Hello World
WHY do we choose to live Life in the Fast Lane?
Ever wondered WHY things are going so fast in life?
What is it about us that wants more of the fast life?
Is this fast life of ours related to time in some way?
Why is high speed fast stuff so popular in our world?
Where is the fast life going to end up for us all?
How can we truly change if what we live is a fast life?
Does Life in the Fast Lane offer us real evolution?
Would it be true to say that our world seems to be getting faster and faster?
Would it be true to say that most of us want things faster and we want it now?
Would it be true to say that we like the buzz of getting things fast tracked?
Would it be true to say that we like living Life in the Fast Lane?
Would it be true to say that Life in the Fast Lane is affecting our body?
Would it be true to say that we are looking for substances to alter our natural state because there is a tension inside us when we live Life in the Fast Lane?
Would it be true to say that our days are not getting longer, no matter how fast we seem to go?
WHY do we want faster cars even though our highway speeds do not allow it?
WHY do we want the Internet to go even faster and give us even more?
WHY do we demand faster technology and the suppliers then give it to us?
WHY do we want faster trains and planes to get us there so no time is wasted?
WHY do we want fast foods to keep us going for our super-fast life?
WHY do we want fast delivery and will pay whatever the price for the fast service?
WHY do we want things now?
WHY do we want our bodies to perform even faster in sport?
WHY are we trying to break world speed records in sport all the time?
WHY are we willing to negate and ignore everything for the fast stuff?
WHY do we think having things fast is the answer to everything?
WHY are we thinking so fast?
WHY are we eating so fast?
WHY are we drinking fast?
WHY are we walking so fast?
WHY are we driving so fast?
WHY are we trying to sleep fast?
WHY are we willing to change platforms and run for it, just to get the train that is leaving one minute before?
WHY are some of us willing to pay big bucks just to get a faster plane?
WHY are our teenagers online streaming whilst driving fast at dangerous speeds? (1)
WHY are we allowing life to overtake us by living in the fast lane?
Is Life in the Fast Lane actually working?
What is the quality of our life when we choose to live Life in the Fast Lane?
Are we ready to change gear and move into Life in the natural lane?
WHY do we want to cram in as much as we can in the short time we have?
WHY do we let the clock control our fast-paced lifestyle?
WHY do we move the goal post as soon as we get there in the fast lane?
WHY does our mind feel like it never switches off with Life in the Fast Lane?
WHY do we struggle with trying to focus on the task in hand when life is fast?
WHY do we get so stressed with our life in the fast lane?
WHY do we get excited with our crazy racy buzzy fast life?
WHY do we feel like our sleep quality is not there when life is fast?
WHY do we put pressure on ourselves living Life in the Fast Lane?
WHY do we need coffee to get us fast again in the morning?
WHY do we use caffeine to push us to stay fast?
WHY do we use any drug just to keep up the fast-paced life?
WHY do we go to bed driving our body in the fast lane?
WHY do we wake up feeling like we are still in the fast lane?
WHY is living life in the fast lane a priority for some of us?
WHY is our mind racing at high speed in the fast lane when we sleep?
WHY are we willing to do what it takes to get things done even faster?
WHY are we already onto the next thing when we live Life in the Fast Lane?
WHY do people annoy us if they are steady and consistent?
WHY do we feel uncomfortable around people who are not racy and fast?
Could it be possible that Life in the Fast Lane is WHY we have a global sleep epidemic today?
Could it be possible that living Life in the Fast Lane is causing some of our rise in illness and disease?
Could it be possible that Life in the Fast Lane means we eat foods simply to keep us going?
We all know that the 24 hour clock is not going to give us more time to do everything we want, but we seem to demand that our body performs at high speed so we can fit everything we want to do in that day. With this constant internal pressure to live life in this way, is it any surprise the world supports us to live fast with everything it supplies because we are demanding this?
As the author of this blog, living Life in the Fast Lane was normal and even major surgery did not stop me. Slowing down or even stopping was not something I was willing to choose for myself.
Life in the Fast Lane meant eating copious amounts of sugar, drinking alcohol, over working and thinking that the faster the better was the way to go.
What if there is another way to live?
What if living Life in the Fast Lane is a distraction?
What if living Life in the Fast Lane means our body suffers?
What if living Life in the Fast Lane is deeply harmful to all of humanity?
What if living Life in the Fast Lane creates long term stress in our body?
What if living Life in the Fast Lane is not sustainable in the long term?
What if living Life in the Fast Lane takes us away from our natural state of being?
What if living Life in the Fast Lane starts to show, as our body starts to break down?
What if living Life in the Fast Lane affects our immune system more than we think?
What if living Life in the Fast Lane changes our moods and we have little control?
What if the choices we make can be seen in our faces when we live Life in the Fast Lane?
What if there was a way to focus our mind and body on the task in hand and that way our mind is not ahead and going fast?
What if living Life in the Fast Lane affects our precious planet Earth?
What if living Life in the Fast Lane stops us truly resting and this is needed to balance our body?
What if the motion in our life has to have an equal balance of repose, which is a state of rest?
What if our sleep quality improves if we choose this balance of motion and repose?
What if our mind has more clarity and steadiness if we choose the balance of motion and repose?
What if there was a way that our body can get plenty done in one day?
What if we are designed to get a lot done in a day without the constant assault on our body?
What if the author of this blog is living proof of that fact?
Dear World
What if Life in the Fast Lane means we never get to be real and true?
What if slowing down can and will support us to change gear once and for ALL?
References
(1) Telegraph Reporters. (2017, August 20). Driver Smashed into Cottage While Attempting to Reach 100mph for Snapchat Video, Killing Friend. The Telegraph. Retrieved August 26, 2017 from
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/20/driver-smashed-cottage-attempting-reach-100-mph-snapchat-video/
Comments 39
Great blog, this resonates with me. Right from a young girl I kept myself busy busy all the time – I didn’t even like stopping for sleep at night. I knew then and I know now that I kept myself busy and rushing all the time because I didn’t want to feel the deep seated anxiousness, unrest and sadness I felt. I would sometimes get panic attacks too but I still didn’t want to stop – until one day whilst in my late 30’s I woke up very sick and I couldn’t get out of bed – I was sick for 6 weeks – and that time I was forced to rest and I started to feel far more what was going on in my life, and realised that the way I was living life ‘in the fast lane’ was not working – and, if I didn’t deal with the deep seated feelings I would get sicker and sicker. So I slowed down.
Nowadays it is the other way around. If I move too fast I feel dizzy and I get anxious – when I stay slow and steady I feel great and I feel far more aware of everything around me. And my digestive system, and my whole body feels far more settled nowadays for not rushing around.
The questions you ask here are great. I purposely stayed ‘in the fast lane’ so as not to feel or be aware of what I was feeling or what was going on around me. We can feel pressured to live in the fast lane – particularly with technology where we can be on it 24/7 – but, it is not natural for our bodies to be in the fast lane.
Thank you for starting this much needed conversation.
Very much appreciating the enquiry as to WHY in your comment Jane.
Why rush the body when it is so unnatural to do so?
What are we running from?
Trying to prove to the world we are valuable and achieving? Not feeling enough?
With the ‘fast lane’ all around us, it takes a concerted effort (e.g. reading this blog on repeat) to choose another way.
I agree JS – a wise person once said to me – you can be in the rhythm of demand (e.g. everyone else’s demands/the demands of life) – or you can be in your own rhythm – which do you choose?
THAT is gold – thank you Jane.
Why does our world think doing things faster is better than doing things slower? This concept is in all aspects of life.
Its one of the many things in our world that we just take for granted, that thats just the way it is.
But nothing will change if we do not ask questions about our lives. Is this what we really want our life to be? Is it really working? Do we feel amazing like we did when we were two years old?
We are the only ones that can change our world. And it is our responsibility to the rest of humanity to do what we can to truly evolve.
We know what is true and we know what needs to be done, we just need to slow down so we hear all the wisdom that is all around us.
“Rushing is a way of doing something while communicating that it’s not important enough to pay real attention to.”
This really jumped out at me, Katherine. So true.
Working in a busy city, I see many many people walking around with cups of coffee or queuing at coffee shops, sitting outside them with a cup. I have heard people saying they need a coffee to get them going, get on with the day, get things done, wake them up.
Living in fast lane really doesn’t seem to support us in any way if we require a poison to the body such as coffee to keep us at the pace we want to go and not feel the exhaustion we are really in from living this way.
If we really paused and took a look at the way we, and all of us are living our lives we can clearly see we are out of kilter.
Coffee is one of the most demanded commodities in life, sugary foods are consumed at a vast rate, and illness and disease is on the rise.
Accidents rise as we are rushing so much we are not even paying attention to what we are doing. That said I was told recently about a person who was pushing a pushchair with a child in it at the same time as looking at a smartphone – trying to do it all at the same time, and was so distracted by this that this person stepped out into the road and into the path of a lorry who did not have time to swerve and sadly the person died instantly under the lorry (the child was okay as the force of the lorry pushed the push chair out of the way.)
Why is it we feel we don’t have enough time to do one thing after the other, why are we in such a rush? As when we multi task like that and rush around we literally risk lives by trying to do two or more things at once.
These are great questions in this blog considering the speed we are going at life. Any one of these questions gives much to ponder on.
‘WHY do we want faster cars even though our highway speeds do not allow it?’ having attended a speed awareness course this year, apart from the fact that the message for me was to Slow Down, it was a real eye opener as to why these speeds are put in place. They are very specific to how long it take us to stop in an emergency, making the difference as whether someone is killed or injured or not. Yet we continue to build more and more powerful cars with take offs in seconds able to get to high speeds very quickly.
Why are we doing this? bigger, better, faster? what are we running way from, speeding away from? why do we need bigger, better, faster?
Since I’ve slowed my driving down I am aware of just how many people go over the speed limit, even in the city where is a 20 or 30mph speed limit. I get people under taking, over taking, driving right up close behind, or beeping their horn. Why are we so set on rushing? Are we going in the fast lane so we don’t have to feel what is really going on for us?
This was how was for me I didn’t want to feel what was hurting but when I looked at it, took responsibility for it and let it go and stopped taking things on. This was by far a choice I would make again and again, as I now get to feel the Joy and Beauty that is everywhere and that is in all of us.
From my own experience and what I have observed, living in the fast lane simply does not work for us.. it keeps us away from the truth.
When I am moving fast or focusing on the next thing, I miss out on all the amazingness that is happening in the present moment.
I have lived my life like that and no wonder I am always looking for the next thing because I was not really with myself in doing the last thing.
Not only am I missing things, it is an extra stress on my body when I am not with myself when I am doing something.
And at the end of the day I feel like I need to do more because I was not truly appreciating what I was doing during the day.
Simple Living Global’s Back to Basics program has supported me to slow down and really feel fulfilled in life by doing basic things.
It does not have to be complicated, just be with yourself in everything that you do. Then your amazingness just naturally comes out in all parts of your life.
Does Life in the Fast Lane offer us real evolution?
In my experience a definite No.
How could I evolve if I did not slow down or stop to feel what was really going on, become aware.. and more aware, connecting to my body and the wisdom that comes from it.
I jumped into the fast lane when I was young so I could leave behind all the unpleasant things I was feeling.
And it worked because I do not remember much of my childhood.
The problem is is that no matter how fast you are going your body experiences everything and if you do not process the experience when you experience it the body stores it for later.
This is what post traumatic stress is all about. You shut down to not experience something stressful, but you cannot not experience something that is happening to you. The body is there even if you are not.
With support from Simple Living Global I have been feeling all the stuff that I have stored in my body. At the time I felt I could not cope with what was happening so I shut done my awareness by getting racy. I understand now that my body was totally able to deal with whatever was happening at the time if I was able to stay with myself.
This is critical wisdom that we have forgotten. It needs to be presented and lived so our children can see how to deal with life in the fast lane.
My biggest challenge in returning to myself so l can make choices that truly reflect what l need, is slowing down my momentum of living in the fast lane.
As l started to slow down and listen to my body in a deeper way, l realized that I needed to have days were l just rested.
At first when l would lay down, it was obvious that that is what l needed. But soon this restlessness would kick in. And it would kick in big time. Working with this momentum was one of the most challenging things l have done in my life, but it was exactly what l needed. By slowing down the momentum l started to feel the stuff that l was avoiding feeling by being in constant motion. And had glimpses of a level of stillness that l knew was the way to be.
Slowly and with true support from Simple Living Global with consistent Skype sessions, l have been feeling feelings that l have buried for a long time. Although some of these feelings are intense, it feels amazing to feel them. I have wanted to feel them, just afraid to.
It is all about just being me and trusting that l am able to deal with whatever is going on when l stay with myself.
“What if there was a way to focus our mind and body on the task in hand and that way our mind is not ahead and going fast?”
This is very much my experience.
At work, when there is so much going on, with a million things to do and people to see and emails to read, this level of focus is the only way the day flows.
If I stay steady on the task or meeting or email in hand throughout the day, what needs to get done, gets done.
If I let my mind get involved with the million things instead of just the next one, a ‘drinking from the firehose’ feeling comes in and overrides the sense of flow and focus.
Life is much more enjoyable when you focus on the task at hand. We were made to be content with doing simple things in life. A child can play all day with a cardboard box with a door cut in it.
When l am moving fast, trying to do too many things at once l am not with myself doing any of them. So it is easy to not feel the satisfaction of of just simply doing a job.
I understand why l enjoyed downhill skiing so much. It forces you to be in the moment, just experienceing skiing. If you are thinking about something else, you fall.
So why are we so intent on not wanting to be present with what we are doing? It is like we do not want to experience life.
I have not wanted to experience life because it brings up old issues that l do not want to deal with.
With support from Simple Living Global l am understanding that life is all about evolving, working through things that are in your way of you being the whole you.
The more l am being me and expressing me, it allows everything in life to be amazing.
I just want more of what this life is offering. Like l was as a young child.
The world is in the fast lane, but we do not know where we are going.
This website is presenting what is truly going on in the world. If you read it or if you really look at what is happening in our world, you have to question the direction we are heading.
Even with all the amazing advances in technology and medicine our true quality of life is going down. The increasing levels of illness and disease is staggering if you look at the statistics.
So is the way we have been living really working? Are we just going along with life because we do not know what else to do?
What will it take for us to decide to do something different?
I stubbornly lived my life until l was so exhausted l could not walk up stairs. Ignoring all the messages from my body to do something different. I had to be on the floor to want to change.
Is this what it will take for our world to wake up?
Simple Living Global’s Back to Basics program basically turned my life around. By making simple common sense changes in how l live my life, l am now committed to showing humanity another way to live. A way that more people are living every day, a way that is totally reversing the declining level of illness and disease.
Check it out! We owe it to our fellow brothers and sisters.
The world is definitely in a rush.
New technology is always trying to make things better and faster, and more often than not, make things smaller.
Indeed, technology has even made the world a lot smaller with instant communication from thousands of miles apart.
Technology like social media, video games, entertainment, internet browsing has made our lives very insular and this insularity is putting us on the express train to illness and disease.
We are going nowhere fast and our bodies are showing us the ill effects through the myriad of illnesses and diseases that plague our world.
One of the questions this blog asks is ‘What if there was another way to live?’
What if there was a way to get things done, without being in the ‘Fast Lane’, that doesn’t harm our bodies?
Is it possible that doing things with a conscious presence, meaning our body is doing what our mind is thinking, will actually help us in the long term?
The irony here is that by doing things with more presence actually gives us more time.
If we took the time to think about it we would realise that we are not actually going anywhere…The same 24hr period repeats itself over and over so we start at exactly the same place every day the same way 365 24hr periods make up one year to bring us right back to the same starting place.
The question is: Why are we so entrenched in the ‘Fast Lane’?
Technology may be improving our lives and giving us the ability to do things faster but it is also killing us faster.
BBC News – 23rd October 2017
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41696236
More patients should be told to go home and rest rather than be given antibiotics, say health officials
The article in BBC News states that by 2050, drug-resistant infections around the world are expected to kill more people than currently die from cancer.
This is crazy!
What was also surprising to read was that coughs or bronchitis can take up to three weeks to clear on their own, but antibiotics reduce that to one – two days (Public Health England).
Could our quest for Life in the Fast Lane and the quick fix have set a breeding ground for drug-resistant bacteria?
If through a natural process, our bodies would heal automatically in three weeks, why would we then want to speed this up through artificial means of one – two days?
Is it to save time so we can get on and achieve, achieve, achieve and push through life?
Speaking with Professor Neil Woodford, head of antimicrobial resistance, the BBC were told that ‘if we go back to 2005/7, we were seeing these bacteria in maybe two to four cases per year. Last year we confirmed these resistant bacteria in over 2,000 cases.’
Something clearly is not right here and the question arises – have we been the creators through our quest for a fast paced life?
Katherine, thank you for this reminder.
Nature reflects so much to us.
And whilst things take their own inevitable course at the ‘right’ pace, I’m also struck in reading your comment, that nature doesn’t get stuck in delay.
Thomas I can really relate to what you are saying as I have seen this kind of fast car driving man on the roads many times. It is true that it disturbs everyone, as it is just a way of trying to stand out and be noticed.
What if we chose to be gentle https://simplelivingglobal.com/be-gentle/ and drive gently? Would this be less of a disturbance to everyone?
Holidays in America, especially Thanksgiving are the busiest travelling times of the year, and it gets busier every year.
When I was a child, Thanksgiving was a busy day, lots of relatives, lots of food. but we basically stayed in one spot, not a lot of traveling.
When I had children, we stepped up the pace because we were living out of state, so we would drive 6 hrs, do thanksgiving, visit relatives and friends, then drive to my wife’s relatives, do another dinner, visit, then drive home. We had lots of fun but came home more exhausted than when we left. I was feeling like we were just doing our duty, and not having any quality time with anyone.
But it seemed like the right thing to do, because thats what you do with holidays, right?
What does the word holiday really mean? Who decides what happens on holidays?
I have changed this pattern in my life, basically because the holidays were just too much for me, It was just not worth it.
It has been challenging because I miss seeing my children and grandchildren, but I am understanding that I needed to honour myself and I feel it is my responsibility to show the world another way to be. I did not like what was happening so I did something different, this is how we change things.
When we are moving fast, we miss out on so many things in life, that makes life satisfying.
There are so many amazing things happening, all around us, all the time.
Slow down and do not miss them. This simple concept can turn our life around.
I realise typing the above post for my son how fast I am typing and how heavily I am pressing the keys.
Why am I typing hard? Why do I need to type so fast? Am I rushing?
Are my fingers and therefore my sensitivity suffering from my life in the fast lane?
What would happen if I paused more to re-connect to my fingertips and the quality of my movements on the keys?
I am doing it now and it feels good. This is worth practicing.
I used to think life in the fast lane was good. All that multi tasking and pushing and driving my body to the limit and then finding solutions to override and keep going.
Eating fast, talking fast, cleaning fast, cooking fast, driving fast and so it goes on and on.
Not once did I think that lifestyle choices in the fast lane could lead to ill health. I never got round to adding it up, but looking back it feels like common sense now.
I trashed my body and it was not until I was diagnosed with a tumour and had an organ removed, did I even consider to make any changes. If I am being honest I just wanted to get back on the fast lane life, as sitting in hospital with a blood transfusion initially was boring and I could not stop my mind from racing.
It was the teachings of Serge Benhayon and his absolute support 10 years ago that I chose to listen to and apply. Having LIVED those teachings for a decade, it would be true to say that I no longer live life in the fast lane but I am what most would call very productive and super steady in life.
A great example would be this website.
It is full of valuable content on topics that are important right now and some blogs are full of research. There is no fast way of doing this but instead, an understanding about how best to work and rest, so the maximum gets done but not with a racy pacy momentum. This way there is a quality, which others can feel as things are steady inside me and then when expressed it holds that same vibration. Gone are the days in the fast lane which leads to nothing but burnout.
Talking of fast cars Thomas, I was just reading about a new car that is super fast and can do 0-60 mph in under 3 seconds. Now that is fast.
It has a top speed of 200 mph and my question is WHY does anyone need this, if the country it is made in has a maximum speed of 70 mph?
The price is more than most people pay for a house – £750,000.
They made 500 and they have all been sold already.
I wonder if it will make them feel like they are living life in the fast lane but should we all be asking – what is the purpose?
If anyone has spare money – like 3/4 million for a car, could they help out the world, which is in a mess and could do with some financial support? I know they would feel better if they knew their money was helping others to rebuild their lives.
On the London Underground train BEFORE rush hour starts, our train is jam packed.
We have this tendency to not understand that the next train is one minute away and just force our way into the closing doors. People were being pushed with zero space to move at all.
It got me thinking how we love the fast underground train that gets us from A to B with no traffic jams and hopefully no delays. Our train stopped under a tunnel and we were advised of signal failure, so this train was not going where it was and instead being terminated. So here we are on the fast train going no where, stuck on a Friday afternoon and we all thought leaving early was the answer.
So how do we react and respond in a situation like this?
What is it here we could perhaps learn or be open to?
What is the delay telling us in that moment?
What is the impact, as the train was seriously overcrowded?
Does anyone bother to think like that or are we just too busy wanting to get home or wherever it is we are going on a Friday night?
Living in the Fast Lane is sometimes stopped and things happen and we are not in control in that moment, so what is it that we do?
Are we the type who moan and whinge and just get back into fast lane gear?
Are we the type who get angry and frustrated and get the blame bullets out to shoot others as it is their fault?
Are we the type who may just think that there is something here and it is trying to convey a message, but we are not aware what that might be?
Could just being curious and open to perhaps a possibility that this is not a random event, open us up to more of what is going on beneath the surface?
Does all this questioning feel too deep and way out and whacky or will scholars of the future studying this comment, know what the writer is saying here?
In other words, could there be more that we are not yet aware of when things like this happen?
London Bridge station coming up to evening rush hour is not a pretty place to be.
This week, I saw long queues of people in the ticket area waiting to get through the barriers down to the tube.
The people queuing had no regard to the people needing to walk through the station – they were just standing in their queues, forcing themselves forward. More and more people were joining the queues and those of us trying to walk through had to squeeze through a person-size space right at the back. This caused a further queue.
What struck me was the forcefulness in people’s faces and movements and the oblivion to the bigger picture.
It made me think of bees crammed in a hive and how much flow and harmony there is there. There is a perspex hive at a local museum and you can clearly see the order inside.
Whereas London Bridge station was every wo/man for himself. And it wasn’t working.
The experience made me think of this blog, because it felt strongly to me that the whole thing would not have been happening if we weren’t all living life in the fast lane.
If we weren’t so focused on the rush to get home, wouldn’t we have more space to look around, to see what is needed, where to stand, how to make room for others?
It has made me appreciate more fully that the time in between things and on the way to things and the quality of our presence during those moments, is as important as the arriving.
I was feeling under the weather today and had a nap.
It was amazing to wake up and feel the absence of drive in my body and to reflect on the speed with which I had been moving before.
This life in the fast lane business needs close scrutiny or it can run you like a robot.
I was talking to a hairdresser yesterday. She shared a story about a lady at her salon who nearly stopped being a customer.
This lady has not very much hair and the hairdresser who had been cutting it had done a couple of quick bish, bash, bosh jobs on it. It is apparently an easy trap to fall in to – rushing through a haircut for someone with very thin hair. There is not much there to work with.
However, the rush-job caused this lady great distress. She felt no care had been taken of her. She was already sensitive about her hair and the experience made her feel worthless – like her hair was so bad it wasn’t worth taking the time over.
The hairdresser I was talking to listened to this story and asked if the lady would let her take care of her hair. When she agreed and it was time for the next cut, the hairdresser took exactly the time it needed – no different to someone with more or thicker hair. This was all that was needed and it sounded from the telling that the lady’s hair ended up fuller too.
This story made me realise how easy it is for abuse to come in when we rush and how much space there is for true care when we take or allow the time that is needed.
Driving on the motorway yesterday, I was reminded of how you have to constantly watch your speed.
The speedometer creeps up and up if you are not vigilant.
It is like you get used to the feeling of going at a particular speed and incremental increases in that speed somehow don’t register in your brain.
And with so many people speeding around you, others often do not offer a good reflection or benchmark.
I am reflecting on how this is in life.
So you might be moving at speed and that can lead to rushing and then that leads to more rushing – like you let the momentum take you.
Thank goodness for speed limits, to help keep us all checked in.
And for those of us that need them, what are our momentum check points in every day life? What are the things that help us check in with the pace at which we are moving?
For me, it is noticing my breath. Feeling my feet as I walk. Checking in with my heart rate. And if I drop something or find myself multi tasking, I know my pace needs addressing. And for now, it requires a lot of vigilance.
Thank you for your comment JS and I know what you mean about moving at speed and the momentum taking you when you are rushing.
Gosh imagine what that is doing to our blood pressure which then would take everything inside our body out of sync.
I feel how we are living in daily life then just carries on when we get behind the wheel and drive. So if we are racy and always pushing or overdoing it, then this is a momentum that is within our body and it makes no difference if it’s the motorway or the supermarket car park – we just have this thing inside us that wants to get from A to B fast and we are not able to slow down as the dominating force we feel, is moving us in an un-natural way.
I do not do much driving but it would be true to say I do regular trips on the Motorway. I use cruise control and the speed limit is capped to what I feel is safe and not fast. I do my best not to check out and by that I mean have my mind wandering off to la la land or thinking about nonsense that has zero purpose. I also find that I never leave the house in a rush but do the stop and pause thing to check and feel in with my body instead of thinking about where I am supposed to be going.
Enough clothing, water and food is a not negotiable pre-requisite of motorway driving.
Being sensible of how much water I drink before travelling is also something I consider and above all making sure I have my phone, keys, money and everything else that this trip needs.
ALL this listed above supports me to not go ahead of myself and race in the fast lane but somehow slows me down and puts me into what I call “the Flow Zone”.
My marker that I know I am rushing, is my head instantly hurts and I do what it takes to deal with it and it can be as simple as just stopping or having a few strong words with myself like – What’s going on? Why has this just happened? and then apologising to my precious body for hurting it and then move on. No post mortem needed and no need to bang on about it – just get on with it.
Knowing we are here on earth to learn is a great help to me in daily life and it stops the endless chit chat in the head. Those days are long gone and not in my radar.
Watching a mum struggle with her young children yesterday. She was rushing them along to school and they were both screaming and stomping at being hurried.
I knew that scene well. You are ‘running late’, you try to chivvy everyone along, then you get fixated on the clock and the tension comes in. Your children hate the tension and don’t understand. It makes them sad and uncooperative. Everyone is miserable.
There is a moment before it all goes south when you get to choose. To choose whether to sell out to time and push everyone into the fast lane, or to stay steady and connected and to trust that if you do that, the clock will take care of itself.
I have experimented with this time and again.
The fast lane is really about control, and the sense of speed is actually an illusion – it reminds me of that saying ‘more haste less speed’.
The other choice is actually a joy – there is a flow and time seems to bend to that. And the kids love it.
Stepping back into work this week after a few days off, you could feel the pace of the fast lane.
The way people move and talk at speed. The sense of rushing. A frenetic vibe.
It is easy to see how you can get pulled into that slip stream if everyone is moving that way.
It was interesting to see it so clearly and to see it is actually a choice. And to know the benefit to all of there being role models for the fact that there is another way.
What is it about pushing to be first to get on the train? I see this some mornings. People quietly waiting to get on, then someone deciding they have right of way over that.
The impact on the quiet waiters is palpable. They rarely say anything to call it out, but there is tutting and anger and you can feel the disappointment that a human could be so inconsiderate.
What a way to start the day – carrying that with you.
Yet you can see what is playing out, and once you see that, there is no reaction inside. Mostly, the people doing the pushing are simply living life in the fastest of fast lanes.
The pace at which they move means they aren’t seeing or feeling the impact they are having on others. They focus on themselves and what they have to get done or on what they need – only this.
When I see this behaviour, it reminds me to slow down. To take a breath. To connect with how I am moving. To live the opposite.
I spent the weekend in a calm, settled place. It is amazing to feel the absence of drive in my body.
It is like time has slowed down. I am not moving at a noticeably slower pace, but my movements feel more full, there is more space, somehow and more is getting done.
It makes me realise how much of my life is lived in the fast lane, pushing and driving through.
This new marker has brought some honesty for me – though it is super-familiar, life in the fast lane feels tight and confined and tense and I hate that feeling.
Test driving a car in South East London this weekend, we had a number of people pull out on us.
The salesman lives in a different part of London and he said there is not a test drive he goes on here when some sort of dangerous manoever doesn’t happen.
He said it is like people have forgotten basic respect for each other.
He wonders out loud if it is because they are in such a rush with life. Such a rush that they forget about everybody else.
There is a sign on the road in an army village I drive through sometimes, that says how many people have been caught speeding that week.
The sign is about 100m on from the sign saying ‘30 miles an hour’.
This week it said the number of people caught was 3. The last time I saw it it said 21.
It strikes me that this is a great reflection for the people of that village. A public marker of where they are at.
And when I drive past it, it reminds me to stay steady with my speed. I wonder if it has he same impact on others.
I find it interesting that it doesn’t say ‘no speeding’. It just states a fact. A fact for people to reflect on.
The first sign is the law – the speed limit.
The second sign is an marker of how well that standard is being met.
An invitation somehow, to all who see it, as is true of this amazing blog.
A life in the fast lane moment this morning.
Furious beeping from one car because the car in front did not take a risk by running through the traffic light on amber.
The behind car had to break suddenly, as they had assumed the car ahead would speed through, as they wanted to.
Were they in a rush?
Had they not left enough time to get to work that morning?
Were they passing on lateness to others?
Were they blaming the world?
Is the fast lane just how they roll?
Do they realise the fear they create when they drive dangerously and beep their horns – for pedestrians as well as for other drivers on the road?
I had a reset moment myself this morning when I caught myself rushing. I could feel tension come in to my movements and my breathing became shallow.
I hate that feeling so I stopped: reset; move again in connection; time slows.
Perhaps traffic lights offer us more than we realise in this. A pause for breath. A chance to choose the quality of our next movement.
This amber light stuff JS is something that I have been clocking for many many years and I still find it bugs me.
My husband had a driving job for over 30 years and he knows the roads and what’s what. But I am super sensitive and I feel a vibration that disturbs me if he does the amber light get through movement.
I just KNOW he is not steady and in his natural pace, but in some kind of a rush to get to where we need to go, when he accelerates or gets through on amber, because I know the difference I feel inside my body when he doesn’t do that.
This actually happened this evening and I did not like how my chest felt and I told him, because there is nothing in me that would never hold back how I am feeling.
This to me is super important.
It has nothing to do with the fact that amber is ok for us to pass through, but more the quality in which we are doing this.
I know that this living in the fast lane stuff affects our physiology more than most of us would care to think or even be interested in.
I hate it now and my body feels jarred when things are going off on a fast momentum and not the usual steady movements that actually have a quality that is fast, but not with the push force thing.
Talking to a City lawyer yesterday.
For the last week he has worked through the night on a deal. Sometimes going home in the early hours to change, sometimes having a nap before the working day begins again.
They have sleep pods in the office ‘like depressing coffins, but they do the job’.
The deal he is working on is complex, involves heaps of documents and has a hard deadline set by the client.
He said lots of caffeine is involved in working this way and he and his team can’t do it without.
There was no bravado. Just a belief that this is needed to get the job done.
Whatever the clients want, even if it has an impact on his health and that of his team.
A choice to live life in the fast lane, without questioning it.
I remember this life view from my time in a City law firm. There is a mixture of drive, martyrdom, resignation and adrenaline. Saying no does not register as an option – the work is there to be done and the deadline is the deadline.
Anyone who can’t keep up with the pace is trusted less – not as valued. Very few break rank or suggest a more sustainable way of working.
Sickness post-deal is common. Collateral damage.
Writing this, I can feel the impact and how deeply those beliefs bed in – the knock on effects they have.
I wonder what it would take to shift this – institutionalised drive and over-working.
It feels like there is a responsibility both at the top of these organisations, with leadership, and also at the individual level, with each of us – to consider the human first, in how we conduct ourselves and our businesses.