Speaker 1: 0:06

Welcome, welcome to Slow Down Sunday, on the sweet spot where science meets soul. I'm Dr Derek Sweet, I'm your host and, for those of you who don't know me, I'm a board certified psychiatrist and my background is in high performance and sports psychiatry. All week long we've been really tackling the whole idea that we can transcend our fears, our anxieties, our hesitations. And on Making Moves Monday, we saw how we can push past inertia to go into making a move. On Take Action Tuesday, we took that into concrete action. Win it All Wednesday, we saw what perseverance does and how it helps us win. Trust Yourself Thursday was all about digging deeper within to understand that what lies in us is so much bigger than what's in front of us or behind us. We saw Finish Strong Friday, the idea that it's not just about being first across the finish line, it's about getting up every time we fall. And boy did we take a cosmic journey yesterday. On Self-Care Saturday, where we saw that the universe is not just something we look at on the outside, but it's inside of us which brings us here. To Slow Down Sunday, where it's our weekly reminder to pause, to breathe and reconnect with ourselves. And today we're exploring the science of slowing down, drawing inspiration not just from nature, but also from the fascinating world of motion and physics and remarkable individuals who shaped the understanding of the universe today. I thought that that would make so much sense for us, because yesterday we spent some time in the cosmos. So I want to think of you as my partner today as we go on the journey of slowing down.

Speaker 1: 2:09

Think of a pendulum. It swings back and forth and back and forth, constantly in motion, right? Yet if you're really observing the pendulum, there's a point in its swing. It's just a fleeting moment where it seems to pause and hang, suspended, before changing directions. That point, that still point, is where all the energy converges, where that potential energy transforms itself into kinetic energy, and then back again, just like a pendulum. Our lives are filled with these constant motion moments, but it's in those moments of stillness, actually the moments where we slow down, that we find our truest selves, that we find our center, that we find our balance.

Speaker 1: 3:11

We live in a culture that glorifies being busy. You know that, where we're constantly on the move, we're told to hustle, we're told to grind, we push ourselves to the limit, we're constantly on our phones, so we're upregulated all the time. But what if true productivity and true creativity actually stems from the opposite, from slowing down, from giving ourselves the space to breathe, to reflect and to simply be the space to breathe, to reflect and to simply be. Think about the concept of inertia in physics, an object in motion tends to stay in motion and an object at rest tends to stay at rest. And you know, our minds are no different. When we're constantly bombarded with information, with stimuli, with demands in our attention, it's hard, it's super hard to break that momentum. Have you ever tried to put your cell phone down when you're scrolling? It's so hard. I speak from experience.

Speaker 1: 4:21

So slowing down on Slow Down Sunday here, is all about overcoming that inertia, right, that idea that whatever's happening is going to keep happening. It's about consciously choosing to shift gears, to cultivate a state of mental rest. That's the whole idea, idea and we have examples of this in history where a woman like Katherine Johnson you know her, the famous African-American female mathematician, the one whose calculations were absolutely critical to NASA's early human space flights and missions and yet she did all this at a time when computers were still in their infancy. She meticulously calculated trajectories, she ensured the safe return of many astronauts from orbit and even the moon. Her work was so vital that astronauts like John Glenn specifically requested that she be the one to double-check the computer-generated calculations before their flights. You know, I just imagine her there, this powerful African-American woman, so intellectual, so smart and at the same time so focused, sitting there in the quiet, contemplating and thinking in her moments of stillness, just being able to think through all those computations. That, my friend, is the power of when you slow down, to focus and dedicate yourself to your purpose.

Speaker 1: 6:07

So I'm not just saying slow down and do nothing that's important, because there are moments of stillness that we do need. But then there's time for reflection, for stillness so that your genius, whatever God has put you here on this earth to do, can surface. And I know there are moments that you've had when you were still, that you got the answer. And as you think about the natural world, the tides, they ebb and flow, the seasons change, day turns into night and night into day Everything in nature operates according to some kind of rhythm or cycle of activity and rest, and we too are part of this natural rhythm. We too are a part of this cycle. You sleep and you wake up, it gets light and then it gets dark. Our bodies and our minds. They need time to recover, to recharge and to find their own still point. Think of the pendulum. So how do you find your still point? Think of the pendulum, so how do you find your still point?

Speaker 1: 7:18

It's not about stopping all activity. That's not what I'm saying. It's about consciously choosing to slow down, to be present in this moment, to listen to the sound of my voice, to be so connected with me in this moment that you're reconnecting to yourself. So here's your challenge I want you to schedule some time for doing nothing. You ever hear the statement do nothing and accomplish everything. I want you to try that on for a couple of minutes. It might seem counterintuitive to you, but trust me, it's powerful.

Speaker 1: 7:55

Turn off your phone if you can Close the laptop for a minute or two and simply be present in the moment, listen to the sounds around you in the room, observe the world without judgment and allow yourself to just be in this moment. Do you know how hard that can be sometimes? Because you can be so plugged into your phone, plugged into your activity, that when you have nothing to do for like two to three minutes, it can feel odd, but remember, slowing down isn't about being lazy, it's about cultivating inner peace. It's about enhancing your creativity, finding your center in the middle of all the chaos, giving your blood pressure and your heart rate and your breathing a chance to equilibrate. All right now.

Speaker 1: 8:47

This is Dr Derek Sweet. Thank you for joining me here on Slow Down Sunday. I hope you find a minute to slow down, or two minutes to take everything off and just be with yourself for two to three minutes, and please share this episode with someone who needs it, someone who needs a reminder to find their still point. Let's create a world where we honor the rhythm of rest and renewal and where the contributions of individuals like I mentioned, katherine Johnson are celebrated and remembered. All right, this is Dr Sweet. If you'd like more, please feel free to join me on LinkedIn, on Instagram I'm also on YouTube Threads and X, take care. So I look forward to seeing you for Making Moves Monday. Can't wait to see where we go next week. Thank you.