Yesterday I talked about fast paced life in my article 'dis-eased life' and ways to protect ourselves from its effect. This is more of a sequel to it.
https://read.cash/@aniruddhasen/dis-eased-life-9d09cd20
But what actually is a fast paced life?
Does it mean we are always on the move, moving from one place to another? A fast paced life style has nothing to do with our physical movement. It is all the movement of our thoughts in the mind. A fast paced physical life only causes physical exertion but a fast paced mental life causes both physical exertion and mental exertion.
If only physical movement was involved in a fast paced life then the farmer, the laborer or anyone only doing physical jobs to earn livelihood would have the fastest paced life and its problems. But that is not the case. In fact they are having the slowest and the happiest mental lifestyle. There work is focused only on one task and completion of the daily routine regarding that task. You won’t find the lifestyle and stress related diseases in them. They are the one who have the most physical intensive jobs and they have the best tension free life and the most peaceful sleep, though they may be earning far less than the white collar labors.
On the other hand we have the white collared corporate honchos with all their high education, knowledge, ambition and hopes. They invariably have an air-conditioned office, with a coffee machine round the corner, with all the latest electronic gadgets to make the work place easy and productive. They will mostly be sitting on their chairs comfortably pouring over files, charts, power point presentations and the computer screen. At the end of the day they are more tired than those mentioned in the last paragraph. They will commute to the office in their cars or the tube in a cozy environment albeit the traffic. They are the ones who earn in many multiples of what the people with hard labor earn.
Both are a starkly different situation and world.
What is wrong with the white color labor's?
It is the trail of thoughts the mind is continuously producing. From the time they wake up in the morning the mind goes on an overdrive of things to do from reaching to the office, in the office and after work. In the cut throat corporate world there are no office timings. Thanks to the mobile and the internet and the target based jobs, one is always connected and on the toes whatever time of the day it might be. In this the mind is always moving between what is going on, what is to be done in a few minutes, to a few hours to a few days ahead. The mind is also assessing the outcome of the actions we did a few minutes ago, a few hours ago and a few days ago. The mind is constantly in the state of a 100 meters runner as well as a marathon runner. The body is only following the directions of the mind in a mechanical manner.
In addition to the work we need to keep up with our social life, relationship intricacies and obligations. So the mind is not only moving faster from one task to another, but the number of tasks it is handling is stretching it to its capacity. The mind has to deal with both the quantity and the quality of the tasks.
If this would not have been the case then what could have been better than the life of a city bred corporate employee. They have a cozy job with the best amenities available to perform the tasks that require no physical exertion.
The thoughts that are moving through our neurons are covering only a few millimeters and centimeters of distance inside our brain but its outer manifestation is like returning home jet lagged from a long haul flight.
This is the reason they require break from this routine frequently and rush to the mountains or the sea coast to have a well deserved rest. Rest not only for the body but more importantly for the mind. The mind needs to let off the steam at regular interval to release the pressure from the pressure cooker workplace.
It is all the game of the mind. One who can slow down the mind in this environment will last longer both times wise and quality wise. The internet is full of advices on how to deal with a fast paced life and help slow down it a bit. But it is mostly deals with the physical aspect, whereas it is more of a mental aspect.
The good news is that we can reset our hormonal balance, bring our bodies back into balance by swapping out processed and estrogen-promoting foods and chemicals from our diets. Diet, supplementation, exercise and stress management all play a role in resetting your hormonal balance.