Slow Down

Slow Down: Finding Peace in a Fast-Paced World

When I first listened to my mastered recording of Slow Down, I cried. I had finally given myself enough space to let go of perceived imperfections, and in that moment, the song released emotions I hadn’t even realized were still buried inside me.

It told my story of letting go and letting God in.

When I first expressed my desire to create music that spoke to mental health struggles, a friend suggested that I record my own version of Slow Down. The more I listened to other beautiful versions of this song, the more I knew I had to create my own interpretation of it. And wouldn’t you know—the process itself was healing.

ADHD, anxiety, and depression have been prevalent in my life and in the lives of my loved ones. And I’ve learned that when we don’t slow down—when we don’t take time to process, “sharpen the saw”, or even shed the unimportant or unnecessary distractions in our lives that don’t serve us—these challenges can become debilitating, even life-threatening.

I often think of the scripture in Psalms:

Be still, and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10)

I try to be still, but my thoughts constantly interfere—All. The. Time. I sometimes have to read the same passage of scripture three times before I can finally slow my mind enough to absorb it. But I trust that if God has asked us to be still, then learning to do so is a necessary part of my spiritual progression.

But progression doesn’t happen overnight. So, I’m giving myself grace. Step by step, precept upon precept (Isaiah 28:13), I am learning to set aside the “natural man” in me and instead wait upon the Lord, just as Psalms 3:5 instructs.

A Sacred Stillness in Music

One of my most still and sacred moments came when I closed my eyes in the studio and sang:

Be still, my child… Be still and wait on the Spirit of the Lord.

Music is a prayer. And as I sang those words, I realized I was reaching out to God—not just for myself, but for my children.

Oh, how I want my children to know that waiting upon the Lord is a process. It isn’t easy in today’s world, where everything moves at lightning speed and instant gratification is the norm. But if we are reaching out to God and still not feeling peace, perhaps we are going about it the wrong way.

In the Gospels, we see Jesus meet people where they were—the woman caught in adultery, the woman at the well, the man at the pool of Bethesda. These stories remind us that He does not expect us to fix ourselves before coming to Him. He meets us in our grief, our pain, and even in our shame of habitual sin, often when we are at our lowest point. For those of us who struggle with mental health challenges or neurodiversity, it’s easy to believe the lie that God is punishing us or that we are undeserving of His love. But as we allow the stories of Jesus to dispel those lies and shift our mindset, we experience His perfect acceptance and magnetic love drawing us closer to His divine assistance.

Practical Ways to Slow Down

In a recent EFT (Emotionally Focused Therapy) session, my therapist said something that stuck with me:

Slow down. Can we just sit with that feeling for a minute?

I was quick—like so many of us—to tell myself what I “should” be doing, what I was missing out on, or why I was feeling the way I was. Instead of allowing myself to fully experience my emotions, I rushed to rationalize or suppress them. But feelings are not something to be ashamed of or apologized for—they just are.

Like waves of the sea, emotions rise and fall. They may feel overwhelming, even paralyzing, but they are temporary. And if we allow ourselves to truly feel them—rather than push them away—we open the door to healing.

In a world obsessed with speed, quick fixes, and shortcuts, we often don’t remember or know how to slow down—our thoughts, our schedules, our obligations. But learning to do so is critical to our mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being. We need time to let the waves wash over us and give place to new thoughts, which will create new feelings.

So what does slowing down actually look like? Here are some things that have made a difference in my life and that I will hopefully have the time to elaborate on in the future:

1. Recognize and Replace Discouraging Thoughts

One of the adversary’s greatest tools is discouragement. When we slow down our thinking, we can recognize the destructive thoughts that keep us from magnifying our divine gifts. Replace those thoughts with affirmations, uplifting scriptures, prayer, inspiring talks, and empowering music. Whatever speaks to your heart through the spirit.

I’m currently compiling a list of songs that counteract specific discouraging thoughts—let me know if you have any recommendations!

2. Seek Help Without Shame

Sometimes, our brains have been trained through trauma to feel and react in a certain way. Healing is not always something we can do on our own. Therapy—whether EMDR, EFT, or another modality—can be a powerful tool for untangling emotional patterns and breaking free from old wounds.

I’d love to write more about the different therapy types I’ve explored or observed—there are so many, and each one speaks to different personalities and situations.

3. Create Something

We are meant to be creators. There is something inherently healing about the creative process—whether it’s making music, painting, writing, or building something with our hands. When was the last time you created something that brought you joy?

4. Connect with God’s Creations

One of my favorite hymns, How Great Thou Art, encourages us to take in the wonders of the world around us. There is so much peace to be found in nature. I’ll share more about this in an upcoming post on “My Favorite Things.”

5. Practice Self-Compassion

My husband recently had a conversation with ChatGPT about ways to help decrease my feelings of discouragement and increase my motivation with self-compassion (sweet, right?). Surprisingly, it suggested some really insightful ideas!

We often mistake self-compassion for selfishness, but in reality, self-compassion is a way to slow down our thoughts and replace negative narratives with truth. We are loved unconditionally by a Heavenly Father who does not place limits, deadlines, or conditions on His love. We are loved simply because of who we are, not because of what we have accomplished or what we will accomplish in the future. This can help us gain a sense of contentment with our circumstances.

6. Seek Meaningful Connection

Find someone who will sit with you in your emotions, offering empathy and understanding. Laughing, making memories, or even just sharing a simple moment with another person can help regulate emotions. While physical touch may be welcome and even necessary for well-being in some, while others with neurodiversity may find it disturbing. Finding ways to connect with neurodiverse individuals may require more communication and investigation with that individual.

7. Journal Your Thoughts

Journaling helps us process emotions, organize our thoughts, and recognize where we might be telling ourselves the wrong stories. Writing has helped me develop greater compassion for myself and, in turn, for others.

8. Prioritize Physical Health

Our mental health is deeply connected to our physical well-being. Sleep, nutrition, and environment all play critical roles in emotional stability. Small changes—especially for highly sensitive individuals—can have a big impact on mental regulation.

Final Thoughts

Slowing down is not easy. But it is necessary.

As we learn to quiet our minds, embrace stillness, and wait upon the Lord, we open ourselves to the peace He so freely offers. And in those still moments, we will find that He has been waiting for us all along.

Does the Journey Seem Long?

Finding Healing in Christ: Reframing Our Painful Thoughts

Do you find yourself trapped in the same struggles or reliving the same painful experiences or memories, wondering, Why is this still happening? or Why does this still hurt so much? You believe the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ can heal and help you forgive and rise above any challenge, yet some trials continue to haunt you—even to the point of causing long lasting emotional, and sometimes even physical, pain that seems to rob us of the ability to feel the joy we thought we were promised as true disciples.

As I set the words of the hymn Does the Journey Seem Long? to new music, they seemed to tell my story:

"Does the journey seem long, the path rugged and steep?  

Are there briars and thorns on your way? 

Do sharp stones cut your feet as you struggle to rise? 

Is there no one your burden to share?" 

The same words I’d always heard suddenly resonated with me because I gained a different perspective while working on a new setting. Similarly, whether we face trials that are short or long in duration, changing our outlook can make the biggest difference in what our story truly becomes. Same circumstance, different story.

Someone close to me caused deep trauma within our family, leaving me feeling trapped in a toxic situation with no clear way out. We were in crisis for years, and though I tried to be an anchor for those around me, I found myself burdened by shame, comparison, and mourned expectations. Link by link, those thoughts formed a chain that wore down my mind and body. Anxiety and depression worsened. I felt like I had lost my singing voice—a part of me as vital as breathing. I sometimes felt too broken, too exhausted to climb over the “sharp stones” that cut my feet. In my darkest moments during the suffocating “heat of the day”, I didn’t want to “look upward in joy” as Joseph Fielding Smith suggests in “Does the Journey Seem Long”. Sometimes, I didn’t even want to get up. My mind and body felt like prisoners to the painful thoughts on replay in my mind.

An Aha Moment in Scripture

I came across these verses a few years ago as I was preparing a talk and they subsequently stuck in my mind throughout my years of struggling:

"But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts… (skipping ahead), and observe to keep the commandments of God, and continue in the faith… ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not."
— Mosiah 4:30

"…and our thoughts will also condemn us: and in this awful state we shall not dare to look up to our God."
— Alma 12:14

Since reading these verses, I have noticed how wonderfully they correlate with principles of mental wellness. I truly believe that to “perish” and to be “condemned” are not punishments of a loving God, but rather, they are natural consequences of the views and feelings a person may have about themself and they stop our spiritual progression. While I cannot always control my circumstances—and I definitely can’t change the genetics that make me and my loved ones more susceptible to mental health struggles—I can control the thoughts that often lead the highly sensitive individuals to spiral downward. Striving to move upward in faith, the Lord can help me find new thoughts and establish new patterns to keep me from self condemnation and even destruction as we face our daily challenges. We know from Moses 1:39 that we are designed to have joy! But, for some of us, it’s more about learning joy or learning how to control our thoughts and navigate our emotions to make room for joy.

Breaking Free: How to Stop Reliving Pain

So, how do we stop cycling through thoughts that keep us stuck? How do we avoid condemning ourselves and others?

For things to change, we have to do something different.

1. Seek the Right Kind of Help

Reaching out for support is not weakness—it’s wisdom. We need wise friends as we travel through life—friends that will share our burdens and “take hold of [our] hand”. Friends that sustain us when we are either running close to empty, or needing enough resources to give to the emotionally bankrupt friends or loved ones. Feeling unconditionally loved is the foundation for any healing. Feeling loved, wanted, supported, and even needed are key ingredients to finding joy along our difficult paths. Of course, our perfect friend is Jesus Christ, who loves unconditionally and succors us in our time of need. But, there are times when we need to feel his love in a tangible way through the earthly angels that exude the gift of charity. We may not have to look very far to find that wise friend. Perhaps there are sparks of that love in our families, congregations, or neighborhoods and all we need to do is have the courage to express our needs.

Beyond supportive family and friends, I hope we have gotten to the point in our culture that there is no stigma associated with therapeutic care for those in emotional distress. There are professionals that have been blessed with the talents, skills, and knowledge to help others through trauma, mental illness, struggles with neurodiversity, and many other adversities. I owe a debt of gratitude to many of those professionals.

While I’m not a therapist myself, I’ve learned a great deal in my own mental health journey and in supporting, advocating and serving loved ones with mental illness and/or neurodiversity for many years. There are so many approaches to therapy and mental wellness, and what helped me may not help you—but I’ll continue to share experiences that may be helpful to others.

2. Acknowledge and Process Your Emotions

One of the most important steps in healing and finding joy in the journey is allowing ourselves to fully feel sorrow, anger, or loss. Instead of suppressing our pain, we can use various techniques to fully process our emotions. Many techniques include meeting with others who’ve had similar experiences.

You can also invite trusted friends or professionals into that space of vulnerability. Some of my favorite people are those that have shared their stories with me because I’ve unloaded some of my mess with them. Shared experiences create a bond and connection that turns acquaintances into soul siblings.

Processing emotions also may take more time than we anticipate. Not every disappointment or loss carries the same weight. Some individuals with more sensitivity may need more time to recover or even decompress in order to recharge or reset their emotional barometer.

3. Give Yourself New Thoughts

If you’ve ever used the five step, self-coaching framework developed by Brooke Castillo of the Life Coach School, CTFAR (Circumstance → Thought → Feeling → Action → Result), you may have learned that a circumstance is something that is not within our control. But, just like the scriptures referenced earlier teach us, we can and should watch and control our thoughts. Out thoughts are what lead to our feelings and those feelings then become the motivation behind our actions, which creates a result.

When this model was first introduced to me by a life coach, I didn’t find it all that helpful. I think because I was in desperate need of validation and empathy. In the deep, mud-filled trench it was like the coach handed me a pick axe instead of a rope to climb out. I didn’t have that foundation yet—I didn’t feel unconditionally loved in my circumstance.

Through a different life coach, I learned that as we process events of the past, we have the power to rewrite our stories and replace the negative thoughts with thoughts that will lead to different results.

I realized in my relationship with the person that caused trauma in my family, I was telling myself the wrong story. I was assigning blame towards him instead of looking at him for what he truly is—a child of God to be loved. I had the opportunity to be The Lord’s hands—to minister with patience, unconditional love, and charity, even if I didn’t understand the actions of this individual.

With this new information, I felt I had two choices:

1. Dwell in hurt, anger, and bitterness, replaying painful memories and allowing them to have power over me.

2. Choose an empowering thought: God trusts me to use this as an opportunity to put into practice the principles he’s taught me and give love to someone who at times seems unlovable.

That shift in perspective didn’t just heal my relationship with this person—it transformed all my relationships. I began to see my dealings with my fellow men as opportunities to love as the Savior loves.

The Savior: The Ultimate Healer

In Does the Journey Seem Long?, the Savior is the one sitting with us in our pain. He gives us new thoughts. He empowers us. He shows us what’s possible if we let Him prevail in our lives.

And He doesn’t just work through spiritual impressions—He also sends earthly angels. People who sit with us. People who mourn with us. People who help us rewrite the stories we tell ourselves.

When we respond to adversity by turning to Jesus Christ, we can look forward with confidence to the day when:

"No tears shall be shed and no sorrows remain."

On that day, our past will no longer weigh us down. Instead, it will stand as a witness of the Savior’s healing power—the proof that Jesus Christ truly is the Author and Finisher of our faith.

*While I believe that in many difficult circumstances, we can learn to have joy, I don’t condone anyone remaining in situations that compromise physical or psychological safety. No one should feel pressured to stay in a relationship or situation where there is abuse of any kind.

The Power of Music

I sat across from my father with Alzheimer’s at an outdoor table in the late fall of 2019, soaking in the nice Arizona weather and the sweet company. My dad no longer remembered who I was, but I’d like to think he felt a sense of familiarity as we visited and communicated with his limited language capabilities due to the disease’s progression. Music was part of most visits on Sunday afternoons and either included me playing a few chords on my guitar so he could sing Harry Belefonte songs, astoundingly almost word for word, or singing church hymns. This particular Sunday, I chose “I Stand All Amazed” for us to sing together, since it was the congregational hymn in the worship service I attended earlier that day. Though I had low expectations, when we reached the chorus that breaks out into harmony he not only sang the words quite clearly, but he sang the bass part perfectly.

While not a musician, my dad was a volunteer ecclesiastical leader all while I was growing up and was supportive of his wife, my late mother, who was a professional violinist, violist and teacher. She had all sorts of musical ideas, aspirations, and adventures, many of which included my dad and the rest of us kids, whether we wanted to participate or not. Dad’s roles ranged from narrating “The Devil Wend Down to Georgia” (minus the expletives) to singing in a barbershop quartet. He was also one of her most loyal choir members when she directed our church choir for many years, even with his busy Sunday schedule. I remember watching him on the proscenium during many worship meetings, singing out with all his heart during the congregational hymns.

Of all his musical offerings, that Sunday afternoon was the one I treasure the most. I always think of the bass part as being foundational—the very definition of support to a rich, hymn tune. Kent Larsen was truly the foundation to our clan in so many ways. Memories and values of faith, family, loyalty, and spirituality seemed all wrapped up in one beautiful, melodic prayer. It was a sacred experience to feel connected to one another and to God, healing for him to briefly be functioning more completely, and empowering to know there’s a tool that exists that breathed more life into mu fading father than anything else. Not long after that, he entered a skilled nursing center for treatment, mercifully caught pneumonia, and peacefully passed away. But, not before my siblings and I were able to take turns visiting, reading, and singing to him.

What a miracle tool! It is widely known that nothing activates more areas of the brain than music and it can help us not only with our emotional state or memory recall, but also with our physical well-being. I found this interactive brain model from the University of Central Florida fascinating. Up to this point in my life, I haven’t experienced all the ways music can affect the brain and body, but I do know that beautiful music, and the process of creating it, has impacted my life so much that it’s a huge part of my story and my identity, not so much because of my skills, but because of how it has shaped who I am.

In subsequent posts, I will relay experiences and lessons I’ve learned in the creative process and in the messages contained within music that have shaped my life. As a musical ADHD mom, in almost every song I sing or create there are themes about learning to support and love those around us with neurodiversity and mental health challenges as well themes about giving ourselves grace, self-care, and hope for the future. I hope as I continue to share, it will be as though you have someone walking beside you on the dark and lonely road you may be traveling. There are better days ahead, friend.