281. Are we living too fast?

:: 00:05

Okay, Williamson, remember to edit the beginning of the podcast this week.

:: 00:10

Hello and welcome to this episode of the Drink Less, Live Better podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Williamson, and I'm really glad you're here. Are we living too fast? How quickly do we move through our days? How quickly do we expect ourselves to learn things, achieve things, make decisions, respond to messages, and somehow keep up with everything that modern life places in front of us?

:: 00:38

Speed has become almost synonymous with progress. We admire efficiency, we celebrate productivity, we're surrounded by technology designed to save us time, and yet so many of us seem to have so very little of it. And I wonder what happens when speed becomes the default setting in our lives.

:: 01:02

I'll tell you what happens, actually. Things like this: "Did you listen to the podcast last week?" "Did you notice my blooper at the beginning? I completely forgot to edit the first part of the pod." So you hear the intro music, then you get me start, cough, and start again because I was going to cut the first bit. But I didn't, because I was moving quickly through my life, ticking off tasks, and I forgot.

:: 01:31

Speed, as the default setting, means missing things, both large and small. Some things become harder to experience when we're constantly moving towards the next thing. We catch things out of the corner of our eye, but we don't give ourselves the chance to slow down and really look.

:: 01:51

Here's a phrase I've been turning over in my mind: "Go deep, not wide." Go deep, not wide. We can have lots of experiences, lots of information, lots of connections, lots of goals. We can keep expanding our lives and filling our calendars, but depth takes something different. Depth asks us to stay with something for long enough to really know it.

:: 02:20

And I think this connects with the way many of us have been taught to value thinking over feeling. We are very good at using our heads. We analyze, we research, we compare, we plan, we try to work things out, and our thinking mind is incredibly useful. But there is another source of information available to us, and that is the intelligence of the body.

:: 02:47

Your body can tell you things before you have even found the words for them. You might notice your shoulders tightening when you think about a particular commitment. You might feel your stomach drop when something doesn't quite sit right. You might experience a sense of ease when you're somewhere or with someone who feels just right for you. And these sensations can easily get lost or not felt when life is moving quickly.

:: 03:17

We become really practiced at overriding ourselves. We keep going because there's something else to do. And if you've heard me say this once, you've heard it many times: we are human beings, not human doings. We have head intelligence that helps us to navigate the world of doing. It helps us to organize, solve problems, and make things happen. And then there's body intelligence, which belongs more to the world of being. It can help us notice what is happening inside us, and perhaps a fulfilled life needs a space for both.

:: 03:57

I'm not suggesting we all need to abandon our busy lives and disappear into a cottage in the woods, although, frankly, there are days when that sounds pretty appealing. I'm more interested in what happens when we create the little moments of slowness within the life we already have. Could we walk without listening to anything? Could we eat without scrolling? Could we sit somewhere for five minutes without trying to make those five minutes productive? Could we occasionally allow ourselves to feel something without immediately trying to understand it or interpret it?

:: 04:35

Because when we slow down, we may notice things that were difficult to hear or see at full speed. Maybe we want more rest, more connection, more space, or simply more time to hear yourself think and feel. I wonder what would happen if we became a little less interested in how quickly we can get somewhere and a little more interested in whether we actually like the life we're traveling through. And being alive is something we get to experience, not simply something we have to get done, completed, ticked.

:: 05:15

Do I sound like I'm talking to you? Good. I'm actually talking to me again. We tend to teach what we most need to know. Thank you for being here with me today.

:: 05:27

You can find me online at drinklesslivebetter.com, where you'll find lots of supportive resources. You can check out today's podcast show notes for a link to a hidden episode that will help with 5:00 p.m. cravings and details about my one-to-one life coaching and sober coaching programs. And P.S. I believe in you.