Learning to slow down: embracing a slow living mindset

Discover how adopting a slow living mindset helped me move beyond the noise of busyness, into a life of presence, rhythm, and meaning.

It wasn’t the country I moved to.

It wasn’t Spain. It wasn’t the city I left behind.

It was what I carried within me.

The patterns I had built. The pace I thought I needed to keep up with.

The mornings I still remember

I often think back to those early mornings in Utrecht. Waking up before sunrise, when the world still felt quiet and untouched. Pulling on my gym clothes in the dark, moving through the silence of empty streets, the sound of my own breath guiding me through another workout.

And afterwards, I’d sit on the couch, candles on, a warm cappuccino in hand, a blank page in front of me, ready to catch whatever was on my mind. I loved those moments. But what I didn’t realize back then, is that they were not a reward for my discipline. They were a reminder. A glimpse of what life could feel like, if I allowed myself to slow down.

You will not find peace in what you achieve, only in how you live while achieving it.

We often confuse discipline with speed

We think moving fast means we’re doing well.That chasing more, being busy, staying ahead, means we’re living fully.

But as Marcus Aurelius once wrote: "It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste much of it."

Time was never the problem.

Attention was.

Presence was.

And I was learning, slowly, that it’s not the fullness of your schedule that shapes your life, but the fullness of your attention in ordinary moments.

What changed when I moved

Spain didn’t teach me how to slow down.

It simply removed all the noise I had built around myself.

Without deadlines, routines, and expectations pressing in from every side, I was left with something far more confronting:

Time.

Empty space.

And the question:"If I no longer measure my day by how busy I am, how do I know I’ve spent it well?"

What I know now

Slowing down doesn’t mean stepping away from life; it means stepping into it more fully, embracing a slow living mindset that values presence over pace.

It’s choosing to be deliberate instead of reactive, to move through your days with awareness instead of rush.

It’s about doing fewer things, but with more care, more presence, and more meaning.

It’s about letting go of the idea that your worth is tied to how much you do, how fast you move, or how full your days look from the outside. And learning instead to trust that doing less, with care, with presence, with intention often builds a life that feels far more like your own.

And so I begin my days differently

Not because I am finished learning.

Not because I have found the perfect balance.

But because I now understand:

Growth is not something you chase.

It’s something you build, choice by choice, hour by hour, day by day.

And more often than not, it begins in stillness.

If you’re curious how embracing a slow living mindset influenced not just my daily life, but also the way I travel, you might love this story: Travel as a Digital Nomad