We are anything but peaceful and silent in our culture. Instead, we are always going at incredible speeds. There is noise all around us. We overwork, overdo, over-consume, and overexert. We are perfectionistic and anxiety-ridden to the point where our life is anything but joyous. Further, we can’t even relax sufficiently enough to sleep well or feel restored. Because we feel so on edge and exhausted all the time, we catch all the latest viruses. Given the stressors and hazard of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s especially important to avoid overdoing it for our health and well-being.
Therefore, finding a way out of this over-doing mode has never been more critical for our overall health and well-being. Our bodies and especially our minds were not designed for such speed and exhaustion levels. We were created for slow, intentional movement. In fact, as Eckhart Tolle states: stillness is our birthright. One way to slow down is to take concrete steps to move more consciously and deliberately every moment of every day.
Further, by constantly rushing we are in danger of losing our overall purpose in life because of our unreflective way of living. Most of us aren’t even aware of what our purpose is or how we can develop it. As a result, we lose a sense of who we truly are and what we enjoy. Technology has substantially contributed to this problem. However, I believe that the bigger problem is our acquiescence in living unaware and unconsciously on the surface of our lives where noise pollution and distractions are abundant. Alternatively, if we intentionally scheduled time to be unplugged and still, we would be on our way towards experiencing better health and well-being and to living a life that is truly our own.
