Ramadan as Wellbeing and Collective Permission to Slow Down
- Editorial Team
- 13 hours ago
- 4 min read
Do you ever wish the world would slow down with you, so you could finally stop justifying your limits?
Once a year, something quietly radical happens across many countries and communities: millions of people slow down at the same time.
Not as a personal lifestyle choice. Not as a private self-care goal. But as a collective shift in rhythm.
This is the part most health commentary misses. The “intervention” is not simply fasting. It is what fasting creates around it: fewer daytime demands, fewer social pressures to perform, a more intentional use of time, and a community-wide understanding that energy is finite.
For high-achieving women and midlife leaders, this matters because slowing down is rarely a knowledge problem. It is a permission problem.
The overlooked health lever: shared rhythm
When the pace changes collectively, something powerful happens at the nervous-system level:
Decision load drops (less negotiating, less constant choice-making)
Social expectations soften (less pressure to be “on” all day)
Work rhythms shift (meetings and external demands often reduce in many workplaces and public spaces)
Rest becomes culturally protected rather than personally defended
In other words: collective permission does what individual willpower cannot.
Even for people who are not fasting, this social “deceleration field” can be felt. It changes how quickly days move, how late productivity is expected, and how much the body is allowed to set the pace.
Body leads the way: the productivity lesson (not the food lesson)
At Calmfidence we follow a simple truth: the body keeps the score, and eventually, ofzen in midlife, it sets the limits.
Most modern productivity culture is based on override:
push through fatigue
treat stress as normal
manage the symptoms, keep the output
rest only when you have earned it
Ramadan flips that model, socially and practically.
For a month, many people live inside a structure where the body is not expected to behave like a machine. Energy fluctuates. Timing matters. The day is shaped around capacity. And crucially: you do not have to justify it, because the culture already understands.
This is what “body leads the way” looks like at scale:
capacity-aware schedules
fewer unnecessary meetings
less performative busyness
more respect for recovery cycles
a redefinition of what “productive” even means
What the research tends to support (with a reality check)
The research on Ramadan fasting often finds modest improvements in cardiometabolic markers in many (not all) people, with outcomes highly dependent on sleep, hydration, food quality, baseline health, and lifestyle patterns.
Just as importantly, research and clinical commentary repeatedly highlight that Ramadan is not only a dietary shift. It is a period characterised by reflection, meaning-making, and strengthened social orientation, which are themselves linked to wellbeing.
The key point: when health improves during Ramadan, it is usually because several levers change together, not because one behaviour is “the answer”.
The “no alcohol” factor (important, but not the whole story)
There is also a straightforward health lever worth naming:
Many people abstain from alcohol entirely during Ramadan, including in countries where alcohol consumption is already low due to cultural and religious norms.
From a public-health perspective, lower alcohol exposure is associated with reduced risk across multiple disease categories and injuries. So yes: a month of abstinence can remove a meaningful stressor for the body and brain, especially for people who otherwise drink regularly.
But at Calmfidence we avoid simplistic narratives. Health differences across regions are shaped by many factors (diet, sleep, smoking, pollution, healthcare access, injury patterns, stress load, socioeconomic conditions).
Alcohol is one lever among many. It is influential, but it is not the single explanation for “less disease”.
What leaders can borrow (without borrowing the religion)
You do not need to be observing Ramadan to apply the most potent mechanism: collective permission to slow down.
Here are three ways to translate that into leadership life:
1) Create “social permission” inside your team
declare lower meeting volume for a defined period
set shorter working windows
normalise slower response times
reward quality decisions, not speed theatre
2) Reduce the daily negotiation
fewer “maybe” commitments
fewer open loops
fewer micro-decisions (batching, templates, default choices)
3) Let the body set constraints before it enforces them
schedule around energy, not guilt or pressure
build recovery as part of strategic reset
treat fatigue as data, not a constraint of performance
This is the quiet antidote to overfunctioning: structural compassion, not motivational pressure and at Calmfidence World we cover emotional health for high-achieving women and leaders 40+ because real success requires nervous-system sustainability, not self-override.
If you recognise yourself in the pattern of pushing past your capacity, explore the Burnout Prevention and Recovery Map, where we show how recovery becomes intentional when you work with your current capacity rather than against it.
Ramadan fasting is not for everyone
This section is essential because Ramadan is not universally beneficial and should never be packaged as a wellness trend.
1) Sleep disruption can cancel benefits
Changes in sleep timing and evening schedules can reduce sleep quality for some people, which may impact mood, appetite regulation, cognition, and stress resilience.
2) Outcomes vary widely
Benefits are not automatic. They depend on:
hydration strategy
food quality during eating windows
sleep and circadian rhythm shifts
baseline metabolic health and medication needs
3) Some people need medical guidance or should not fast
Fasting may be unsafe or require clinical adjustment for people with conditions such as diabetes on certain medications, pregnancy/breastfeeding, kidney disease, dehydration risk, eating disorder history, and complex medication timing.
Calmclusion
Ramadan’s most modern lesson is not about discipline. It is about design.
When a culture gives people permission to slow down together, the nervous system stops fighting the calendar. And that is where healthier decisions become easier, energy becomes more stable, and productivity becomes sustainable.
In our terms: the body leads the way. Not because it is fragile, but because it is truthful.
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