Body-First Healing Podcast Why You Resist Rest & How to Slow Down Your Nervous System
Dec 10, 2025
Feeling the urge to speed up? Discover why your nervous system fights rest and how to recalibrate your internal rhythm. Britt dives into the science of pace, revealing how our biology shapes our need for urgency and makes slowing down feel unsafe. She also shares practical somatic tools to help alleviate resistance, linking personal identity to our hurried lifestyles. Explore the vagus nerve, its role in regulating stress, and learn that slowing down isn’t about doing less, but about engaging with life more fully.
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Vagal Brake Controls Deceleration
- The vagal brake (vagus nerve function) regulates gentle deceleration from activation back to calm.
- When the brake is weak or slammed, people either can't settle or crash into shutdown instead of experiencing restorative rest.
Practice Small Decelerations Daily
- Retrain your vagal brake with many small decelerations throughout the day rather than waiting for crisis-driven shutdowns.
- Britt Piper recommends micro-experiments of one-degree slowing to build vagal tone and resilience.
Presence Over Less Doing
- Slowing down is about quality of presence, not necessarily doing less or reducing output.
- Britt Piper shows presence lets you move sustainably and increases capacity across seasons.
