A note from our Executive Director:
This month, The Villager launches a new monthly column: Ask Annie. Written by Annie Novotny, a licensed clinical professional counselor and board-certified art therapist based in the neighborhood, the column answers real questions from our community about the everyday work of building a meaningful life.
We are inviting Beverly and Morgan Park residents to submit questions for Annie to consider in future columns. All submissions will be published anonymously. Send your questions to bapa@bapa.org.
Dear Annie, I feel like I’m always rushing—even when there’s nowhere I actually need to be. How do I help myself slow down?
Dear Reader,
This question feels deeply relevant to me, too. As a small business owner, parent, creative, and active community member, my “to-do” list often feels more like a “do-do” list—ever-growing, with more asking for my attention than there are hours in the day. I find myself negotiating between everything that seemingly needs to get done and my equally real desire for spaciousness: time to create, wander, rest, or simply be. Sometimes it feels like an extreme sport.
And I suspect I’m not alone. We’re trying to build meaningful lives within a culture that continually whispers, more, faster, next. The challenge is tending to our responsibilities without allowing urgency to become the rhythm of our lives.
First, I’d invite you to get curious about the rushing rather than immediately trying to stop it.
Sometimes urgency is practical—we really are late for that meeting! But chronic rushing can also be a nervous-system pattern. Following trauma or prolonged stress, our fight-or-flight response can remain activated, leaving us restless, vigilant, or feeling as though something requires our immediate attention even when we’re safe.
There’s a cultural layer, too. Productivity, efficiency, and busyness are often rewarded. We can begin measuring a “good” day by how much we accomplished and internalize the idea that our worth is connected to our output.
Tricia Hersey, founder of The Nap Ministry, asks us to question this conditioning through her Rest Is Resistance framework. Hersey positions rest not simply as self-care, but as resistance to systems that value our productivity over our humanity.
Slowing down, however, doesn’t require an empty calendar. We can practice presence inside a full life.
Before moving between tasks, pause for one intentional breath. Make your exhale slightly longer than your inhale, feel your feet firmly on the floor, and ask: “Is there actually an emergency right now?”
You might also try narrating your life. Silently or aloud, name what you’re doing: “I’m pouring my coffee. I’m walking to the car. I’m noticing the sunlight.” This gently interrupts autopilot and brings us back into the life we’re actually living.
Or spend sixty seconds simply observing something in nature—leaves moving, clouds passing, birds gathering. Let your attention rest without needing to accomplish anything.
As an art therapist, I’m especially interested in what becomes possible in these spaces. Rest and daydreaming create room for imagination, insight, and creative problem-solving. We cannot always hear what is inside us while racing toward the next thing.
Perhaps slowing down begins not by doing less, but by noticing more.
Explore Further: https://thenapministry.wordpress.com/
Annie Novotny, LCPC, ATR-BC, is a licensed clinical professional counselor, board-certified art therapist, and founder Roots & Rays Creative Counseling on Chicago’s Southwest Side. She specializes in supporting individuals and communities impacted by trauma as they navigate healing, reconnect with their creativity, and discover meaningful ways to meet life’s challenges. Annie believes creativity is an innate human resource—and that healing often begins when we are given the space to slow down, become curious, and imagine new possibilities.
