Switch Off and Find Calm, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 1 Work–life integration

The challenge of being overconnected and unable to switch off from technology transcends age, race, education and geography, and it doesn’t stop with technology. Many of us feel the effects of living life in the fast lane. Our frenetic pace, racing from one meeting to the next and one activity to the next, is affecting our ability to take time out, slow down, switch off and refuel. With our bodies and minds constantly ‘switched on’, our health and wellbeing are increasingly paying the price. We are in a state of chronic overconnection, overwhelm and overstimulation. This is a growing global problem.

Searching for slow

In 2004 Canadian journalist and best-selling author Carl Honoré published In Praise of Slow, in which he outlines the sociological and psychological implications of a speed-obsessed culture and warns of the potential negative consequences of our obsession with speed. Honoré traces the history of our relationship with time and asks, ‘Why are we always in such a rush?’ and ‘When are we going to slow down?’ Arguing that ‘Evolution works on survival of the fittest, not the fastest,’ he proposes an alternative way of thinking and living, which he calls ‘the slow revolution’.

To achieve more we do not have to keep pushing ourselves to do more; in fact we are capable of achieving more through doing less. Most people reading this will want to jump immediately to the ‘how to’ section. It is a modern-day conundrum: how can we do more ...