The Gift of Ten Percent Slower
“Forever is composed of nows."
-Emily Dickinson
Dear friends,
As the holiday season unfolds, many of us feel an increase in pace. There’s more gatherings, more planning, more movement, and even joyful things can stir the sense that we’re being pulled forward faster than we’d like. Amid all the activity, it’s easy to find ourselves rushing, already in the next moment instead of present within the one that we’re in.
In the spirit of slowing down, I recently spent an unhurried weekend with a close friend and my husband. We chose one simple thing to do each day. This included a visit to Red Apple Farm, where the photo above was taken during their festival of lights, and the next day to Emily Dickinson’s house, which isn’t too far from our home in Massachusetts.
Walking through Emily's house, reading her words against the backdrop of her own wallpaper, I was struck by the beauty of her words. I later came across this quote written by her, “Forever is composed of nows,” which got me thinking about presence being the only real pace of life.
When we’re rushing—through conversations, through our to-do lists, through our days—it’s very easy to miss the “nows” that our forever is made of.
Moving into a New Year
As we come to the end of 2025, many of us are already thinking ahead to the new year. Culturally, we’re encouraged to make resolutions and create big goals. There is nothing wrong with wanting to care well for our bodies, advance our careers, foster our relationships, or tend to our inner lives. Aspiration is not the problem.
The difficulty arises when our aspirations are born from an “all or nothing” mindset and impact a nervous system that is already overtaxed. We live in a world that keeps speeding up, and our minds and bodies try to keep pace.
When the mind feels it has too much to do, it becomes frenetic, and the body responds by speeding up. We move faster, talk faster, think faster. That, in turn, sends a message back to the mind that something must be wrong.
Over time, this “toppling forward” can become our default. We may find ourselves half-listening in conversations, missing the taste of the food we’re eating, barely noticing the people we love right in front of us, and living mostly in the next moment rather than the one we’re in.
Mindfulness and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive therapy (MBCT) invite us to work with this pattern differently. Rather than adding more to our list, we learn to relate differently to the life we’re already living.
The Gift of Ten Percent Slower
A teaching I return to often—first learned from meditation teacher, Chas DeCapua—is the practice of moving through life 10 percent slower. Moving 10 percent slower isn’t about doing less. Rather, it’s about bringing a more unhurried quality to what you’re already doing.
A small shift in pace can create more space in the nervous system, more awareness of thoughts and emotions, and a steadier sense of presence. Walking a bit more slowly, pausing before responding, or placing something down with care can be enough to reconnect you with the moment you’re in.
Slowing in this way is not to be confused with dullness or lack of motivation. Rather, it’s an intentional act of care for your own mind and body, and for the people and things you move among each day. And in these darker months, when nature turns inward and settles, there is a quiet wisdom in letting our own pace soften as well.
The Practice
As we close out this year and step into 2026, I’d like to offer a simple practice, which I’m calling A Pause for Breath—a title inspired by the words of Emily Dickinson. If you’d like, you can copy this practice and put it somewhere accessible, perhaps returning to it throughout the rest of the holiday season and into the new year.
A Pause For Breath
One of the places we often get caught is in the urge to do more, more, more.
Rather than doing more, you might experiment with simply being with what you are already doing—relaxing into it, settling into your seat, and letting yourself enjoy the moments you are in mindfully.
Throughout each day and night, if it occurs to you to pause, take a breath. Slow down by 10 percent if you care to, whenever you feel the desire to reset into now and into a gentler pace. Look around you. Notice the colors, the smells, the tastes, the sensations of touch inside and outside the body, and the sounds.
And say to yourself: Just this moment. Just this moment. Right here, right now.
As you move through the holidays and into the new year, the invitation is simple: Rather than adding another resolution to your list, consider setting an intention to slow down instead. What could 2026 look and feel like for you if you set an intention to move through life 10% slower?
Perhaps, as Emily Dickinson reminds us, by moving at a slower and more intentional pace, you’ll create the space for a few more of your “nows” to be fully felt.
I want to express my deepest gratitude, appreciation and love to each of you.
Thank you for your presence—I’m so happy that you are here!
May you be filled with warmth and kindness.
May you be happy, healthy, and safe.
May your heart know peace.
Wishing you presence, softness and clarity this holiday season.
With warmth,
Karen
Save The Dates: 2026 Monthly MBCT Gatherings
When: The second Tuesday of the month (January - May 2026)
Time: 6:30–7:45 p.m. ET
Format: Online, live on Zoom
If this speaks to you, you might mark your calendar—even if you’re not yet sure you’ll attend. Sometimes just holding the space is the first step.
You can learn more about the group sessions on the mindfulness meditations sessions page on my website. To register, or if you have questions, please contact me directly at karen@drkarenwalant.com.
8-Week MBCT Online Course
Spring 2026 Registration Is Now Open!
Do you want to meet difficult thoughts and emotions with more clarity, kindness, and ease? Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) offers supportive ways to pause, soften, and skillfully relate to your inner world with more spaciousness and compassion.
Over eight weeks, we'll explore practices that help you recognize unhelpful patterns, stay grounded in the present moment, and navigate stress, anxiety, low mood, and self-criticism with increased steadiness and choice. Through weekly sessions, guided meditations, mindful self-inquiry, and a half-day retreat, the course invites you into a more friendly, accepting relationship with your mind, emotions, and body.
Spring 2026 Session: March 5 – April 23
To learn more, visit the MBCT Course page on the website.
To register or ask questions, contact Karen directly: karen@drkarenwalant.com
If you know of anyone interested in deepening their mindfulness and meditation practices, please forward this email along and invite them to join as well! All are welcome and can sign up for the newsletter on my website.
About Dr. Karen Walant
Dr. Karen Walant is a psychotherapist with more than three decades of experience grounded in mindfulness, Buddhist psychology, and contemporary clinical practice. She holds an MSW and PhD in Clinical Social Work from New York University, has presented multiple times at Harvard’s Cambridge Health Alliance, and has lectured nationally on attachment, mindfulness, addiction and recovery, and compassionate relationships. A longtime meditator and teacher, Karen is a graduate of Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield’s Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program, a certified Mindfulness Meditation Mentor, and a graduate of the Institute for Mindfulness and Psychotherapy. She is also a certified Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) teacher through Brown University, where her 8-week MBCT course is recognized as eligible for entry into their Foundations training. Karen is the author of Creating the Capacity for Attachment: Treating Addictions and the Alienated Self.