The Sacred Rhythm of Slow - How slowing down opened space for deep healing and lasting joy

Cultivating a slow life was the best thing I ever did to nurture my health, my healing, and my family. But it required intentionality to get to this place.

For so many years, I tried to manage a life of constant busyness. My pace was rush, rush, rush — day in and day out. It felt like all I did was shuffle my kids around, toting them to-and-from private school, a 25-minute commute each way. For several years, when they were on different schedules, I drove this path back-and-forth several times a day. Five years of this wore me down.

The more exhausted I became, the more I noticed a feeling of resistance growing within me — a resistance to this cultural norm demanding “maximize your time” and “cram as much as possible into every minute of your day”.

Then, God began an overturning in my life, calling me to homeschool my kids. One of my top goals was to cultivate a slower life for me and my children. My desire was more white space on the calendar, to be more relaxed with our time—not packing our days with every minute scheduled. I know this was God's leading. He wanted to refine me. Foster growth in me. He was inviting me to allow Him to be my Jehovah-Rapha: God my healer.

You know as well as I do that the word “slow” isn’t a popular one.

But it has far deeper meaning than we realize.

According to the Dictionary App, slow means: made, created, or done in a careful, thorough, or traditional way in order to ensure such benefits as quality, environmental sustainability, or time for mental reflection “quality, environmental sustainability, and time for mental reflection” — for me and my family? 

Are you shouting AMEN with me? 

How often do such things happen for us – as mothers, caregivers, entrepreneurs, ministry and community leaders – automatically? 

Slow is made or created carefully. 

Slow is intentional. 

In order to cultivate this slow life, I devoted myself to growth that would ensure the environmental sustainability of a more peaceful household, with less overwhelm.

Although I have come to cherish the slow life, I’ve often wanted to pick up the pace in my healing process. I've asked God to speed up, feeling like "I should be further ahead", wanting the overturning to be over.

While I had slowed my pace significantly, I was still allowing lots of noise to infiltrate and influence my life. I became especially distracted by social media– you know, the various voices from all different directions that demand your attention. I wandered away from what I knew was true, spiraling back into people-pleasing, entangling myself in comparison, and reverting to my old perfectionistic ways. 

Then I heard God's still voice … inviting me to do something counter-cultural. With the loud voices of hustle culture telling me to “Go faster!”, God spoke to my heart: 

"Go fast — from the world."

"Fast from social media; come away with me to a quieter place. Fast and pray."

FAST... from Social Media? My presence on social media was difficult to surrender. As a coach, I thought my community was on social media; that's where I would teach and pour into people. I feared that if I pulled away I'd lose my followers. But I had resisted God's whisper far too long and needed to step into obedience.

Jesus drew me in gently and affectionately as I fasted and prayed, seeking his direction and wisdom.

My social media fast started with seven days – deleting apps, resisting the urge to start new online conversations, and talking with God instead.

Those seven days turned to fourteen, then a month, then two months.

As the days and months passed, all the loud voices from social media that had been echoing in my head began to fade away. More importantly, God's voice became clearer and more pronounced.

The words of Ecclesiastes 3 embody what God was asking me to do in this fast from Social Media.

• "a time to cast away stones" - A time to let go of all comparison and ignore any voices that said "You SHOULD _________".

• "a time to refrain from embracing" - A time to stop engaging with what the world thinks I should do.

• "and a time to lose" - A time to loosen my grip on my own vision for what my life should look like.

• "time to tear"- A time to grieve and heal

• "a time to keep silence" - A time to abstain and to trust that God is above the arbitrary “rules” of social media.

Friend, God will not shout over the noise that distracts us. We will hear the voice of our Good Shepherd when we slow ourselves and seek him in the silence.

Here in the quiet, we hear the truth of HIS Word, which draws us into greater intimacy with Him– the place our hearts truly long for.  

I encourage you to examine your own heart with these three questions that continue helping me cultivate a slower life.  

1. How can I become more intentional with my time? What forms of busyness have become distractions?

2. Where can I create “white space” in my days and weeks, to rest and be still with God? How can I resist cultural conditioning that tells me I should maximize my time, cramming as much as possible into each day?

3. What might the slow work of God look like in my life? What kind of fast might help me hear God’s voice more clearly? How long will I commit to this fast?

If you've ever resisted the nudge to step away from specific things in your life, I want to encourage you to walk in obedience today. Cultivate a slow life. Follow God’s invitation to “Go fast.”You will be empowered by what God reveals to you during this time. 

This will be a vital step towards the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual healing you’ve been seeking.

About the Author: Melissa MacGregor is a Healthy Lifestyle Mentor and writer passionate about equipping women to cultivate their lives and homes with God-honoring, healthy rhythms. Her devotionals are written from a place of vulnerability and truth, reflecting on the challenges that God has brought her through in her own life and health journey.