Living the fast life

ARE you sitting comfortably? Good. Now we can begin. Before you get fully into this column, I have some instructions for you. Are you ready?

Please sit comfortably and quietly. Now begin to breathe slowly and deeply, in and out, in and out. Do this for 10 breaths. You may close your eyes if you wish.

OK. So how did that feel?

Do you now feel relaxed and calm?

Did you obey the instructions, or did you keep on reading the article? Did you check your mobile phone before reaching the end?

In today’s world, the demand is for speed at all costs.

The pace of life is accelerating. A lot of folk these days go to bed in a state of exhaustion. And sometimes they can’t sleep because their minds are in turmoil. And it’s making people ill.

In the workplace, the increased speed often leads to low, not high, productivity. The once-vaunted multi-tasking has been shown to have its downsides. Running like a hamster on a wheel is conducive neither to increased efficiency nor to personal well-being.

I am interested in the work of Canadianborn journalist Carl Honore. He has become an advocate of what is known as ‘The Slow Movement’. The movement is a reaction to the acceleration of modern life and the harm it can cause.

“We used to dial; now we speed dial,” he said in a recent lecture. “We used to read; now we speed read. We used to walk; now we speed walk. And of course, we used to date and now we speed date. And even things that are by their very nature slow – we try and speed them up too.

“I was in New York recently, and I walked past a gym that had an advertisement in the window for a new evening course. And it was for, you guessed it, speed yoga. So this – the perfect solution for timestarved professionals who want to salute the sun, but only want to give over about 20 minutes to it.”

I like the seasons of the Christian Year. They’re not very Presbyterian, but they’re none the worse for that.

The seasons invite you to slow down, calm down, and focus on particular aspects of the Christian faith.

Take the season we are currently in – Lent.

We are invited to meditate on the sufferings of Christ, to slow down and give the subject matter proper attention. Switching off one’s mobile phone, with its insistent beeping demands, might be a good start.

There are lots of excellent, easily available, resources to feed the soul in a time of quiet – I would recommend Janet Morley’s book The Heart’s Time: A Poem a dayfor Lent and Easter.

“The pace of life is accelerating. A lot of folk these days go to bed in a state of exhaustion. And sometimes they can’t sleep because their minds are in turmoil.

I like Carl Honore’s observation: “We’re hurrying through our lives, instead of actually living them – we’re living the fast life, instead of the good life.”

I also like the words of actress and writer Carrie Fisher: “These days even instant gratification takes too long.”

Right, then: are you sitting comfortably? Good. Now we shall begin again…