Do you have hurry illness?
Minute For Your Health #39
Do you constantly feel like you need to be getting something done?
Are you always rushing?
Multi-tasking?
Reaching for your phone?
Struggling to do nothing?
Then maybe you have what some researchers have started to call ‘hurry illness’.
A condition where slowing down, stopping or doing nothing causes you extreme stress and anxiety.
Not only does this have the obvious effect of making it pretty hard to enjoy the good things in life, it also impacts your physical health.
If you struggle to slow down you are more likely to:
Have insomnia
Have cardiovascular issues
Have digestive problems
Suffer from pain
Slowing down.
If you think you might be experiencing hurry illness, you may be struggling to slow down.
So here are my top tips for doing just that:
Give yourself permission to do nothing or to do less by asking yourself why you feel you need to do so much. If you can’t come up with a good answer for why you always need to be on the move, you may find it easier to give yourself permission to slow down.
Begin measuring the value of what you do by how much it nourishes you, not by what others expect, what you feel you should do or by how much you earn.
Embrace seasons of rest. Just as nature sheds its leaves in autumn and things stop growing in winter, we humans too need periods of rejuvenation. While it looks like nothing is happening on the surface, so much is happening beneath the soil - which means in spring everything can explode with life, colour and growth.
Embrace seasons of rest in your life so you too can embrace the busyness of spring when it comes.
Summary:
In today’s fast paced society many of us suffer from hurry illness. We are constantly trying to get as much as possible done and we struggle to slow down and do nothing.
Take some time this month to reflect on why you constantly feel you need to be achieving something. If you can’t come up with a good reason then give yourself permission to stop doing so much and embrace periods of rest.
You can download a helpful worksheet to keep track of how much you do each day and whether this nourishes or drains you here:
Know someone who is trying to slow down? Share this article with them.
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