Ebb and flow.

I feel like there’s supposed to be an ebb and flow of activity and being quiet (stopping). 
But in our society it almost seems like stopping equates failure, or at least not being as successful as we could be.  I think I’m realizing that we, or I at least (I shouldn’t speak for everyone), can’t be in a continuous state of motion and activity anymore; if I don’t learn how to rest and to just breathe, I will not be able to be successful in everything (or really anything) else I do. 
Sometimes I feel like if I stop moving I will just fall apart.  Yet, as I look back on various times in my life, I notice that the times I was able to exist in the natural ebb and flow of activity and being quiet, I was so much more able to throw my heart into my work, into school, even into my relationships.  

I have had conversations like this with people before, and usually we conclude the conversation agreeing that something needs to change. 
The thing is, though: it never does.  Why is it that sometimes I learn something, but I do not allow that learning to change any behavior?  Can I truly say I have learned it then?  Now, I know this is grad school, and stopping and finding quiet in life is much more difficult while in school, especially in grad school.  But I also wonder: if I don’t learn it here, how will I ever be able to apply it once I graduate?