Part Two: Slow Down. There’s Nowhere To Get To
By Peter Howe
Part One Recap
Previously, we explored the illusion of chasing something "out there, "what keeps us running, and what it really means to slow down and come home to ourselves.
Now, let’s take it further, together.
The Nature of Overwhelm
As we begin to reconnect with ourselves by slowing down, a powerful truth begins to surface:
It’s not life that’s overwhelming—it’s our thinking about life.
It often seems like the only way to feel okay is for something outside of us to change:
"If only life would slow down..."
"If only work wasn't so full-on..."
"If only I wasn't juggling so many responsibilities..."
"If only I could get through this to-do list... then I’d feel better."
But…
What if that’s not true?
What if the pressure we feel isn’t from life itself—
but from the pace of our own mind?
How would that change your relationship to your mind—and to your life?
The Insight That Changes Everything
Here’s the insight that changes the game:
You have an inner speed—a thinking speed—and that’s where your stress is coming from.
The volume and speed of our thinking in any given moment create the tension and pressure we feel.
If it looks like life is overwhelming you, it totally makes sense that you’d keep racing. Your mind staying busy—thinking a lot, trying to plan, control, analyse, and manage everything—hoping that once life slows down, then you’ll finally feel better.
But life will keep doing what life does. It moves, it changes, it unfolds in its own way.
You are the source of your experience of life.
And that’s a really helpful thing to see.
It means peace doesn’t depend on life calming down. It begins the moment your mind does.
Two Speeds: Outer and Inner
So here’s the gentle turning point:
There’s the outer speed of life… and the inner speed of your mind.
Which one do you genuinely think is shaping how you feel?
If you could shift just one of them:
Option 1: Life slowing down
Option 2: Your thinking slowing down
Which option would bring you more peace of mind?
Your answer might offer a deeper clue about where your stress is really coming from—and where peace has been waiting for you all along.
What if you explored option 2 a little more?
The Missing Piece: Your State of Mind
Your state of mind shapes everything:
How you feel
What you see
What you’re capable of
How you respond to life
The quality of your presence, relationships, decisions, and performance
When you truly understand this, everything shifts.
You begin to see the state of mind behind every experience—in yourself and in others.
And that, my friend...
That changes everything.
Your state of mind—your inner landscape—is where your entire experience of reality lives.
It shapes how you see the world, how you respond, how you navigate challenges, and how much of your wisdom is available in any given moment.
There’s what’s happening…
And then there’s your state of mind while it’s happening.
Think of it like a computer:
If you’ve got 27 tabs and apps open, it slows down. The battery drains.
It goes into power-saving mode. It can’t perform at full capacity.
Our minds work the same.
When your mental bandwidth is overloaded because your state of mind drops—
Life feels hard and exhausting.
But when your mind is clear?
Even a full day can feel light.
You respond instead of react.
You’re present. Grounded.
You’re in flow instead of forcing things.
It’s not the circumstances you’re up against—
It’s the state of mind you’re bringing to them.
And when you begin to see the role your thinking plays in that...
The stress starts to dissolve.
You stop trying so hard to fix yourself or your life.
You see through the illusion that life is the problem.
You stop just coping and getting through the day.
You start coming home and start thriving.
Because if it’s your state of mind,
Then life doesn’t need to change before you feel peace.
That does wonders for your nervous system.
If you’re in a frantic state—and you don’t realise it’s just your state of mind—
You’ll try to manage the outside world.
You’ll try to calm the storm by rearranging the clouds.
But it doesn’t work.
The storm is there… and it’ll pass—just like low states of mind.
You don’t need to figure out why it’s happening.
It’s part of the human experience.
You just need to notice when you’re there,
And remember—it will move through on its own.
But when you know it’s just a state of mind—
And you understand that it’s a transient, shifting moment-to-moment experience—
Even when you’re still sped up…
You’re no longer defined by it.
You leave it alone.
You wait for your mind to settle, because you know it will.
You’ve seen it before.
That’s how it works.
So now…
You can simply wait.
Because it will pass.
And that awareness?
That’s the beginning of freedom.
Imagine this moment:
You’re feeling overwhelmed.
Stressed out about work.
Snapping at your family. Forgetting things.
And then suddenly... You remember:
“Ohh… this is just my state of mind.
It’s not my work. And it’s not them.”
How State of Mind Works:
Your state of mind is dictated by the quality of your thinking in the moment.
It’s not something you control directly—it’s more like the weather.
It goes up and down on its own, depending on the flow of thought at the time.
When your mind is sped up, cloudy, or cluttered, it really feels like the outside world is the problem.
But when you start to see that your experience is coming from the inside—from the quality of your thinking, not your circumstances—
Everything begins to change.
You stop taking low moods so seriously.
You begin to trust that your mind will settle on its own.
And when it does, your state of mind rises.
Everything looks different, without anything needing to change.
Here’s the beautiful part:
Once you notice the state you’re in,
You don’t need to fight it.
You don’t need to fix it.
You just let it be.
And in that space of allowing, your mind begins to settle.
Your state of mind begins to rise naturally.
That shift?
It changes your experience.
It changes your perspective.
It changes how you relate to others.
It changes your life.
It changes you.
What This Looks Like in Real Life
Have you ever been lying on the couch, doing absolutely nothing…
And still feel completely stressed out?
That’s a clue.
It’s not life doing that—it’s your mind on high volume.
Busy. Noisy. Creating a stressed state of mind.
The same thing happens at night.
You’re lying in bed, trying to sleep…
And your mind is running through worst-case scenarios, replaying conversations, and solving imaginary problems that haven’t happened and probably never will.
It’s like we’re creating horror movies in our heads…
And then reacting as if they’re real.
It’s exhausting.
And it reveals something important:
It’s not the situation—it’s the speed and seriousness you take your thinking.
Here’s one of the most powerful insights I’ve ever had:
My burnout wasn’t caused by how much I was doing.
It was caused by how fast my mind was racing.
It wasn’t a doing-speed problem.
It was a thinking-speed problem.
Stress. Anxiety. Worry. Fear.
They’re not flaws to fix.
They’re feedback.
Signals that your mind is sped up.
That it needs less thinking and more space—
not more thinking and more solutions.
And once you see that, something shifts.
You stop blaming life.
You stop trying to control everything outside of you.
You feel more grounded. More empowered.
You stop following every thought down a rabbit hole.
You stop reacting as if every anxious story is true.
You start letting thoughts pass, because trying to manage them no longer makes sense.
Because you begin to understand what’s really going on.
The Turning Point: Seeing It for What It Is
If you don’t see where your stress is really coming from,
you stay stuck in the loop.
But the moment you do see it?
You slow down.
Your mind settles.
Clarity rises—naturally.
The faster your mind is going,
the less helpful your thinking becomes.
Here’s something powerful to consider:
When you’re lost in your thoughts and don’t know you’re lost—that’s suffering.
But when you’re lost in your thoughts and know you’re lost—that’s power.
Because when you know where you are, you naturally self-correct.
Not by analysing, but simply by noticing.
That’s all you have to do, is notice.
You’re no longer at the mercy of your mind.
You innocently got caught up—and that’s okay.
It’s part of being human.
But now, you understand more about how the mind works.
You see the illusion for what it is.
And you remember… it will pass.
You pause.
You breathe.
And in that stillness, your state of mind begins to rise.
You remember who you are.
I love this quote from Eckhart Tolle:
“The good news is: If you can recognise illusion as illusion, it dissolves. The recognition of the illusion is also its ending. Its survival depends on your mistaking it for reality. In the seeing of who you are not, the reality of who you are emerges by itself.”
Let that land.
Because the moment you see the illusion for what it is, it begins to fall away.
And what remains… is what’s always been true about you.
Slowing Down in Real Life: Tiny Moments of Awareness
Slowing down doesn’t mean walking away from your responsibilities.
It means waking up to the pace inside you.
It might look like:
Noticing the tension in your jaw before a conversation
Taking one conscious breath before replying to a message
Realising, “Ohh, I’m sped up right now,” and letting that awareness soften you
Feeling your feet on the ground before the meeting begins
Noticing your feelings—not as problems, but as feedback on the speed of your mind
In short:
Be more curious!
Pay more attention to the pace of your thinking than the content of your life.
This is the direction to look in.
It’s where powerful, lasting change happens.
These small moments are signs that you’ve remembered who’s really in charge: you.
You have free will in how you engage with your thoughts.
And the more you see that, the more space opens up.
From a quieter mind…
Creativity flows without force.
Love and acceptance come from you, not your achievements.
Clarity arises without overthinking.
Life feels lighter, simpler.
And you feel more at ease in your day-to-day life.
Everything you’ve been trying so hard to earn and find through effort…
Rises naturally when you’re no longer caught in the noise.
Reflection: Time to Get Curious
Ask yourself:
What’s speeding me up right now?
Where am I trying to get to so I can finally feel okay?
What am I trying to prove?
What am I avoiding by staying busy?
What do I believe I’ll feel when I “get there”?
What would happen if I stopped running and relaxed into this moment, exactly as it is?
What if slowing down doesn’t take away my drive, only my stress and fear?
What if in the stillness I’ve been avoiding… is exactly where all the wisdom, creativity, and love I’ve been searching for lives?
Stillness doesn’t mean you don’t move.
It means your mind can be still, even while you do.
It’s moving through life without being moved around,
By every thought or circumstance.
A Closing Insight
You can have a full life…
Without a full mind.
You don’t need to push through every moment.
You don’t need to control it all.
You don’t need to finish your to-do list to feel peace.
You just need to come home.
To that quiet space within.
Leave space open in your mind.
Let insights drop in naturally.
Let wisdom do the work.
Because when you slow down, truly slow down—
You stop missing the beauty, the clarity, the connection that was always there.
You see that peace doesn’t come from doing more.
It comes from realising it was never in the doing to begin with.
And the part of you that’s always been okay?
It’s still here.
Even in the noise.
Even when you forget.
It doesn’t require fixing.
It just asks you to remember:
Freedom and ease are closer than you realise.
Final Words:
Give yourself the space to reflect on what you’ve read in Parts One and Two.
If something resonated, even quietly, let it stay with you.
No need to think it through.
You don’t need to do anything with it right now.
Just let it be. That’s enough.
Trust what’s landed. Let the rest come in its own time.
With love,
Peter
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