How Our Bodies Pay the Price for Our Hurried Lives
My inflammation investigation
Hi, I’m Claudia. I help you face a hurried world with greater confidence in your “Power of Slow.”
You are reading the subsection "SlowPOWER" of the publication "Un-Rush: The Power of Slow," in which I demonstrate the absurdity of rushing and help you realize how slowing down benefits your life and work.
Don’t be shy to share it with fellow rebels against the hurry culture and click the❤️ button, so more people can discover it on Substack. Thank you!
How Our Bodies Pay the Price for Our Hurried Lives
My inflammation investigation
My Mystery Pains
I didn’t trip, I didn’t twist, but my left ankle started hurting, as if I tripped while jogging or missed a step. Weird. It was swollen, and I had to limp. And some days later, I had to sit on the train for 8 hours traveling to my hometown in Germany. I was stressed getting ready for the trip, and the week at “home” was stressful on various levels. Luckily, with some really nice, but limping, walks in the forest with friends or family in between. Coming back from the trip, I was stressed again, still being distracted from the previous week, and trying to catch up on my work. The ankle was still swollen, and then a mysterious toothache started. What the hell was going on?
The Revelation: Our Bodies Keep Score
I settled in and got back into my rhythms of the day, including meditation and walks in nature. Actually, no walks yet, due to the weirdo ankle. Then, during the night, my whole body was in pain and felt like an overly active car repair shop where an army of busy workers were hammering, welding, soldering, and screwing. The next morning, the toothache was gone, and over the day, the ankle was less swollen and quickly improved over the next few days.
So, I was wondering if these had not been random pains but my body's way of keeping tabs on my stress from the past two weeks? I decided to dig deeper. Here is what I found.
75% to 90% of human disease is related to stress and inflammation, including most cardiovascular and metabolic diseases and neurodegenerative disorders. From the Institute of Functional Medicine, we learn that inflammation is our body's way of waving a red flag. Chronic stress is obviously not worth it; it hijacks our body’s natural healing system, and then we are in real deep trouble. It turns out that this pain can show up anywhere - teeth, joints, muscles. Research strongly supports the connection between stress and inflammation in the body, and my experience with a toothache and ankle pain during a stressful period aligns with what scientists have discovered.
The Absurdity of Our Modern Life Rushing
We've normalized constant rushing, the badge of honor is being "crazy busy," and we have weird feelings of guilt when we're not stressed.
Sometimes it can happen that we encounter some intense periods at work or in life, when it comes to deadlines or special circumstances, and we just have to push through it. No doubt about it, it’s part of life. But, it definitely shouldn’t become the norm. Because our bodies and brains are honest accountants, tallying up every rushed moment, every skipped break, every "I don't have time for this."
Research shows that when we're under stress, our bodies undergo complex changes that can trigger inflammation throughout different systems. Inflammation is your body's confused emergency response team showing up everywhere.
Normally, stress activates some stuff in your body (e.g., cortisol) that is meant to suppress inflammation. With ongoing stress, on the other hand, your body stops responding properly to its own anti-inflammatory signals.
This means that the inflammation triggered by stress can show up anywhere in your body - your joints, your teeth and gums, your digestive system, even your brain.
Become aware of us crazy humans rushing to meetings about efficiency while our bodies break down from inefficiency. What does it help you to hurry, thinking you save time while spending hours dealing with stress-induced health issues? Do you really pride yourself on being "always on" while your immune system goes offline?
We chase productivity while our bodies become counterproductive.
You want to be smarter than everyone else? Then face a hurried world with the confidence that slowing down is your power in everyday life.
The Real Price of "Saving Time"
There are hidden costs of our speed addiction. There are so many ways rushing backfires on us.
The Relationship Tax – Rushing also creates emotional inflammation - we damage our connections in the name of efficiency. Here’s the cruelest irony - we rush through life to create more time for the people we love - but rushing robs us of the very presence that makes relationships meaningful.
We cut short conversations with our children because we're "too busy," then wonder why they stop talking to us. We schedule efficiency over intimacy, mistaking productivity for connection. The inflammation in our bodies mirrors the inflammation in our relationships - both are stress responses to not being truly seen and heard. We're literally making ourselves too stressed to receive the love that would heal us.
The Health Debt – You are paying a health debt. This isn't just about future medical bills (though those are real). It's about the compound interest on stress - every day you operate in rush mode, you're making a withdrawal from your future energy, creativity, and presence.
My ankle pain, the toothache, these were just the interest payments. The principal debt is the life force we're spending on urgency that usually isn't urgent at all. We're bankrupting our future selves to fund today's artificial emergencies. And unlike financial debt, you can't just declare bankruptcy on your nervous system.
The Vicious Cycle Trap – Your body creates inflammation to deal with stress, but inflammation itself becomes a stressor. You rush because you're in pain, but rushing creates more pain. It's like being stuck in a revolving door of your own making.
The Productivity Paradox – We rush to be more productive, but stress-induced inflammation literally makes our brains less efficient. Chronic inflammation affects cognitive function, memory, and decision-making. We're essentially making ourselves dumber in the name of getting more done.
The Time Theft – Think about the hours you spend dealing with stress-related health issues - doctor visits, sick days, the mental energy spent managing pain and discomfort. The time we think we're "saving" by rushing gets stolen back by our bodies, with interest.
The Irony of Emergency Mode – We live in constant emergency mode, but when real emergencies happen, our stress-response system is already exhausted.
Breaking the Cycle – The Radical Act of Slowing Down
The beautiful irony is that the solution sounds too simple to work, and that's exactly why it does work. And you can build your confidence in creating your own rhythm in life, and slow down while others try to pressure and push you.
Here is a Counter-Intuitive Truth. When you slow down, you don't fall behind - you actually start moving more efficiently. It's like the difference between running frantically in circles versus walking purposefully toward your destination.
Micro-Rebellions Against Rush Culture:
This is about reframing slowing down as an act of intelligence and rebellion, not laziness. I am not asking you to quit your job and overhaul your entire life; I just want you to question whether all that urgency is real.
Small acts of rebellion can break the inflammation cycle:
Taking three deep breaths before checking your phone
Eating lunch away from your computer screen
Walking to meetings instead of running
Allowing buffer time between commitments (Geee whiz. Revolutionary!)
The Compound Effect of Calm – Just as stress and inflammation compound into bigger problems, calm and presence compound into better health. Every moment you choose not to rush is an investment in your body's ability to heal itself.
Redefining Urgency – Most of what feels urgent is actually just habitual rushing. True urgency is rare. Learning to distinguish between the two is like developing a superpower - suddenly, you see how much of the rush is completely manufactured.
The Permission to Be Human – Our bodies weren't designed to operate at computer speed. Giving yourself permission to move at a human pace isn't lazy - it's biomechanically sound.
The Ripple Effect – When you stop rushing, you give others permission to slow down too. You become a walking example that there's another way to live, work, and be productive.
Listening as a Practice – Your body is constantly sending you information - tension in your shoulders, tightness in your jaw, my mysterious ankle pain. When you slow down enough to listen, you can address small stresses before they become inflammatory emergencies. Now I know better.
Listen to Your Body's Wisdom
When we constantly rush and put ourselves under chronic stress, we're creating inflammatory conditions throughout our bodies that can manifest as seemingly random aches and pains.
My experience with the inflamed ankle and later the toothache makes perfect sense from a physiological standpoint. During those two weeks of stress, my body was likely in a state of heightened inflammatory response. When the stress got less and I took time and care of myself again, my body's natural anti-inflammatory systems could function normally again, allowing both areas to heal.
You have permission to be a biological being in a digital world.
And keep in mind that your slowing down also becomes an act of service to others, not just self-care.
Inspirational nudges I compiled for you
Here is a curated list of articles/links on the topic of slowing down and creating your life.
In the German UNESCO city of Trier. 15 June – 23 November 2025
The 10 most livable cities in the world in 2025
One place is Copenhagen, Denmark. In place 10 is Vancouver, Canada. See which cities are in between. Spoiler, mostly European and Australian cities. The highest-ranked U.S. city on the list, coming in No. 23, is Honolulu.
Japanese saying on the art of thoughtful elimination:
“Your garden is not complete until there is nothing else you can take out of it.”
The same counts for many other fields in life. Photography, design, architecture, poetry, etc.
