the invitation to slow down

I have recently read Jon Kabat-Zinn's Coming to Our Senses. Kabat-Zinn established the Stress Reduction Clinic in a Boston hospital more than 25 years ago. He's the author of Full Catastrophe Living which introduces the reader to connections between the body, mind, and emotions. When I was dealing with chronic pain prior to the cancer diagnosis, I listened to tapes that he produced for a 'body scan' which calmed the whole person's reactivity to the pain.

I share with you one of the most insightful sections of Coming to Our Senses in which he identifies the reasons why we seem to be moving so fast and enjoying life less. I read it and understand more why I feel called to slow down and become mindful of the present moment.

"It is now harder to pay attention to any one thing and there is more to pay
attention to. We are easily diverted and more easily distracted. We are
continuously bombarded with information, appeals, deadlines,
communications. Things come at us fast and furious, relentlessly. And
almost all of it is man-made; it has thought behind it, and more often than
not, an appeal to either our greed or our fears. These assaults on our
nervous system continually stimulate and foster desire and agitation rather
than contentedness and calmness. They foster reaction rather than
communion, discord rather than accord or concord, acquisitiveness rather
than feeling whole and complete as we are. And above all, if we are not
careful, they rob us of time, of our moments. We are continually being
squeezed or projected into the future as our present moments are
assaulted and consumed in the fires of endless urgency.
In the face of all this speed and greed and somatic insensitivity, we are
entrained into being more and more in our heads, trying to figure things out
and stay on top of things rather than sensing how they really are. In a
world that is no longer primarily natural or alive, we find ourselves
continually interfacing with machines that extend our reach even as we
succumb to disembodying ourselves through their addictive use, whether it
is the radio in the car, the car itself, the television in the bedroom, or the
computer in the office, and increasingly, in the kitchen.
The relentless acceleration of our way of life over the past few generations
has made focusing in on anything at all something of a lost art. That has
been compounded by the digital revolution, which--think back just a few
short years--rapidly found its way into our everyday lives in the form of
home computers, fax machines, beepers, cell phones, cell phones with
cameras, palm devices for personal organization, laptops, 24/7 high-speed
connectivity, the Internet and its WWW, and of course, email, all now
increasingly wireless, not that long ago an unthinkable dream, the stuff of
science fiction. For all the undeniable convenience, usefulness, access,
efficiency, improved coordinating, information, organization, entertainment,
and ease of shopping, banking, and communication these digital
developments bring with them, this colossal technological revolution that
has barely even begun has already irreversibly transfigured how we live our
lives, whether we realize it or not.
....The to-do list grows ever longer, and we are always rushing through this
moment to get to the next.....All this threatens to erode our ability and
inclination to sustain attention and thereby to know things in a deep way
before initiating some kind of action...."

A.D.D. Nation, Coming to Our Senses by Jon Kabat-Zinn 2005