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The Sacred Art of Slowing Down: Find Relief from Rushed Living, Soothe Your Soul, and Restore Wholeness Within
We were created for so much more than rushing through life.
It’s easy for everything in our lives to seem fine on the surface. But deep down inside, there’s often another story at play—one of overwhelm, stress and heartache, of finding ourselves stuck in old patterns. Rather than feeling the weight of it all, it’s easier to spend our days on autopilot, ignoring the noise inside.
But what if the peace and relief we most long for comes from tuning in with what’s happening inside, instead of tuning it out?
Join therapist Anna Christine (A.C.) Seiple on a compassionate, mindful exploration of the depths of our souls. With gentleness, wisdom, and expertise, A.C. invites us to connect with our body and get curious about the spaces within that feel most stuck—and find where we need safety, attunement and care.
Rather than a prescriptive “how-to” guide, The Sacred Art of Slowing Down offers unique therapeutic prompts and contemplative reflections to help uscultivate new rhythms to work with what’s happening inside rather than feeling like we’re working against ourselvesholistically explore the cognitive, emotional, spiritual, and somatic strands of ourselves—connecting with and honoring the whole of our created beingbecome more comfortable with being instead of getting caught up in doing through experiential exercisesembrace God’s tender compassion and care—especially for the most wounded parts of usWhen we slow down to connect with the depths of our being, we are able to move through life in freer, more wholehearted—and whole-bodied—ways. May these pages be a sacred space for all parts of us to be seen, held, and nourished.
It’s easy for everything in our lives to seem fine on the surface. But deep down inside, there’s often another story at play—one of overwhelm, stress and heartache, of finding ourselves stuck in old patterns. Rather than feeling the weight of it all, it’s easier to spend our days on autopilot, ignoring the noise inside.
But what if the peace and relief we most long for comes from tuning in with what’s happening inside, instead of tuning it out?
Join therapist Anna Christine (A.C.) Seiple on a compassionate, mindful exploration of the depths of our souls. With gentleness, wisdom, and expertise, A.C. invites us to connect with our body and get curious about the spaces within that feel most stuck—and find where we need safety, attunement and care.
Rather than a prescriptive “how-to” guide, The Sacred Art of Slowing Down offers unique therapeutic prompts and contemplative reflections to help uscultivate new rhythms to work with what’s happening inside rather than feeling like we’re working against ourselvesholistically explore the cognitive, emotional, spiritual, and somatic strands of ourselves—connecting with and honoring the whole of our created beingbecome more comfortable with being instead of getting caught up in doing through experiential exercisesembrace God’s tender compassion and care—especially for the most wounded parts of usWhen we slow down to connect with the depths of our being, we are able to move through life in freer, more wholehearted—and whole-bodied—ways. May these pages be a sacred space for all parts of us to be seen, held, and nourished.
- GenresChristian
240 pages, Paperback
Published September 9, 2025
30 people are currently reading
160 people want to read
About the author
Chuck DeGroat
29 books96 followersChuck DeGroat is director of the counseling center at City Church in San Francisco, as well as academic dean of the Newbigin House of Studies. He also served as professor and director of spiritual formation at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
September 14, 2025
I absolutely adored this book. Such a beautiful reminder to slow down and be. It was such a brilliant read.
September 9, 2025
Over the past several years, I’ve read a good number of books and listened to dozens of podcasts with experts in the field of Neuropsychology. I’ve been thankful for the efforts of these professionals to translate their clinical knowledge into language we can all understand and use on our healing journeys. While I’ve learned a lot from each of them, I’ve found much of it difficult to break down in a way that I can actually apply to my own story and growth. And then I started reading an ARC of AC Seiple’s book, The Sacred Art of Slowing Down and soon realized this one is different. It is easy to read, but it hits at a depth that none of the other books have quite managed. Partly, it’s the many relevant examples from her own life experience that makes the difference. She is relatable and vulnerable and speaks of her faith in such an honest way. But, for me, what has brought the most profound “aha” moments are the “Pause and Play” sections she includes at the end of each chapter. She offers these as gentle invitations to notice with curiosity what is happening internally, and somehow, each one has brought up something surprising, revealing an underlying root of my unhelpful patterns. These simple prompts and exercises have helped me explore and apply, in real time, the principles she communicates so effectively. This balance of learning and applying, in such an accessible way, has helped me to reach deep and I’m daring to hope that I can finally shift out of this feeling of being “stuck” that has driven me to seek out so many resources in the first place. I originally preordered the audiobook and I’m sure it will be a great listen, but I had to order a physical copy because this is a book I need to hold in my hands, mark up and revisit. I highly recommend this book to anyone who, like me, wants to be free from old patterns that play out on repeat in your daily life and relationships and feel like you’ve been trapped on a hamster wheel of "self-help" in pursuit of that freedom. Thank you AC, I’m truly grateful for your work.
October 6, 2025
As I find myself in the midst of various biblical counseling and trauma care certifications, this was a timely read. Seiple offers her readers a gentle, compassionate, and highly practical guide to explore the depths of our inner being while also coming to a greater awareness of how stress, grief, and anxiety influence our physical bodies. The many "pause and play" exercises included throughout each chapter are very explorative in nature and will encourage you to slow down long enough to pay attention to what is going on inside of you in the midst of the business and overwhelm of life. This isn't a book to rush through, but a tender companion to help you cultivate new rhythms of attunement and rest.
September 9, 2025
I didn’t realize how much I’d been living in overdrive until this book nudged me to pause and pay attention. The Sacred Art of Slowing Down feels like sitting with a wise and kind friend who knows how to ask just the right questions. Anna’s stories made me laugh, her invitations made me curious, and her gentle tone made me feel safe enough to listen to my own body in new ways.
I’ve spent years in church circles where slowing down and listening inward wasn’t really encouraged. This book helped me see that my body actually holds wisdom and that compassion shows up when I’m willing to pay attention. I’m already noticing more peace, more joy, and a softer way of moving through my days.
Highly recommend this book for anyone who’s tired and wants a kind, spiritual and embodied way back to themselves.
I’ve spent years in church circles where slowing down and listening inward wasn’t really encouraged. This book helped me see that my body actually holds wisdom and that compassion shows up when I’m willing to pay attention. I’m already noticing more peace, more joy, and a softer way of moving through my days.
Highly recommend this book for anyone who’s tired and wants a kind, spiritual and embodied way back to themselves.
September 17, 2025
The Sacred Art of Slowing Down is a beautiful, invitational, wise, and timely book that is also a guide into the sometimes uncomfortable yet urgently needed call to slow our lives down. As a licensed therapist, AC Seiple speaks to the complexities of our internal lives and the challenges we’ll encounter as we seek to slow down in a fast-paced world. Each chapter is woven together with prompts to pause and play, which makes even the reading of the book an invitation to slow down, and an experience of slowing down. If you’re someone who longs to become more present to life, to the people and experiences you desire to feel more attentive to, but are struggling to know how to lean in, this will be a gentle companion for your sacred journey. Highly recommend!
September 10, 2025
AC gives a thoughtful, thorough, practical, and approachable look into how our bodies, emotions, and souls are intertwined. You know you are cared for when you read the pages. Whether you are in the mental health field, or you’re just someone who wants to dig deeper and find more peace for the weary parts of you, this book can help. I absolutely appreciate the practical activities and questions to deepen learning and apply the truths to your life. Highly recommend!
November 10, 2025
Summary: Explores ways to become aware of our inner state, to tune into our bodies, and tend our souls.
Dallas Willard often advised his mentees as follows: “Hurry is the great enemy of the spiritual life in our day. You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.” But how do we eliminate hurry and slow down? Especially, how do we do so when our mind is racing and our body is tense? Licensed counselor A. C. Seiple combines therapeutic practices and spiritual insights to slow down, tune in to our bodies, and tend to our souls. In fact, those three phrases form the outline of this book. She approaches us as integrated beings woven from cognitive, emotional, somatic and spiritual strands combined with the narrative strands of our life story.
First, she explores how we can slow down. Seiple describes how in her own life she had two gears–go and stop, gas pedal and brake. Mostly, she was go, go, go until she crashed. She was caring for a husband with a traumatic brain injury. She didn’t feel any margin existed for stopping. But she was weary. A counselor helped her understand how her body was geared up to go, a function of her autonomic nervous system’s response to crisis. Often our bodies are trying to tell us things through pain, tension, or weariness. She describes her own experience of learning to listen to those messages and offers exercises for readers to practice the same. She also helps us hear with compassion the embedded beliefs that may be driving or dogging us.
Then she explores how we may tune in with the body. She explains neuroception and the subconscious ways our bodies respond to different situations. We may think our brain is driving, but not always. She helps with exercises to discern who is driving and whether that part is stepping on the gas or the brake, perhaps explaining why we want to slow down but can’t. She identifies three states–safety, stress, and shutdown–and our autonomic responses to each. Then she explores how we may anchor ourselves with God in a sacred space amid each of these states. She helps us reflect on our life story, and how different parts of us have responded in different episodes–how we fight or self-protect or freeze or flee.
Thirdly, she discusses how we use all this to tend to the depths of our souls. She offers help in tending to the forgotten or neglected parts of our lives. Then she turns to the places where we’ve been wounded. Finally, Seiple helps us explore our longings and steps that might be new movements for us.
Seiple illustrates ideas from her own experiences. Each chapter has “Pause and Play” sections where we can explore the concepts she’s shared in our own experience. Throughout, one has the sense that Seiple is a caring counselor, walking alongside and extending compassion, creating the safety to look at different parts of our lives. She invites curiosity rather than judgement or shame. She helps us find rest for every part of us, the place where we both know ourselves and are unafraid to know God. And she translates the “relentless elimination of hurry” from abstract advice to lived experience.
_______________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
Dallas Willard often advised his mentees as follows: “Hurry is the great enemy of the spiritual life in our day. You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.” But how do we eliminate hurry and slow down? Especially, how do we do so when our mind is racing and our body is tense? Licensed counselor A. C. Seiple combines therapeutic practices and spiritual insights to slow down, tune in to our bodies, and tend to our souls. In fact, those three phrases form the outline of this book. She approaches us as integrated beings woven from cognitive, emotional, somatic and spiritual strands combined with the narrative strands of our life story.
First, she explores how we can slow down. Seiple describes how in her own life she had two gears–go and stop, gas pedal and brake. Mostly, she was go, go, go until she crashed. She was caring for a husband with a traumatic brain injury. She didn’t feel any margin existed for stopping. But she was weary. A counselor helped her understand how her body was geared up to go, a function of her autonomic nervous system’s response to crisis. Often our bodies are trying to tell us things through pain, tension, or weariness. She describes her own experience of learning to listen to those messages and offers exercises for readers to practice the same. She also helps us hear with compassion the embedded beliefs that may be driving or dogging us.
Then she explores how we may tune in with the body. She explains neuroception and the subconscious ways our bodies respond to different situations. We may think our brain is driving, but not always. She helps with exercises to discern who is driving and whether that part is stepping on the gas or the brake, perhaps explaining why we want to slow down but can’t. She identifies three states–safety, stress, and shutdown–and our autonomic responses to each. Then she explores how we may anchor ourselves with God in a sacred space amid each of these states. She helps us reflect on our life story, and how different parts of us have responded in different episodes–how we fight or self-protect or freeze or flee.
Thirdly, she discusses how we use all this to tend to the depths of our souls. She offers help in tending to the forgotten or neglected parts of our lives. Then she turns to the places where we’ve been wounded. Finally, Seiple helps us explore our longings and steps that might be new movements for us.
Seiple illustrates ideas from her own experiences. Each chapter has “Pause and Play” sections where we can explore the concepts she’s shared in our own experience. Throughout, one has the sense that Seiple is a caring counselor, walking alongside and extending compassion, creating the safety to look at different parts of our lives. She invites curiosity rather than judgement or shame. She helps us find rest for every part of us, the place where we both know ourselves and are unafraid to know God. And she translates the “relentless elimination of hurry” from abstract advice to lived experience.
_______________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
September 12, 2025
Reading this book isn’t like reading a book, it’s like having personal sessions with a caring and knowledgeable therapist. The author has a true gift for explaining therapeutic concepts (neuroscience was a new one for me) through relatable examples, spiritual integration, and her own personal experiences, which in turn made me feel like I really got to know the author. Throughout the chapters, there are “Pause & Play” prompts to work through the material that was just presented. I can’t stress enough how I felt as though the author was holding my hand and gently guiding me on the journey of this book to: 1. slow down, 2. tune in with my body and, 3. tend to my soul. The end of the book is filled with a plethora of additional resources, questions and exercises which give me the tools and support to lovingly “tend to my garden” for the rest of my days. I absolutely loved this book and highly recommend it!
October 3, 2025
I absolutely loved this book! A.C. weaves together teaching, personal narrative, embodiment and spirituality seamlessly. And she does it in a way where her words soaked into my entire being, helping me to be embodied as I read. In each chapter she gently invites her readers to spend time with different parts of themselves and with their bodies. I appreciated these invitations to pause as they invited me into an intentional space to get to know more of “me.” I found this allowed me to grow in compassion for who I am and opened up space to explore ways to wholeness. The ways she teaches allowed me to sink into an even deeper understanding of the way my body and soul exist in this world. If you are looking for a book that invites you to slow down, enter your body, meet parts, be with God, and learn, then this is your book!
October 4, 2025
What a gift The Sacred Art of Slowing Down is. What does it feel like in your mind and body to slow down? Do you feel guilty, relaxed, unproductive, or renewed when you take that time to listen to your body and be present with yourself and your creator? A. C. Seiple’s book is one of real-life application and practice into how your body responds to the demands of life in the world and the importance of self-care and awareness. I love the ideas in the Pause and Play sections as she integrates each of her points into ways of practice. A. C. and I met in seminary, and it has been a great gift to watch her love of others and self to be culminated in such a beautiful, vulnerable, and valuable way, and of course, to be her friend. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Now back to slowing down.
September 16, 2025
This book provides insight into the state of our nervous systems and the need to slow down in order to achieve optimal physical and emotional health. I am in the busiest season of my life, yet this book provided me practical tools that are doable and realistic for me to implement into my life. I have been happier, calmer and more in control of my emotions since reading this book. This book is a must-read for anyone who is in “overdrive.” If you not only read this book, but take the time to do the exercises and meditations the author provides, your life will not be the same.
November 4, 2025
What a gift this book is! The first time I read through, I found myself reading much too fast…so I slowed down (!) and read just one chapter a day. Even that was too quick, so I know this will be a book I can return to in other seasons for a reminder of the importance of slowing down and listening to my body and spirit.
Reading this book felt like the next best thing to sitting down with a friend over coffee, meeting with a spiritual director, and going to therapy. The book left me feeling seen and known and encouraged to move towards health and rest in Jesus.
Reading this book felt like the next best thing to sitting down with a friend over coffee, meeting with a spiritual director, and going to therapy. The book left me feeling seen and known and encouraged to move towards health and rest in Jesus.
September 11, 2025
In a world where being constantly connected leaves you feeling disconnected and lonely. A.C.’s book will leave you feeling seen. She has a magical way of delicately touching your soul. The book has an inviting tone that gracefully leads you through the pages.
Her analogies are a perfect fit like the strokes of paintbrush on a canvas, painting a picture that anyone can understand and relate to.
Highly recommend!
Her analogies are a perfect fit like the strokes of paintbrush on a canvas, painting a picture that anyone can understand and relate to.
Highly recommend!
October 15, 2025
Therapeutically wise and so tenderly written. I enjoyed this book both as a human and also as a therapist- it is one I will come back to both personally and professionally. A.C’s beautiful weaves together sharing from her own experiences, therapeutic tools, and invitations to “pause and play.” I loved this book and appreciate too how A.C wove in biblical truth in a way that felt invitational and trauma-sensitive rather than overly prescriptive, rigid, or dogmatic. Grateful for this resource!
September 18, 2025
Reading The Sacred Art of Slowing Down felt like having a conversation with the author. It was comforting, yet also gently pushed me to pause and reflect. I especially loved the thoughtful prompts woven throughout. In a day and age where speed and efficiency are prized, this book is crucial for anyone needing to “slow down”. Highly recommend!!
October 6, 2025
A thoughtful guide for weaving the heart, mind, and body into holistic soul care. The personal stories and wisdom gleaned from years of experience are a treasure trove of insight, inspiration, and practical guidance. Every page feels like a gentle conversation with a wise friend holding space for your journey.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews