Hi Friend,
It’s officially summer! ☀️
The season that should feel like an exhale, yet some how some days can still feel like a sprint. The days are longer, the light is softer…the world is literally telling us to hang out in the sun a bit more.
And yet, I can find myself eating lunch in 20 minutes (barely chewing my food), listening to a podcast on 1.5x speed (what am I trying to rush through so quickly!?) and just finding myself in those small ways still rushing through life.
So as an active form of self love and care, I’m calling this my summer of slow. 🌊
And I mean the tiny, little moments of slow. Not all of us can go vacation in Italy this summer 😀 but we can all find small ways to bring that slow European lifestyle into our every day. Enjoying my coffee outside without multi-tasking. Taking the scenic route not the one that gets me to my destination the quickest. Letting the pace of my walk just be that much slower. Really giving myself a chance to slow down the pace of life so that my nervous system has a chance to breathe a little.
If you’re with me, how will you be slowing down today? Respond to this email and let me know. 🔆
Rachel
📖 Know
Research shows that even one 5‑minute session of deep, slow breathing can increase vagal tone/heart rate variability (a marker of parasympathetic “rest-and-digest” activity) and reduce state anxiety — basically, your body gets a measurable “safe to exhale” signal. One study in Scientific Reports found a single 5‑minute deep-and-slow breathing exercise improved HRV and anxiety outcomes in both younger and older adults.
Reference: Scientific Reports, 2021: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-98736-9
🌱 Begin
Pick one ordinary moment today and turn it into a “slow moment”. Here are some ideas to start with:
☕️ Coffee / tea: take your first three sips without doing anything else (no phone, no multitasking).
🚶♀️ Walking somewhere: leave your phone in your pocket and notice 5 things you can see and hear.
🍽️ Lunch: take 10 slow chews of your first bite and let your shoulders drop on the exhale.
🧠 The “one-tab” rule: for the next task you do, keep one tab/window open and do it start-to-finish without bouncing aroun
⛰️ Explore
It’s a good time to check in with yourself and see where you might be off balance in life.
✨ Reflect
“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” — Lao Tzu
Where in your life are you hurrying and what would it look like to trust that one small “slow” choice today is enough?
📍 Currently…
A curated collection of interesting articles, interviews, products that are currently on my radar.
💫 What exactly is burnout?
💫The secret to a long life by Jane Goodall
💫 I’ve been really loving these masks by Rael. My skin feels incredibly hydrated afterward!
💫 It’s sometimes so fun to look back at older videos and remember certain moments. Maybe some more vlogging is in my future 🙂
💫 How to get happier as you age.
🤗 Support
Thank you for being here 🫶 If you'd like to support the growth of this free newsletter, here are a few ways below… ⤵️
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