Slowing Down: How to Destress in a World Full of Demands
Up North therapists share how to disconnect, reconnect, and restore
In our constantly connected, ever-moving lives, it’s all too easy to get swept up in the waves of work, news, schedules and obligations. We rarely carve space for ourselves—and that’s when stress, anxiety, and burnout creep in.
Northern Express spoke with three therapists from northern Michigan about how they help clients slow down, reconnect with themselves, others, and nature, and build routines that support mental wellness.
Nicole Ball: Owner & Therapist, Mental Wellness Counseling
Ball leads a growing private practice with four locations across northern Michigan (two in Traverse City, one in Manistee, one in Cadillac). She says she provides a compassionate, confidential space where individuals and families can explore life’s challenges, build resilience, and move toward a more balanced and fulfilling life.
“Anxiety and stress are often about trying to balance work life, relationships, financial struggles, home management, kids, schedules, what is happening in the news,” Ball explains about the daily battles many of us face. “We rarely slow down enough to be intentional about creating space and time for ourselves.”
Top Tips
Be intentional. Set aside time, money, and space for yourself. You are responsible for creating this and being intentional about it—no one else will do it for you.
Say no. We often feel like we have to say yes to everything and everyone. Saying no is a way to set boundaries with ourselves and others.
Practice relaxation and mindfulness techniques. Methods such as deep-breathing exercises and meditation help calm your mind and activate your body’s relaxation response.
Ball encourages being kind and understanding with yourself. If you’re overwhelmed, don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Favorite Practices
Mindfulness: Regular mindfulness meditation (via many mobile apps).
Movement: Move your body. It will help relax your body and mind.
Activities to unwind: reading, spending time in nature, or pursuing a hobby.
Trina Paddock: Owner of Paddock Counseling
Paddock Counseling began in 2010 as a part-time practice in Cadillac and has grown to a team of 10 counselors/social workers, interns, and support staff. Paddock’s expertise lies in alcohol and drug use disorders, problem gambling, mood disorders, anxiety, trauma, and working with professionals experiencing these issues, along with relationship-based concerns.
Top Tips
Don’t take things personally. Often it isn’t about you, even if it feels that way.
Boundaries are self-care. They aren’t an attempt to change someone else; they’re a way to protect your own lane.
Use the DBT skill “REST” (Relax – Evaluate – Set an intention – Take action). Keep the focus simple to address what’s in front of you rather than the whole life or situation.
Favorite Practices
Reconnecting amid a busy schedule: Paddock emphasizes the importance of tuning into your body—noticing breathing, movement, and tension—and giving that awareness time. She also highlights nature’s power: by quieting ourselves we can notice the many facets of the natural world.
Recommended routine: Let your body “talk” to you. In one example, Paddock worked with a woman who felt stomach “churning”—by tuning in, she realized she was hungry and calmed down after a snack.
Personal mantra: “Take good care of yourself.” Striving for perfection adds pressure. “Being ‘good enough’ allows those around us to grow and thrive at their own pace.”
Isabel Lorton: Therapist, Head & Heart Therapeutic Solutions
Lorton grew up in northern Michigan, attended Michigan State University, moved to Chicago for graduate school, and returned to the region in 2015. At her TC-based practice, she blends humanistic values with creative exploration and fearless conversations in her practice.
Her work is rooted in helping clients untangle wounds of attachment and the patterns that shape relationships, self-worth, and daily life. Lorton specialized in trauma and utilized EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) and IFS (internal family systems).
Top Tips
Create a safe space to honor all emotions and identities—allowing healing to be complex, outside the box, and infused with radical self-compassion.
Encourage creative self-expression (e.g., blending humor, drawing or metaphor) to support the therapeutic process.
Foster connection with one’s narrative: “Which stories no longer serve you?” and build a path toward a “fuller, freer version of yourself.”
Favorite Practices
Five senses check in: This can be done in any bathroom, coat closet, or car as needed. Hold out your hand, look at your five fingers, then close your eyes and take two to five deep breaths on all of your five senses.
- Ears: What are you hearing? What subtle sounds do you notice once you are breathing quietly?
- Eyes: What can you see filtering through the thin skin of your eyelids? How does the light shift and change, what colors are you seeing, do those change when you start to pay attention to them?
- Touch: Notice each of your fingertips—this is the highest concentration of nerve endings in our body. Do you feel them hum and tingle when you focus on them?
- Taste: What is lingering on your tongue or in your mouth?
- Smell: What can you smell? If nothing, bring your clothing or hand to your nose. What does that smell like?
Butterfly Hug and Ear Pull: Cross your arms over your chest and put each hand on the opposite shoulder. Then close your eyes and slowly pat yourself, right, left, right, left, etc. while counting to 100. When you are done, grab each earlobe, gently pull down and out, alternating sides and count to 50.
Ball Bounce: Close your eyes and envision the color that you most associate with joy. Then focus on the top of your head. Imagine a ball that is your chosen color is bouncing slowly from the very top of your head to the very bottom of your tailbone and back up. Count bounces anywhere between 50 and 100.
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