By Clíona O Conaill for Kindred Spirit Magazine
Why are we rushing? Where did all the time go? And how can we get back into the slow lane?
Allure of Speed
Bright-Lights-Big-City, 24/7, the city that never sleeps. There is an allure to speed. Life in the fast lane is depicted as glamorous, exciting and successful. There is an adrenaline rush to living on the edge. We have fast food, ready meals and TV dinners to eat in a hurry, cars get us places quicker, microwaves, washing machines and dishwashers to save us time and drudgery; computers to do our work faster; and smartphones to connect us globally, instantaneously.
We have more time-saving devices than our grandparents could ever have imagined. So we should be living the “good life,” enjoying ample leisure time. Instead there seems to be less time than ever. Just what is going on?
Time–space compression
Social scientists call the mania affecting our lives, “Time–space compression”. Geographer and author David Harvey invented the term in 1989, in The Condition of Postmodernity, to describe phenomena that change our perception of time and space (2).
Put simply, the distance between A & B is fixed, as is the time it takes to go between them. Advances in technology have developed faster methods of transport and faster ways of communicating, which reduces the time it takes to cover this distance. In short, speed compresses our experience of space and time.
Author and theorist Paul Virilio believes that time-space compression is an inevitable product of our way of life. “Today we are entering…speed-space… This new other time is that of electronic transmission and high-tech machines, …therefore, man is present…not via his physical presence, but via programming” (3) – A frightening description of modern living.
Acceleration of Time
Time-space compression is also called by other names. Chris Johnstone author, coach and resilience specialist talks of an “acceleration of time” and “shrinking timescapes.”
“One of the things that speeds time up, are the intervals by which we mark and measure time, says Chris. “Once there was a technological dimension to mark time it allowed us to impose deadlines in a way we wouldn’t have been able to before”.
Corporations and fund managers measure their success by how well they are doing each quarter compared to the previous quarter. The stock exchange works on even tighter timescales where getting information a “fraction of a microsecond” earlier can give a competitive edge explains Chris. “Such short-term thinking is a fairly recent phenomenon and is linked to an acceleration in our experience of time,” say Chris Johnstone and Joanna Macy, Buddhist, ecologist and founder of the Work That Reconnects in their book Active Hope. We are a generation wired for speed. We write in shorter sentences and speak more quickly than we used to (3). But what is causing time–space compression?
Causes of Time–space compression
While time–space compression started with the invention of clocks, speed began accelerating exponentially with the twin drivers of new technology and economic growth. There is also an underlying inability to live in the present moment. And changes in “space weather” are increasing the pressure on the human race.
Clocks
Before the invention of clocks our ancestors lived by natural timing – the changing light of the day following the sun’s arc across the sky; the lunar month; and the 365-day year–the length of time it takes the earth to travel around the sun.
In ancient times, pagans celebrated the solstices or equinoxes although the Wheel of the Year marking all eight wasn’t adopted until around the 1950s. Many contemporary pagans celebrate four seasonal Solar Festivals, and four cross-quarter Fire Festivals that mark important agricultural dates.
The invention of clocks revolutionised our way of life. Watches became ubiquitous in the fifties and sixties and gave us timing to the second strapped to our wrists. Bosses were quick to capitalise on this and the working day became tied to an objectified time. Now five-days-a-week rush hour workers hurry to get to work on time where some literally clock-on and off the hours of their life.
Economic growth and globalisation
Economic growth and globalisation have created the need for more productivity in less time because this improves the balance sheets that have to show growth every quarter. It also demands faster transportation time, quicker opening up of new markets, more productivity and most importantly a bigger return on investment sooner.
In Active Hope Chris and Joanna explain how economic growth contributes to an acceleration of time, “For an economy to grow from one year to the next, more needs to be accomplished in the same amount of time. If we want growth every year, then our speed of activity has to constantly increase.”
The global financial markets adoption of microsecond timing, has caused the splitting of time into smaller and smaller segments until time itself has fragmented. At the same time our lives have become vastly more complicated as we try to stuff more into smaller and smaller time frames.
This is because time and the working hours of our lives have become a “commodity” with a marketable value. And while we are dependent on money or work for a living we are all tied into the economy and the speed-culture.
Technology
Economic growth is the main factor driving the development of new technology. Technology-related time-space compression outdated the telegram, nicknamed letters “snail-mail,” and now favours email, mobiles, skype and internet-messaging for their instant connection. Computers, laptops, palm tops, mobiles, smartphones, ipads, ipods… Nearly everyone in Western society owns at least one technological device plugging us all in to the effects of time-space compression.
Likewise, demand for faster transportation of people and goods has given us cars, trains, long-distance-lorries and planes. They now make the same journeys our predecessors covered by horse, boat and stage-coach in a fraction of the time. No wonder many of us feel we are speeding through life.
We also have higher expectations of each other and less control over our private lives, as friends, family, and even our boss has instant access to our lives via phone or internet and expect us to reply to messages immediately, even when we aren’t at work.
Photo by insung yoon on Unsplash
Deeper Reasons for Speeding
Not Living in the Present
Most of us don’t live in the present most of the time. Many people are uncomfortable with simply being and capitalism only values doing. So we have become humans ‘doing’ instead of humans ‘being’.
Many of us have the subconscious belief that if only we save enough time now, we will have time to spare in the future–this evening, this weekend, when we retire… Postponing really living until we reach that fabled moment in the future…that never actually arrives.
Because of an inability to be in the present, anxiety often sets in and free time has to be used to accomplish something making us busy, restless.
Eckhart Tolle says, “The pull toward the next moment is part of the collective conditioning of the human mind. Most people live like that all the time. There is a psychological need for the next moment. Built into the human psyche is the sense of insufficiency, a sense of lack,” to satisfy “that the ‘me’ needs future”.
Also time carries within it the inevitability of the end of time. So subconsciously we may be keeping busy because we are uncomfortable with our own mortality. Or is it more than that?
Cosmic Explanation for Speed
“The issue of speed and time are a product of energy field changes to the fundamental fabric on which culture, psychology and all human artefacts are based,” says Laurence Lucas, modern-day mystic, astrological consultant, shamanic practitioner and an expert on time-space codes.
The pressure we are feeling on the physical plane is due to “space weather”. “The Earth is being bombarded with interstellar plasma (a liquid gas that comprises 99% of space) and high-energy frequencies. This pressure is forcing an evolution to a higher level of consciousness,” says Laurence.
We can understand frequencies if we compare the buzz of a city to being in nature. Each has a different frequency most of us will have experienced.
“Today, we have many more frequencies to navigate. If you carry around a smartphone you are plugging into one particular frequency. With the web—
we are connected to billions of other people—and being immersed in a highly complex global frequency.”
No wonder being online all day can leave us feeling frazzled. Laurence is not advocating an end to technology, but urges us to become more conscious of how it affects us.
Laurence sums up by explaining how the speeding up of time is related to the current economic crisis. “What’s happening to time is very much tied in with money and the current economic crisis. We are all connecting in to the sense of lack and poverty consciousness inherent in that frequency. The crisis is that the mainstream worldview is running out of time because a new level of consciousness is trying to be born.”
Cost of Speed
Collectively we are speeding down the motorway of life at breakneck speed without a road map, goal or destination. Only an obsessive urge for more, faster. Going at such speed Chris says, “We loose the ability to notice and respond to feedback. If we can’t evaluate and respond to feedback that’s the way we can go blindly off the edge of cliff”.
The adrenaline rush of living life at speed can make us high. But in the long-run it’s not sustainable. In fact all this speeding is making us ill. Burn out, exhaustion and depression, with no time for family or friends are just some of the results of this time pressured life we live.
According to Chris, 13 million days-a-year are lost due to stress, anxiety and depression. He refers to “toxic” levels of stress and “hurry sickness.” Fifty per cent of workers in the USA are suffering from the same problem (4).
Many workers are under stress as working conditions deteriorate. Tighter deadlines and higher targets mean those at the top are paid well to squeeze those at the bottom, to maximise productivity. 80 per cent of jobs created since 2008 have been zero hour contracts where employees have no minimum hours and few rights. No wonder insomnia and stress are endemic.
How to get back in the slow lane
Spending time in nature whether gardening, sitting in the hills or lying on a beach will help recalibrate bodies wired for speed. Meditating, going to a festival, a retreat, or a vision quest will rest us more.
Research shows that finding ways to stay grounded or to re-ground are helpful. Anything that helps you get out of your head and into your body will slow down speed-stress, for example walking barefoot on the grass, a massage or freestyle dancing.
The most obvious way to slow down is to unplug from all technology. Switch off the TV, internet, laptop and mobile phone and take off your watch if you use one. If you combine this with regulating your circadian rhythms–getting up with the sunrise and going to bed early for a few days while allowing your body harmonise with more natural rhythms this will be rejuvenating, Laurence says.
If you want to slow down with others, the Work That Reconnects workshops use many techniques to slow down called Deep Time–that expand our sense of time and widen our sense of self.
As a medical doctor Chris recommends building resilience, contributing to your energetic bank account throughout the year, balancing rest and renewal time with productive time and taking a break or a holiday if you need to. Also pay attention to the early warning signs of burn out: problems with sleep, irritability, muscle tension and take action so that you don’t get symptoms of damage, getting colds and flu more often, increased smoking or drinking, depression, anxiety and heart attacks.
Quick Tips to Get You Back In The Slow Lane
- Consciously unplug from hectic global frequencies periodically
- Inhabit a wider expanse of time – e.g. the timescape of your family tree or plant some trees for your great-great-grandchildren.
- Start a gratitude practise – Joanna Macy calls this a subversive act because it runs contrary to the consensus view of reality that there is never enough 4.Come back to the present – meditate, pray, be mindful, focus on your sensory perception or on the breath, spend time with children.
- Celebrate the seasons and cross-quarter festivals.
- Simplify your life where you can – e.g. drive less, eat local, seasonal food.
- Regularly pause for renewal, to replenish your energetic bank account
- Less is more – doing less can be more satisfying and is more sustainable.
- Stress management – Reprioritise what’s really important
- Appreciate the simple things in life – e.g. summer sunshine, birdsong
Time-space compression is an integral part of 21 Century living. It’s impractical to try to withdraw from mainstream economy or ditch our smartphones, and it could take decades for a new consciousness to become the norm. In the meantime we need find ways to live within the speed-culture but not be of it. Collectively unplugging now and again will help us move towards a slower more sustainable lifestyle. The future of the earth lies in our hands, hearts and imagination and could be as beautiful as we dare to dream.
Thank you to all those who contributed. Sorry I can’t mention you all by name.
Chris Johnstone and Great Turning Times Newsletter http://facilitationforlifeonearth.org/
Active Hope book by Chris and Joanna Macy – www.activehope.info/index.html
Joanna Macy and the Work That Reconnects – http://www.joannamacy.net/
Laurence James Lucas, the originator of the Enchantments of Life a map of the evolution of human consciousness that incorporates time and space http://www.change-your-life-ljl.com
Time and Space Training – http://claim-your-power-ljl.yolasite.com/
References
- Essential English by Harold Evans pp18
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time%E2%80%93space_compression
- http://en.cyclopaedia.net/wiki/Time-space-compression-2
- The Dharma of Dragons and Daemons: Buddhist Themes in Modern Fantasy, David R. Loy and L. Goodhew
Cliona O’ Conaill is a counsellor, therapist and freelance writer