I'm curious if you've noticed how quickly things seem to speed up lately. I often hear how difficult it is to "keep up" with the demands of our daily life. Our attention seems to be demanded by everything around us. The increase in information has, in my opinion, come at the expense of our ability to filter incoming bits of data and to set our own organic ways of pacing ourselves and our life.
I'm all for learning and being stimulated, inspired by the abundance of our world, that can give us energy and support us on. The challenges begin when the informational demands outweigh our ability to connect with a pace and a rhythm that kindles curiosity and begins to feel pressured, constricted and exacting.
I know we've created a world that values productivity above all else. The patterns of interactions inherited from colonialism, industrialization and hyper capitalism has shaped every aspect of our society, our family, social, educational, political and employment structures. The expectations placed on our performance, the competitiveness with which we are measured and judged based on our contributions, is crippling to many and unsustainable for most.
The consequences of this rush to pursue, create, maintain these fabricated paradigms are many, and we can clearly see them in our body's response to this level of stress. Disruptions in sleep, anxiety, nervous system dysregulation, substance abuse, and social disconnection are just some of the results of modern life and accepted as normal to a large degree. Add to this the incapacitating and crippling impact of social media reinforcing our fears, our need for acceptance and our terror of rejection and you have a system which controls and suppresses our ability to know Our Selves.
Something happened many thousands of years ago where we created the path we're on. However strong this path must've been, whatever the reasons that evolutionarily, biophysically and economically set this competitive, cut throat pace we're on, it's important to remember that, it is only one path out of billions of possibilities. We've been walking this way so long, we've forgotten that it really is a collectively agreed upon idea, that somehow has become absolute. Within us lies the possibility of seeing through the flimsiness that holds it as truth.
I invite you to explore this within your own life. Invite yourself to pay attention to the pace and rhythms of your life. Listen to what pushes you, motivates you, repels you. Listen with your body, it often offers the loudest and clearest message. Recognize the key components of your experience, the fear, the desire to be valued, recognized, to feel connected and find curiosity to see the links that bind it. Observe the sensations, the emotions and the stories that accompany your experience and be a witness in your own life. Pay attention to the pace you approach things with, the rhythm of your body, your thoughts, your emotions in response to these experiences and test out new ways of moving with it all. Slowing your pace, not just with your mind, but particularly with your body, your breath, will give you space to see what you need, what you feel and sense and hopefully lead you to a more genuine experience of your Self in your life.
Comments