Week 5: Slow down

"Slow down, you move too fast, got to make the morning last, skipping down the cobble stones, looking for fun and feeling groovy." Simon and Garfunkel's song is so happy and mellow. By today's standards, I imagine some young people may judge it as corny and old-fashioned. It's just a simple song with acoustic guitar, nothing high tech or glamorous or sexy.

Dr. Hanson reminds us that "chronic speediness" raises stress hormone levels. Multi-tasking likewise takes a toll.

Children grow up all too quickly and the pressure to "measure up" is often counted in the number of activities they cram into a day. Today's teens rush from school to sports to lessons to recitals to jobs, and simultaneously do homework, watch TV, listen to music, text with friends, and type their assignments. They are up too late and sleep too little for optimum mental and physical health and performance.

According to neuroscientists, multi-tasking is a myth because the human brain is a sequential processor and performs tasks one at a time. Its effectiveness is a delusion. What seems like multi-tasking is actually "task switching." Evidently there is a small percentage of the population known as supertaskers who can actually perform two or more tasks effectively at the same time, but that does not apply to the 98% of us who can barely walk and talk simultaneously. It is nearly impossible to do two demanding tasks simultaneously without loss of productivity or accuracy or both.

So what makes multi-tasking so seductive? Unwittingly we may equate the effects of adrenaline and other stress hormones with the effects of neurotransmitters like dopamine. Moving at high speed and other pleasurable--often high risk--activities give us a buzz and that buzz is completely addictive. It gives us the enduring illusion that multi-tasking is somehow better, but the qualitative experience and long term health effects of busy-ness don't measure up.

Mihaly Csikszentmihaly is known for his studies of the experience of Flow. In performing tasks with the right combination of challenge and skill (which will be different for each of us), we can have the ultimate experience: we feel focused; we step outside our everyday reality and lose track of time; we have a sense of inner clarity, serenity and adequacy. All this, says Csikszentmihaly, enhances our happiness and well-being.

So our practice this week is not only to go more slowly, but to be less busy, to be more effective, to prioritize what is important, to do our work with concentration, to give ourselves adequate quiet time to integrate information, solve problems and be creative, and to savor and enjoy all that we do. Save multi-tasking for folding laundry while watching television if you must. Better yet, try giving the process of smoothing and folding cloth of various colors and textures your full attention and concentration (recall Week 2). You might find yourself feeling soothed and relaxed.

It is surprising to me, five weeks into this practice, that there is nothing miraculous or extraordinary about any aspect of this program. We are applying ourselves to our lives and simply living with intent and awareness. We each can end up singing "Life I love you, All is groovy."