Learning to Slow the F*ck Down: How I Turned Pain Into Art and Alchemy
I was taught that slowing down was dangerous. That rest meant something bad was about to happen. For years, my nervous system lived in fight-or-flight—until I found art, my ultimate form of transformation. This is the story of how I turned pain into power, fear into self-expression, and chaos into alchemy.
3-5 minute read
by: Sunny Voitsekhovsky
I’ve been learning how incredibly uncomfortable it feels to face the slow.
Walking my dog through the forest, I notice how unnatural it feels to just… breathe. To stroll. To let my body relax into the rhythm of the earth. Because I wasn’t taught to slow down.
I was taught to rush.
To brace.
To survive.
Growing up, slowing down wasn’t just uncomfortable—it was unsafe.
I was wired to be on high alert. My nervous system didn’t know rest. My childhood was full of hypervigilance, fear, self-doubt, and emotional caretaking.
I was expected to monitor everyone else’s moods, behaviours, and reactions—while raising myself in the process.
Meditation? Yoga? Nervous system regulation?
I didn’t learn those words until my 20s.
As a kid, fulfillment wasn’t allowed. Play wasn’t encouraged. Rest wasn’t modelled. Everything had to be done in a frantic rush—usually because my mom spent too long getting ready, or because the house wasn’t “perfect” enough.
I remember watching her clean obsessively. Every fingerprint on a window, every crumb on the floor—she couldn’t let them be. It wasn’t about meaning or joy; it was about fear. Fear of stillness. Fear of facing emotions that threatened to rise to the surface.
And when she wasn’t scrubbing, she was glued to her Russian Farming video game—collecting fake coins and fake dopamine hits, chasing instant gratification instead of fulfillment.
She’s in her 70s now. Still stuck. Still unhappy. Still disconnected from nature, animals, and herself. Her whole life became a single, long-standing coping mechanism. No deep relationships, no rituals, no practices for true self-connection. Just avoidance.
When you keep going down an avoidant path, there’s nowhere else but down
And that legacy? She tried to hand it down to me.
But I said, fuck that.
I didn’t want to end up living in fear of myself, my emotions, my own f*cking life (or my mind).
So I turned to the only thing that ever felt like home: art.
As a kid, art was my escape. As an adult, it became my transformation. My alchemy.
When the weight of emotions threatened to crush me, I learned to pour them onto the canvas instead of burying them. Whether with paint, collage, or digital art—my pieces became containers for all the rage, grief, and longing I wasn’t allowed to express.
I finally opened my Etsy shop after being inactive for 6 years. Fear showed up (of course it did), but so did excitement and openness. And here’s the truth: you can move through fear. You can do the thing your soul is calling you to do. This is your sign to go for it—because you’re meant for so much more than hesitation. Visit my Etsy Shop >
Art saved my life.
What started as survival became liberation. What began as an escape evolved into an expansion.
Through art, I’ve given myself permission to slow down. To feel. To f*cking exist in my body.
And every piece I create carries that frequency. When you see my art, you’re not just looking at colours on a canvas—you’re witnessing transformation in real time. The alchemy of turning pain into whimsy, fear into power, chaos into creation.
If you want to experience that alchemy for yourself, you can explore my pieces here. Let them speak to your heart, your nervous system, your soul.
Because slowing down might feel unsafe at first. But when you finally do—it just might save your life.
Ready to be seen and noticed?
Art was my first form of alchemy. It gave me space to transform pain into beauty, fear into power, and survival into freedom. And here’s what I know: you don’t have to do this alone.
If you’re an Artist, Creative, or soul-led Entrepreneur who’s ready to be seen, get noticed, and finally follow your dreams—I’d love to help you. Book a Velvet Va Strategy Call with me, and let’s map out your unique path to being recognized for the magic you create.