The S.L.O.W.E.R. Story

The S.L.O.W.E.R. Story

One of the things I have noticed about myself — and about many of the people I work with — is how easy it is to get caught in what I sometimes all loop thinking or spiraling.

Something happens during the day. Sometimes it’s a big stressor, but often it’s something small. Maybe a difficult conversation. Maybe a comment that didn’t sit right. Maybe just the quiet feeling that something is off.

Even if we don’t have full awareness of the stressor, our mind immediately begins trying to make sense of it.

We start thinking about what happened. Then we analyze it. Then we revisit it again.

Before long, we find ourselves moving in circles.

We are aware that something feels uncomfortable or dysregulating, so we try to think our way out of it. But instead of gaining clarity, we often just end up right back where we started — thinking about the same thing again-hence loop thinking.

I find myself in these loops sometimes too, and occasionally I don’t even realize I’m there until much later.

That experience is part of what led me to develop another small framework that works alongside S.L.O.W.E.R. called--S.T.O.R.Y.

So often the thing that keeps us stuck is the story our brain is creating about the situation. Our minds are incredibly good at filling in the gaps, making assumptions, and trying to predict outcomes. Unfortunately, the stories we tell ourselves in these moments are not always accurate — and they often make us feel worse instead of helping us move forward.

The S.T.O.R.Y. framework was created as a way to gently interrupt that process.

So, S.L.O.W.E.R. helps regulate the nervous system and S.T.O.R.Y. helps interrupt the narrative we are telling ourselves.

In other words, we use S.L.O.W.E.R. to settle the body, and S.T.O.R.Y. to examine the thoughts.

Together they create a way to pause, reflect, and begin responding with more clarity and intention instead of getting pulled deeper into the loop.

In the next post, I’ll walk through how the S.T.O.R.Y. framework works and how you can begin to use it the next time you notice yourself caught in one of those thinking loops.