Slowing down to stay: A PhD student’s journey toward grounding

This year, I chose grounding. Not rushing. Slowing down doesn’t mean I stopped trying. It means I’m finally listening. I’m still learning. Still trying. But this time, with my feet on the ground.

For years, I lived my life jumping from idea to idea, from country to country, without fully closing a chapter. I remember one day in Indonesia, before returning to Saudi Arabia, when I decided to give away all my luggage from my hotel room to charity. I felt I needed to experience letting go. Truly letting go.

After so many years, and especially after starting my PhD, I realised something important: I didn’t need to read books about letting go. I had already been practicing it my whole life. Whenever there was conflict, I let it go. Whenever someone needed my approval, I let them go.

I’m deeply grateful to the friends who are still with me today. They made so much effort to hold me gently, even when I felt like a bird that could never be held.

Starting a PhD changed that. Suddenly, there were unfamiliar challenges: uncertainty around projects, learning how to manage deadlines, defining research directions, and adjusting to a long journey where progress is not always visible. This is part of the student experience, especially in research, and it demands more than academic skill. It requires patience, self-regulation, and resilience.

With that came lessons no one applauds you for: how to work without immediate results, how to stay motivated when no one is clapping for you, and how to manage time between planning, reading, working, and protecting your well-being.

We all know our strengths and weaknesses, yet we often forget how little we truly know about experiencing ourselves as human beings, how to build an inner kingdom instead of living in something fragile and temporary.

Ali ibn Abi Talib once said: “You presume you are a small entity, but within you is enfolded the entire universe.”

To become more grounded, I chose to work part-time in Birmingham. I volunteered in different societies as an artist, offering creativity as a way of healing. I joined the Art Society at the University of Birmingham and the Saudi Society, and I started my year by slowing down.

You might ask, how? By starting the day with nothing but awareness. When you open your eyes, pause. Be grateful. Name three simple things: that you can see, that you are healthy enough to read these words, and that you are here. And most importantly, don’t reach until you do the same, don’t reach for your phone. Let only you and your soul wake up together.

Journaling, drawing, and playing the guitar have become practical tools that support my well-being and help me think more clearly throughout my PhD journey. They remind me that slowing down can actually improve focus, intention, and sustainability. As students, we often feel pressure to move quickly and constantly produce. This year, I chose a different approach. I chose grounding not as a retreat from ambition, but as a way to stay connected to it. Sometimes, slowing down is not a step back. It is how we learn to stay.

This is not the end of the story, just a quieter beginning. Yes, I don’t have it all figured out, but I’m learning how to stay. Until then, I will continue to share and reflect, in the hope that this journey reminds others that we are not only researchers, we are humans too.