The Sacred Art of Slowing Down by A. C. Seiple MA LCMHC

Author:A. C. Seiple, MA, LCMHC [Seiple, A. C., MA, LCMHC]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: RELIGION / Christian Living / Spiritual Growth, PSYCHOLOGY / Neuropsychology
ISBN: 9798400506345
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers
Published: 2025-09-09T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8tuning in with

internal stories

I glanced at the clock as I drove, realizing there was no way I’d be on time for the coffee date I’d made with a friend. I was frustrated and stressed, and I wondered why I had yet again made more plans than I could feasibly commit to. I knew the limited hours in a day. I knew I had limited energy that could sustain me for only so long. I knew how many hours I needed to sleep at night. How did I keep getting the math wrong? No matter how often I vowed not to schedule extra work or other commitments, I kept swimming through days with no margin, furious with no one but myself.

So now I was fuming internally, knowing that in the midst of a busy day in the midst of a stressful week, I had overscheduled myself again. Agitated, I couldn’t be fully present with the friend I was meeting, or the work I’d tend to afterward. The muscle memory I was cycling in was no longer working for me. Feeling stuck, I wasn’t interested in slowing down or getting curious—I just wanted to start getting the math right! In this equation, the problem was me, and I needed to get my act together.

Harsh, judgmental, self-critical parts of me don’t like the idea of slowing down and getting curious about the story that shapes the protective strategies and muscle memory pushing me through life. Instead, these critical parts demand that I simply use my thinking brain to do better and change my behavior. The irony is that, for me, the reason these parts of me feel this way is because of the unwanted critical judgments that have been placed on them.

This self-shaming muscle memory seems to always be there, ready to pounce at any moment. She’s like an additional watchdog that tries to keep me in line. And while it can feel as if this inner-critic guard dog is tearing me down with her barks and bites, when I’ve slowed down with this perspective, I’ve realized that just like many other gut reactions, she wants to help me. She believes she can keep me safe if by shaming me she can keep me from getting curious. From her perspective, when I slow down and get vulnerable, I’m at greater risk for harm than when I just keep pushing through life, not connecting with what’s happening beneath the surface. Her barks of shame are fueled by the gas pedal, keeping my body in the tension and rigidity of a stress state, unable to yield into the flexibility or openness of safety.

I’ve lost count of the number of times that a client has looked at me in disbelief, annoyance, or even anger after I’ve gently asked whether a part of them that seems to be complicating their life might actually be trying to help them. And this makes sense—getting curious about how a protective strategy might be trying to help us can sometimes

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