Making More Time in Your Life

Time is the precious commodity in our modern lives that most of us just don’t seem to have enough of these days. In fact, its the number one reason that people don’t commit more often to a healthier lifestyle. It can feel exhausting; we’re living at a breakneck pace!

Don’t rush. Rest. Refuel. Refill. Relax. Take time

The irony continues when we begin to realize that the devices that were originally designed to save us time are taking away our ‘free’ time rather than increasing it. Computers, cell phones, the Web, microwaves, and fast food have cranked us up to a faster speed than ever before. We believe that this speed is not only positive, but it is necessary to get ahead, keep up, and make the grade (whatever that is). We are living in a culture of speed with the edict “move it faster and faster or risk getting run over.”

More Speed, Less Joy

Author Jay Walljasper observes that even our evolving music trends have reflected our increasingly speedy realities. Historically, the Waltz was replaced by Ragtime, followed by ever-accelerating music up through the present day—Jazz, Boogie-Woogie, Rock n’ Roll, Disco, Speed Metal, and Techno, which is now up to over 200 beats per minute. He cautions us that, unfortunately, the faster we go, the farther we feel like we have fallen behind. We find ourselves racing through meals, work, family time, and social gatherings, trying quickly to get to the next thing.

Jeremy Rifkin, in his book Time Wars, writes: “We have quickened the pace of life only to become less patient. We have become more organized, but less spontaneous, less joyful. We are better prepared to act on the future, but less able to enjoy the present. As the tempo of modern life has continued to accelerate, we feel increasingly out of touch with the rhythms of life and with one another.”

These fast paced, entrenched patterns condition us to skim the surface of most experiences. This even happens during leisure time. Case in point, a study conducted at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. found that the average time that visitors spent looking at any exhibit was just 5 to 10 seconds—about the same amount of time it would take to flip through a picture book of animals. Yikes!

It’s time for us to slow it all down, to invite and induce the coziness and sweetness back in.

Make a Shift

This portrait of the need for speed has isolation written all over it. Author and speaker Wayne Muller writes: “In the rush of movement, we forget our gifts, we lose touch with our intuition, and we become deaf to our genuine, inner wisdom. When we lose touch with ourselves, it starts a chain reaction of dis-connection and often dis-ease in our health and in our relationships.”

So what can we shift in order to begin to heal what Dr. Larry Dossey refers to as ‘Time-Sickness’—this tendency to “Zoom and Gloom?”

Awareness is always the first step. Begin to recognize and identify places in your life where you are feeling pushed, frenzied, where you are skimming the surface. Deep, abiding change begins one small step at a time. See if you can shift some rhythms in your day from head to heart. Stop and pause before eating your meals. Say a blessing, or just turn to mindfulness and gratitude for all that you have in your life. After work, sit in your car for 5 minutes in silence as a way to build in some much needed transition time before driving home.

Connection and intimacy form the foundation of a more supportive, healthy “I’ve got this” life. It’s time for us to slow it all down, to invite and induce the coziness and sweetness back in. Take a gratitude inventory right now. This inventory, grounded in the present, in all of its fullness, will bring us back to feeling safe, trusting and abundant in the N.O.W.—acronym for Not One Worry.

Don’t rush. Rest. Refuel. Refill. Relax. Take time.

What do you experience when you slow down and shift your daily rhythms from head to heart?