Finding Time

Data Daze

“The amount of data humanity will collect while you're reading this book is five times greater than the amount that exists in the entire Library of Congress. Anyone reading this book, will take in as much information today as Shakespeare took in over a lifetime.”

Pico Iyer (The Art of Stillness)

Pico Iyer's little book, The Art of Stillness, is the text of his TED talk; it is 74 pages long. It can be read cover to cover in about an hour, and is packed with statistics such as the ones quoted above. Some of them are simply breathtaking when put into context; “Researchers in the new field of interruption science have found that it takes an average of twenty-five minutes to recover from a phone call. Yet such interruptions come every eleven minutes—which means we're never caught up with our lives.”

So if you're wondering why we always feel as though we're running a race that we can't get out of, a sprint for a finish line that never presents itself, it's only because we are. As human beings, our brains have changed somewhat since the days of Shakespeare, but not enough to accommodate the speed at which information comes at us. Our young people, whose brain connections are fresh and still growing, have a better chance of keeping up, but even there the stress of it is problematic. The incidence of Attention Deficit Disorder has steadily grown in the U.S., and even people who don't have the diagnosis are taking Ritalin to try and keep pace.

We need information breaks—time when we shut off all our devices and allow life to slow down around and within us. We need spaces when we don't watch the news, don't sit with our phones or computers ever before us, and don't read the newspaper. Respecting our own humanity, our own flesh and blood and brain cells, will enhance our quality of life and possibly even extend its length. Take a break today—get outside, let your brain slow down. Get in touch with the Shakespeare part of you, who can sit and write, while sipping tea before a blazing fire. Relax. Sigh. Breathe in, breathe out...now, doesn't that feel good?

                                                             In the Spirit,

                                                                  Jane