When slowing down rewires everything (and you didn’t see it coming)

This digital detox unearthed more than I expected

Original image by kaboompics.com via pexels. Modified by Author.

Something shifted.

A quiet, steady unraveling that’s still in process.

After taking space for a full digital and major-work detox, I came back feeling… uhm… “different”.

Surprisingly, in a deep, fundamental way—the urgency, the pressure, the compulsive need to prove something… all of that loosened their grip. And in its place, a spaciousness I haven’t felt in a long time opened up. It felt like I was finally back in my body, back in my life, back to listening to my soul.

I didn’t have the same urge to race back into old patterns or force myself into productivity loops. I didn’t crave the grind. I didn’t want to jump back into optimizing anything.

I wanted to completely slow down.

It felt like I’d cleared an old slate I didn’t even realize I’d been clinging to. And now, instead of returning to “normal”, I’m choosing something else entirely.

I want more of a life. Not just more work.

During the summer solstice, I sat down for a long, honest journaling session, which I’ve continued in the past few days. No urgency, no agenda, no filters. Just me, the truth, and all the emotions I’ve been too busy to fully feel in the past 6 months.

I saw all the ways I’d stopped taking care of myself.

I saw where I’d let work wrap itself around every corner of my identity, my life.

I saw where I’d abandoned hobbies that once lit me up, postponed joy, and told myself there would be “time for that later”.

I thought by diving into what needed to be done would give me quicker results, make up for lost time since I kept feeling behind, and let all that busyness I was churning in to prove my worth.

But this detox forced space between me and the systems, beliefs, and patterns I’ve outgrown. Once the noise of the shoulds, musts, and have-tos cleared, my actual priorities started to show itself as that death-clench of “I have to make this work now” finally stopped having a hold over me.

This isn’t about tossing my work (or what I’ve done) out the window. It’s about reorienting to it differently than I’ve done before and distinctly from what I’ve been told I should be doing.

This isn’t a pivot. This is a recalibration.

What I’m stepping into now isn’t a fast fix or applying some clever new strategy. It’s a slow, layered reset built on:

• A series of small but meaningful shifts

• Honest experiments and follow throughs

• The willingness to try, assess, and tweak as I go

I know I haven’t written an “Experiment Field Notes” in a while. Not because I’ve stopped experimenting, but because I needed the privacy and space to process this soul retuning chapter without narrating it in real time.

Sometimes, the deepest transformation needs to happen off the record. At this moment, I can only share those bigger thematic lessons I’ve been going through.

And it has been A LOT! This pause gave me more than just rest. It gave me deeper perspectives, and it’s been showing me a different way to work and live my life.

One of the deeper realizations I keep returning to, which is something I think a lot of entrepreneurs overlook, is this:

We’re great at chasing clarity, but we rarely leave space for integration.

We just jump straight back into implementation, which repeats the same patterns of overworking, staying busy to act productive, and hustling our way back into burnout.

When you’ve been in the churn (maybe for years, maybe for decades), what is actually needed could be more than just rest.

You need time.

Time to confront the subtle cost of survival mode.

Time to feel what you’ve been numbing with constant motion and busyness.

Time to slowly relearn what you enjoy, what you miss, and what kind of life you actually want to build around your work, not underneath it.

That’s what this season is about for me.

Not a break. Not a burnout recovery sprint. No hacks or shortcuts. But a conscious reimagining and reexperiencing of how I want to live, work, connect, and create.

…which means for now, my presence here might continue to feel minimal.

But what I’m building behind the scenes is far from small. I’m here for a deeper, long term transformation.

There’s more to come, but in no rush.

Because this time… I’m not abandoning myself in the name of momentum. I’m leaning fully into this slower, steadier reset, making it something that truly makes a difference.

P.S. If this helped you give language to the quiet shift you’ve been craving, too, tap the ❤️ to let me know. Share or restack this post to support others who are questioning the speed they’ve been living at and also desiring the need for space to feel what’s actually true.