The Speed of Life: Are We Losing What Truly Matters?

It appears that everything is going too quickly these days. We are living in a time of change, in which technology, concepts and trends appear to advance at lightspeed. From smart phones to social networking sites, never has life been so quick. While all this hustle and bustle has introduced a lot of conveniences into our lives, it has a dark underside. Increasingly, it appears that people are losing touch with the deeper part of themselves — their hearts, their souls, their relationships with others.

It was not always that way. Take a few decades back in time and life appeared less complicated, slower and in many respects, more meaningful. People spent more time connecting, thinking, living in the moment. There was not this same rush to move on to the next and the next success. Connections were formed and tended in the flesh, not through a screen. We had space to breathe and pay attention to what was in front of us.

And yet now everything is at a pace too fast for anyone to keep up with. Information overwhelms us on every side and in trying to make sense of it all we end up losing focus on what is really important. We are so focused on what's next — the next job, the next device, the next holiday — that we forget to pause and be thankful for what we already have. Our brains, hearts and bodies are overwhelmed and in the whirlwind, the deep, rich connections which once we cherished most are being lost.

One of the most self-evident consequences of this fast-paced world is the way that we relate to one another. It is easy to think that we are nearer than ever before, given the number of ways in which we can relate to each other. Social media, texts and video calls allow us to talk to friends and loved ones across the globe in the blink of an eye. But are they ever meaningful? Or are they just superficial with likes, shares and smileys? For me, I use smileys but feel something when I put them in context.

Most people spend more time looking at their mobile phone than actually speaking these days. People are having fewer face-to-face conversations. As a result, it is becoming harder to get to know people. We only know people's lives in bits and pieces and we do not see them in full. We may know what someone is having for lunch or where they are going on holiday but do we know them? Are we truly listening to one another, or are we just waiting for our turn to say something?

In our society today, it is so easy to get caught up in the din and lose focus on what is most important. Our emotional health suffers and our physical health along with it. We are so busy running from one task to another, never really taking the time to attend to ourselves. The pressure to keep pushing, to produce, to get things done can drain us and leave us disconnected from who we really are.

Others are of the opinion that life used to be easier before, that we were more connected with each other, more earthed and more present with each other. Yes, the world was less complicated then. We should remember, though, that life has its own issues. No era is problem-free. But the difference now is that the pace of life has grown clumsy and it feels like we are losing something valuable in the process.

It is not that the world is not real. The world is indeed real but the way in which some people live in it — continually chasing the latest big thing, continually distracted by technology — can become depersonalized and severed from the more profound moments of life. We have it all at our fingertips and yet we are much of the time empty, detached and unsure of what really makes us happy.

Maybe it is time we stopped hurrying. Maybe it is time to put the phone down, step back from the screens and listen to what's really right in front of us. Real conversation. Real relationships. Real moments. When we slow down, we create room to recall what is most important — the sensation of a hug, the ring of a laugh, the tranquility of simply being there with another human.

In our rush-rush world today, it is easy to feel severed from that which gives life its livability. Yet if we can take a step back, breathe deeply and listen to that which anchors us — body, heart and soul — we can learn a way to reconnect the connective tissue. Maybe the answer is not to do more but to do less and be more. And doing so, we can gain back the richness and depth that life is meant to be beautiful.