Beautiful souls. Pressure collapses time. The universe expands it. And that difference matters more than we think. Sweet spotters, you're listening to Slow Down Sunday here on the Sweet Spot. I'm Dr. Derek Sweet. I'm a board certified psychiatrist, as you know, but more than that, I am your partner across the coffee table of life, sitting with you today to help conclude the inquiry we've been doing all week about pressure. Who you become after pressure. This is the final episode. Who you become after pressure. Seeing yourself at the right scale. Because perspective changes everything. So we started off by seeing pressure collapses time. That's what it does. It tries to shrink it, it tries to make this moment more pressurized than it really is. Yeah. Let's slow down and think about what happened for us this week. This week, we went in on pressure. We didn't rush, we didn't hype, we paid attention to pressure. Let's remember what actually shifted for us this week. I always like to recap on Sunday because sometimes we're too busy to catch every episode. But if you listen to Sunday, at least you should get a sense of what occurred on the sweet spot regarding this series, who we become after pressure. What happened on Monday, for example, on Making Moves Monday? We didn't just say that pressure changes you. We named that pressure doesn't ruin character, it reveals character. When you're under pressure, you're revealed. It strips away who you thought you had to be and exposes what actually holds you together when the pressure is heavy. You want to learn about somebody? Watch them under pressure. On Take Action Tuesday, we didn't talk about doing more alone. We learned how to move without panicking, how to take one responsible step instead of trying to solve everything at once when the nervous system is jacked up and loud and time just feels so tight and shrinked, and we're really making rushed decisions. We learned to slow down. So on Wednesday, with it all Wednesday, the meaning of winning was changed. When we stopped confusing volume with strength, doing more doesn't mean that we're stronger or that we're winning. We learned that holding your ground instead, especially when things feel shaky or unfair, that that's its own kind of winning. Being able to stand your ground. Trust yourself Thursday, we deepened the trust. We saw that trust doesn't disappear after pressure, it matures, it stops announcing itself, it becomes quieter, cleaner, selective, more selective. It starts watching for patterns. Remember that? And on Friday, Finish Strong Friday, we said the fatigue holds information, fatigue holds the truth. The fatigue is not about weakness, but about what could no longer be carried the old way. We learned that finishing strong doesn't mean hardening, it means refining what you carry forward and letting exhaustion inform your wisdom. Yeah. By Saturday, rest stopped being about energy and became about reclamation. Remember, reclaiming all the parts of yourself that you needed and taking back those parts of yourself so that urgency no longer runs your show. And that brings us here, beautiful soul, to Sunday. Because what you haven't done yet is step far back enough to see yourself differently. And that's Sunday's job here on the sweet spot. It's not about motivation, it's not about recovery, it's about perspective. Sunday, slow down Sunday is gonna answer the question we don't even realize we're asking. How big is the moment I'm in, really? Because pressure is not truthful. Pressure actually lies about the scale and the size of things, it makes the moment feel permanent. That's a lie. It makes the pain feel definitive. That's a lie. It makes loss or losing feel final. That's not true, and it makes any mistake you make feel like it shapes your identity and who you are, and that's a lie. Pressure lies. Pressure says this is everything, but perspective, perspective has a completely different look at things. It says no, this is something, but it's not everything. Always try to have perspective when you are facing pressure. Let's borrow some wisdom from the universe for a moment. On Slowdown Sunday, we always get spooky and we go into the astrophysics. When astronomers look at the distant stars, they don't see them as we're seeing them as they are now. Light takes a long time to travel, and by the time we're seeing it, the thing has already exploded and traveled. Which means the universe is constantly reminding us of something very profound. What you see is never the whole story. Not in space, not in time, not even in your life. Some of the hardest moments you've lived through are already further behind you than they feel. A big part of living is putting the past in the past where it belongs. Things might feel closer than they seem, you just don't have enough distance yet to see it for what it really is, for how far away it really is. Yeah, because when you're under pressure, it's narrowing your perspective, it's collapsing time, it's pulling your attention inward, it's magnifying your threats, it's slowing down your ability to really get a broader perspective. So when you grab a deeper perspective, you begin to rescale. When you take the deep breath, the brain can exit survival mode, and your prefrontal cortex, the brain's CEO, can come back online. You can regain access to memories and meanings and orientations that you don't have when you're under stress, pressure, and anxiety. You don't calm down because you're constantly replaying the same thing over and over again. Part of it is to take a breath, part of it is to let go so that you can see more clearly. In the message Bible, don't worry, KJV is coming today for sure. In the message Bible, the psalmist praise God, let me see how short my life is, so I'll see how fleeting it is. Now let's hear it in the KJV. Same thing. Lord, make me to know mine end and the measure of my days. What it is that I may know how frail I am. This is not about despair when you hear these things about being frail and how fleeting life is. It's not about despair. This is not about self-erasure. This is about clarity. The psalmist isn't asking God to make life meaningless. What the psalmist is asking is to make it more accurate. The word frail here doesn't really mean weak, it means finite, limited, human. He's praying, don't let me mistake this moment for eternity. Pressure does that. That's the lie pressure will tell you that this is the only moment and it's the last thing, and then everything is gonna collapse on you. That's what pressure does. That's the lie it tells. In Jewish wisdom, they have a teaching. Two notes that I've seen. One is for my sake, the world was created. Two, I am but dust and ashes. They're not contradictions, they're calibrations. The teaching isn't about humility alone, it's about regulating your emotions so that under pressure, what happens is that you grab one. The world was created for me. I have to take responsibility for everything. I personalize every outcome, every pressure is mine and mine alone. Or you collapse. I'm dust of ashes, I'm nothing, I'm shrinking, I lose my agency, I can't do it. Wisdom is knowing which note to read in which moment. When pressure tells you you don't matter, read the first note. Read the first note. For my sake, the world was created. For my sake, the world was created. When pressure tells you everything rests on you, read the second note. I am dust and ashes. Perspective isn't about choosing one truth, it's about holding both without breaking. So if you're in pain right now, perspective is not going to erase it, it's going to give it a context. If you've lost something, perspective doesn't minimize the grief, it reminds you that this loss is a chapter, it's not the title, it's not the end. And if pressure has changed you, perspective doesn't demand that you go back to being the old you. It invites you to see who you're becoming with more compassion. At some point today, to get perspective, step outside or look through the window at the sky. Examine the trees as if you've seen them for the first time and ask yourself quietly, what will this moment mean to me a year from now? What will this moment mean to me a year from now? You don't need to answer that. The question itself is important because it's going to widen your lens. And trust me, your nervous system will feel that question immediately if you ask yourself it. So when I say pressure tells you who you are in a moment, but perspective reminds you who you are across a lifetime, you get it. You get the scale. Yeah, pressure just gives you the snapshot, one play, one mistake, one season, one diagnosis, one conversation. But snapshots, they lie by omission, they're not the whole picture. Perspective gives you the long arc. It says this: this moment matters, but it does not get to name me and identify me. It says, This pain is real, what I'm going through, but it's not my whole story. It'll say, Well, okay, this version of me is valid, but it's not the final version of me. Perspective doesn't deny the pressure, it just places it, it gives it a context. And placement is what gives the nervous system relief. Yeah. Don't just listen to pressure without getting the perspective involved. Slow down enough to find perspective. This entire series was never meant to make anybody fearless, right? We're human. It was about getting accuracy, getting accurate about what pressure is, accurate about what stress is, accurate about yourself, accurate about what deserves your energy and what doesn't. Here's what you now know how to do based on what we did this week. When pressure hits, you stabilize your stance instead of panicking. When action is required, you sequence one responsible step. When winning feels out of reach, you redefine it as steadiness under load. When trust is shaken, you rebuild it slowly based on patterns, not wishful thinking or hope. When fatigue shows up, you listen instead of judging yourself. And when rest arrives, you reclaim yourself instead of rushing back to perform another task. And now, now on Sunday, slow down Sunday, you zoom out. You stop letting the loudest moment decide who you are. You remember that pressure is a chapter, not a verdict, a season, not a sentence. A test, not your identity. This is not about motivational thinking. This is about wisdom. This is wise living. That's what this is about. So if you're listening today and you feel lost, you're probably just standing too close to the moment.

Take a step back. Take a deep breath.

Read the right note. You're not too much. You're not too little. You're human, living under pressure, learning how to stand with integrity. And that, my beautiful souls, is more than enough. Love and blessings to you. Great job on finishing this series with me. Proud of you. If this series, sweet master, helped you stand differently under pressure, share it with someone who feels trapped. Share it with someone who wants and needs some insight. And if you want to keep building a life that honors science, soul, and success, subscribe right here to the sweet spot. We're building this together. Remember to slow down a bit today, not to stop living, but to see your life at scale, at the scale it deserves. Love and blessings. Dr. Sweet Out.