mode all the time. And I am a living, walking testimony of that. For the first time in my life, I'm being really intentional ah, in slowing down. And it's been good. I'm learning to stop when I need to stop so that I don't overwork. I'm learning to pause before I speak many times. I'm learning to walk more slowly. And most importantly, I am learning to give God more room in my life to speak and to guide me. And I can already tell that I have more clarity and confidence than I've ever had before, all because I'm taking the time to slow down. Slowing down doesn't stop your success. It can accelerate it. Slowing down does not delay you. It catapults you. Slowing down is not wrong. In fact, it's exactly the right thing to do. I am a huge believer in that more and more every single day. Just slow down, my friend. You can do this. I truly believe that you can. Thanks for tuning in. I hope that this encouraged you today. Feel free to share this episode with anyone else that you know is in extreme hustle mode, constantly anxious, constantly worried, constantly wondering what is next, and hence they're in this nonstop chase after it. Share this episode with them to help them realize that slowing down could just be the start of the answer that they're looking for. And if you want more everyday motivation like this, you can follow me on Instagram in the show notes down below where I post content very frequently to help keep you encouraged and motivated throughout the week. I'll see you there, my friend. Until next time.