Why We Need to Slow Down and Reconnect With Nature

One thing Crohn’s disease has forced me to do is slow down.

Before my diagnosis I spent years in high-pressure work and study environments. At university everything was driven by deadlines, exams, and constant pressure to perform. After that I moved the world of sales where things sped up. Targets, tight timelines, constant productivity — I felt switched on all the time.

And when I speak to people now, I realise that this isn’t unique to me. Most people are living in a very way regardless of what job they do. The routines are fast, the expectations are high, and most people are exhausted and overworked a lot of the time.

Modern life constantly tells us we need to do more. Work harder. Be more productive. Achieve more in less time. Over time that pressure keeps many of us in a constant low-level stress response. It’s the same fight-or-flight response our bodies evolved to use in short bursts, but for many people now it’s running quietly in the background all the time.

When you’re living in that state, it becomes very easy to drift away from the things that actually support our health. Meals become rushed. Convenience foods start to replace real food. We rely on caffeine to push through the day and alcohol or other distractions to switch off for a few hours at the weekend. Crohn’s forced me to step back and reassess a lot of that.

When your body starts pushing back, you realise that constantly running at full speed isn’t sustainable. You begin to see that health isn’t just about what you eat — it’s about how you live. It’s about how much stress you carry, how much rest you allow yourself, and how connected you are to the things that actually make you feel well. Reconnecting with nature is part of that process. Not in some extreme or unrealistic way, but in small ways that bring your life back into balance. Spending time outdoors. Slowing down your meals. Cooking real food. Moving your body. Allowing yourself to rest without feeling guilty. For me, reconnecting has also meant becoming much more deliberate about how I use technology. Phones, emails and constant notifications can easily end up controlling our time if we’re not careful. The shift is learning to be the owner of your technology rather than letting it own you. Using it when it serves you, and switching it off when it doesn’t. Ultimately reconnecting is about recognising what genuinely adds value to your life and making space for those things again. Sometimes that means slowing down. Sometimes it means stepping outside. And sometimes it simply means giving yourself permission to move through life at a pace that your body can actually sustain.

For me, Crohn’s forced that lesson earlier than I might have learned it otherwise and if you are also navigating IBD it might be worth seeing how it affects you.