Are you “Living in the Fast Lane”?

Aug 9

Written By Becs

Why ‘Living in the Slow Lane’ opens up time and leads to a more fulfilling life…

Do you wish you had more time?

Many of us live in a constant state of ‘there’s not enough time’. We live as if there’s not enough time. And when we live like this we’re ‘Living in the Fast Lane’ – always looking forward to some point in the future when things slow down. Only they don’t.

Living in the Fast Lane means we strive to do more and more. We want to achieve things. We want to cram as much as we can into our lives. We want to be productive. We want to be on top or our to do list and empty our inbox. Many of us wear our busyness like a badge of honour. Which isn’t surprising, as our modern western culture actively rewards us for being busy.

Living in the Fast Lane however eventually leads to stress. (You don’t say…!) And when we’re stressed, our perception of time is skewed. We feel like we never have enough time.

So why is that? The primary stress hormone is cortisol. Cortisol often gets a bad rap, but in the right situation, cortisol is a good thing. It increases alertness. It increases mental clarity. It helps increase our memory. It increases our energy and our motivation to get take action. It heightens our sensitivity and perception.

And it’s totally designed to do this – as part of the fight or flight stress response. Which is actually brilliantly clever. When we were cave dwellers and being chased by a sabre-toothed tiger this was super helpful. Your brain wanted you to know that time was running out. And if you didn’t move fast time would run out. You’d be eaten – your time would literally be up.

However when there’s too much cortisol pumping around our body, it has this interesting effect on our brain. It skews our perception of time. Even when you’re not being chased by a tiger.

So if you’re living your life feeling like you don’t have enough time, it’s highly likely that you’re spending more time living in a stressed state, rather than a relaxed state. Which is not how we’re supposed to live. We’re not evolved to live like this. There’s a mismatch between how we live today and how we’re designed to live.

As a species, humans were designed to live in a relaxed state most of the time. The fight or flight stress response was designed for those times when our lives were in danger, and it was designed to last for a matter of minutes only.

Research suggests that we’ve been designed to live in a relaxed state for 85% of the time and 15% in a stressed state. For many of us our lives are the polar opposite of this. The current ratio is estimated to be 80% in a stressed state and 20%in relaxation.

It’s not surprising therefore that we feel like we ever have enough time. Not only is this an awful way to live, characterised by worrying, hurrying, worrying, and scurrying, it also brings with it a myriad of negative impacts on our health and immunity. And we’re more likely to develop poor health habits and make poor choices when we’re stressed.

When you consciously choose to ‘Live in the Slow Lane’ (yes it’s a choice…) and orient towards a more easeful and relaxed way of living, time perception opens up. Instead of your brain being bathed in cortisol, the happy hormones – oxytocin and serotonin – flood your body.

Living life in the Slow Lane means living as if you DO have enough time. More than enough. You’re more likely to make better choices for your health, your body, and your mind. And you feel way more in control of your to do list, your projects and life goals. More silence, more calm, more clarity.

Living in a state of ease – aka ‘Living in the Slow Lane’ is a key focus in my Fabulous Forever, Body Thrive Course.

If ‘not enough time’ is your reality or if you feel like you’re not living your most fabulous life, hit reply and tell me what you’d like to be different. I’d love to support you to change your relationship with time. Time to enjoy life. Time to smell the roses. Feel time rich instead of time poor.

And a Chinese Proverb, you may have seen before which sums this all up very nicely: