Other than your yoga teacher or local police officer, no one in today’s world really sincerely says SLOW DOWN. Life is moving at such a fast pace. How does one keep up? Personally, just yesterday it seemed like May and now we’re more than halfway through July/summer. People barely say please, thank you or even hold the door as you walk-in behind them entering Starbucks.
Technology was once touted back in the 90’s as the way to make life simpler. Unfortunately, I think it’s made life more complex than it really needs to be. As a small business owner I feel I’m constantly behind. I love having my own mobile yoga business but often wish I had the office IT guy to call on (for free!) when things get whacky or for a mini-training session on hootesuite/twitter or syncing my calendars & address books. It seems like every other week facebook launches updates or there’s a new widget/gadget/app to consider.
Clearly I’m not the only one thinking this way. One of my favorite yoga teachers, Max Strom, has a new book soon to be released: There’s No App for Happiness. Here’s an excerpt:
There was a really good reason that the workers banded together to enforce an eight-hour workday. Now, excessive hours is becoming the norm in the civilized world again in today’s work force, from office workers to executives. We have a trend of people working 55-60 hour weeks and even being available into the night and answering emails or text messages in the middle of the night because they cannot sleep, never connecting the dots that the reason they cannot sleep is because they push their nervous system to the breaking point. When we work too much and don’t sleep enough, at the end of the day we don’t have the brain energy or inspiration to pursue the things that are truly important to our life – even to our primary relationships– we only want to rest and be entertained before we collapse into our bed and hope that we can sleep through the night. So, there is a huge cost vs. benefit to 60-hour workweeks and 6 hour a night sleep habit. Some have to work insane hours just to get by. Others work insane hours because they are simply expected to. (Something to think about at 3am.) – Max Strom
I look forward to getting Max’s new book. I’m certain there will be a lot of things I’ll be able to relate to as well as share with my yoga students —both my private yoga and office yoga students. If you’re not much of a reader (as you prefer to stare non-stop at a screen such as your iPad/computer/iPhone) then check out his TEDx Talk. As Max stated, it just might give you something else to think about when you wake up in the middle of the night and your mind is cranked up on high speed.
Lastly, I leave you with this well-known Zen saying: “You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes a day, unless you are too busy; then you should sit for an hour” It makes you wonder…what will it take for us to realize that less is really more? And is slowing down about to be extinct (if it’s not already)?
Well said. Our world moves at such a fast pace it is so often difficult to find time for ourselves, and especially in regards to taking care of our bodies, minds and souls with yogic practice, but it is something that is so necessary in order to maintain our own emotional stability.
Regardless how or what type of exercise you do staying limber is key to a healthy body, and what does it better than yoga. As a chiropractor in Mt Pleasant, SC
and healthy living advocate I see all the time the effects of unhealthy living and not stretching. Many of my patients could avoid problems with their spine, and body if they just stretched and slowed down a bit.
I agree – technology does less for simplifying life and really just gives us more relationships, communications, and tools to manage. When I do vacations I make sure to do all my messaging, texting, and emailing in the morning and then spend the whole day “unplugged”. This might be the only manageable way to SLOW DOWN, since being completely disconnected is not really an option.
~ Sarah @ flexdeal