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Article: You Know You Need to Do This for Your Health, But You're Scared to Death

You Know You Need to Do This for Your Health, But You're Scared to Death
Identity

You Know You Need to Do This for Your Health, But You're Scared to Death

Let's name the elephant in the room: 

You know you need to slow down. 

Your body's been trying to get your attention: 

• The sleepless nights

• The stress belly that won't budge

• The constant feeling of being "on" even when you're supposedly relaxing

While I may not know the exact details of your unique situation, I do know what’s stopping you from slowing down: 

Fear. 

The bone-deep terror that if you slow down, everything will fall apart. 

That you'll be revealed as the imposter you secretly believe you are. 

That your worth, so carefully constructed through decades of achievement, will crumble.

I see you. I've been you.

 

I learned to pretend I was fine. 

I pushed through, achieved more, accumulated accolades, chased validation in every professional corner I could find. 

I was at the top of my career, but I secretly hated myself so deeply, it physically hurt. 

I knew I was running from something, but I wasn’t willing to look at it. Yet.

So I kept performing, achieving, building. 

Because that’s what gets you attention, isn’t it. 

But pausing, slowing down, asking ourselves the big questions? (Who wants that.) 

It can be scary to pause, reflect, and notice. (And who’s got time for that.)

Except — and stay with me here — 

Nothing is more important than pausing, reflecting, and noticing. 

Nothing. 

 

The fear and hesitation you feel when you consider taking a real break? 

That's not weakness.  You’re being called to transform.

The strivers, dreamers, and high-achievers who find me are at this exact inflection point. 

(It takes one to know one.)

They've checked all the boxes, done everything "right," built impressive lives. And now they're asking, "Is this it?" 

They're navigating perimenopause, changing family dynamics, career transitions. 

Their carefully constructed identities are shifting, and it's terrifying.

 

One of the most frequent comments my clients tell me: "I don't know who I am if I'm not achieving something." 

Who can’t relate to that.

"If I slow down, I'm afraid I'll discover I don't actually like the life I've built."

Maybe that’s you, quietly nodding your head.

These aren't comfortable realizations. But they're necessary ones.

The truth: Your health challenges aren't random. 

They're your body's way of inviting (telling) you to slow down.

Your body is always trying to bring itself back to equilibrium. But it can't do that when you're constantly overriding its signals with caffeine, pushing through exhaustion, and treating rest like a luxury rather than a necessity.

 

I know the mental gymnastics you do. You tell yourself:

  • "I'll rest when this project is done" (there's always another project)
  • "Other people are depending on me" (what happens when you burn out?)
  • "I should be grateful for what I have" (gratitude and exhaustion aren't mutually exclusive)
  • "Strong women push through" (strength includes knowing when to pause)


Let me offer you a different perspective: 

Slowing down isn't giving up. It's gearing up for what's next.

When I finally learned to listen to myself - really listen, not just acknowledge and override - everything shifted. 

The excess weight came off. My energy improved. My sleep improved. My relationships improved.

But most importantly, I discovered who I was beyond my achievement addiction.

 

↳ This is what I also see with my clients. 

One woman realized she didn’t need a dedicated hour-long practice to feel better. She could self-soothe in just 30 seconds using nothing but awareness of her feet on the ground.

Another discovered that she'd been breathing so shallowly her body was in constant survival mode. All those years of living with unchecked cortisol meant a cascade of other health problems. 

It’s no wonder her gut issues wouldn’t budge, until she realized her relationship with stress needed to change.

Awareness creates massive shifts.

Here's the key: They had to slow down enough to notice.

You can't hear your inner wisdom when you're moving at breakneck speed. You can't feel the subtle signals when you're numbed out on busyness. 

You can't access your innate healing capacity when you're constantly in fight-or-flight mode.

 

So what if slowing down isn't about doing less, but about being more?

More present. More aligned. More yourself.

The women who thrive through midlife transitions aren't the ones who push harder. They're the ones who learn to work with their bodies instead of against them. They understand that symptoms are messengers, not enemies. 

They know that self-care isn't another task to perfect but simply meeting themselves where they are.

They've stopped looking for the next expert to fix them and started trusting their own inner knowing. 

They've realized that the missing link in their healthcare isn't another specialist - it's their own deep listening.

 

Here's my invitation to you: 

Start with one minute. 

Tomorrow morning, before you reach for your phone, give yourself one minute of stillness. 

• Notice your breath. 

• Notice your body. 

• Notice what arises when you're not rushing to the next thing.

That fear that comes up? That voice that says “I don't have time for this”?

That's not truth. That's conditioning. 

That's decades of being taught that your worth comes from doing rather than being.

 

Your body knows how to heal itself when you give it space and time and grace. Your symptoms are trying to guide you home to yourself. 

Your fear of slowing down is actually fear of meeting who you really are beyond all the roles and achievements.

And that person? 

She's magnificent. 

She's wise. 

She's been waiting for you to stop running long enough to remember her.

The path forward isn't about adding more to your already full plate. 

It's about creating space. 

It's about choosing presence over productivity. It's about trusting that you can slow down without falling apart - in fact, slowing down might be how you finally feel more like yourself.

Your health is speaking to you. 

The question isn't whether you need to slow down - your body's already made that clear.

 

The question is: Are you courageous enough to listen?

The answer, whenever you're ready, is a big yes.

Because everything you need is already within you. 

You just need to slow down enough to access it.

_____

Breanne Goldman is an integrative yoga therapist and holistic wellbeing practitioner (MA, C-IAYT). She teaches women in midlife how to slow down and reclaim their health through root-cause healing and whole-person protocols grounded in evidence-based western medical science, time-tested Ayurvedic science, and ancient Yogic science.

 

PS: Get a custom 5-minute Stress Reset Toolkit to help you reconnect with yourself. Designed specifically for over-scheduled midlife women who are ready to transform chaos into calm. 

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🪴 SIMPLE + EFFECTIVE support to feel like yourself

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