Why are Slowlutions™ Necessary?
“Frankly, no one has time to sit around and waste.”
- Radio DJ in 2006
Stress can act like a high-speed conduit for heart disease, obesity and insomnia, among other conditions. Hectic daily life and stressful life transitions can raise our levels of the stress hormone cortisol, as well as impact our relationships and our mental health. Slowlutions™ have taught me that we have the choice to regularly give our health the gift of time – even if only for a few minutes. Research on Slowlution™-like activities bears this out, as you’ll see below.
Speeding Daily Life
The American culture has long been one that values speed…from the Pilgrims’ race to build shelter from winter’s harshness to the recent creation of a semiconductor chip that can operate at a speed of 500 gigahertz. Today, to “sit around” is viewed as a “waste” and personal speed is viewed as a necessity of everyday life. Evidence of speed’s ever-increasing - and unhealthy – influence on people abounds: in North Carolina the Highway Patrol wrote 11,659 speeding tickets in a four-city area in 2005 – a 94% increase from 2001. High blood pressure and fast food consumption are two other health threats linked to living at what I call high ‘speed-stress’.
Enrollment in speed-reading courses has surged among executives who can receive up to 350 emails per day. Employees at the beck and call of faxes, email, BlackBerrys, and phones multi-task at a rate so dizzying that psychiatrist Edward Hallowell has identified what he calls “attention deficit trait” as the outcome of such fragmented focus. Even kids are feeling the speed-stress. A recent Kidshealth survey found that 90% of respondents (who were between the ages of 9 and 13) reported they felt stressed because they were too busy. Yes, that’s 90% of children!
-Congolese proverb
Frequent Life Transitions
Life transitions have increased in recent decades as corporate downsizing and restructuring have resulted in job changes and cross-country moves. Being constantly ‘on the move’ can have unintended personal, and even family-wide, effects. When President Bush’s top domestic advisor Claude Allen was sentenced for misdemeanor theft for returning items he had not purchased at department stores, he said that he had “lost perspective” due to 14-hour workdays and insufficient sleep – all while moving house (New York Times, 8/5/06). While most of us get more than Mr. Allen’s two hours of sleep a night, can many of us say we are not too busy as we make life transitions? Living a mostly nonstop life doesn’t often result in a criminal conviction, but it can result in poorly planned life transitions, not to mention compromised health, and the sad sense that life is a drudgery to be endured rather than a gift to be enjoyed. With unrelenting stress, the happiest of life transitions lose their shine.
The Stress Hormone Cortisol
The muscle tension we experience as we speed to meet our obligations is often reflected in the brain by the increased production of the stress hormone cortisol. While cortisol and other stress hormones are necessary for marshalling our energy for sporadic emergencies, our bodies were not designed to accommodate high blood levels of stress hormones on a regular basis. Sustained high levels of the stress hormone cortisol have been demonstrated to have negative effects on memory, weight, and emotional reactivity. Our hearts, immune systems, and even fertility, can suffer as well.
A 1992 Australian study by researcher Putai Jin analyzed four activities that serve as wonderful Slowlutions™: tai chi, brisk walking, reading, and visualization/meditation. Subjects were exposed to mental or emotional stress prior to performing their specific activity. Each Slowlution™-like activity decreased the level of the stress hormone cortisol. Other calming activities such as prayer and listening to peaceful music have also been linked to lower cortisol levels.
Slowlutions™ and Mental Health
Very busy? Very stressed? Research tells us that we are 17% less likely to make carefully considered decisions.
The Australian study also demonstrated improved mood in the subjects after they participated in one of the four Slowlution™-like activities. Similarly, other methods of relaxation and stress management have been shown to enhance both personal and business relationships, as well as increase happiness with life. As we practice Slowlutions™ and our relaxation increases, anxiety decreases, and we are able to consider challenges from a fresh perspective.
Slowlutions™ are available to everyone, no matter how busy, stressed or financially pressed. Learn how to Make the Slowlutions™ Choice. And visit the Contact & Consulting page to learn how to access more in-depth Slowlutions™ information.
What’s your Slowlution™ today?…right now?