Hurry Sickness: Nature's Cure in Spring Fever

Images courtesy of Laura Weber

"Times are urgent. Let's slow down." (Yoruban wisdom saying) Why are we all in such a rush? Hurry Sickness is killing us, and killing the planet. Coined by a cardiologist in the 1970s, the term refers to the incessant urgency we feel in a posthuman context, measured by the increasing speed and ubiquitous demands of technology that place chronic stress on the heart, the psyche, and the soul. Symptoms include feeling perpetually frazzled and overloaded, marked by a persistent undercurrent of anxiety, restlessness, and a compulsive "always on" behavior pattern that cannot allow for rest or relaxation, relationship-building, or time spent recreating. We're making ourselves sick with our frenetic pacing, a perennial sacrifice to the god of expediency in a "git 'er done" world.

What are the symptoms of Hurry Sickness? Dr. Kandi Wiens lists the following. Sound familiar?

• Always in a rush, always feeling behind

• Rapid talking, walking, rapid driving (!) 

• Irritation, especially when you’re delayed or you feel others aren’t moving quickly enough 

• Tendency to interrupt others 

• Rarely slowing down or resting; experiencing psychological distress when you’re unoccupied or physical reactions (such as fidgeting)

• Impatience (generally, and also finding yourself hurrying others along)

• Rapid heartbeat, hypertension, insomnia 

• A preoccupation with your to-do list, getting things done, productivity, efficiency, and saving time 

• A fixation on the passage of time and time slipping away 

• Everything feels urgent 

• Relying on adrenaline to get through everything—which can even become addictive!

  
  

Image courtesy of Laura Weber

Creation suffers as a consequence of human Hurry Sickness. Our circle of family and friends can feel the effects, especially our children, who are growing and developing slowly and require time for learning, imagination, and dreaming. It's not just a "Cat's in the Cradle" phenomenon of lost quality time with our children while we work slavishly at whatever indentured servitude we call employment. It's the constant distraction, fidgeting, inability to pay attention, neglect, and multi-tasking that compromises our disposition and real presence when quality time is available. "Ping!" goes our smart phone, watch, or laptop, and we jump to respond with immediacy, pretending this auto-response indicates our insuperable efficiency. The faster we can respond, the more competent we feel. We can check items off our list. That is, until we don't feel insuperable. We feel burnt out, lost, anxious and depressed. And we've ignored or neglected the ones we hold most dear in the process.

Image courtesy of Laura Weber, AI-assisted

Our more-than-human kin also feel the sad effects of human Hurry Sickness. A biospheric groaning erupts from the bowels of human productivity, rapid transit, techno-addiction, and pilfering of Earth's goods as a sacrifice on the altar of expediency. The whole Earth suffers the consequences of our need to comply with rapid response at the rate at which micro-processors demand. We extract, pillage, toxify and destroy local and global eco-infrastructure to meet the demands of productivity at all cost. Healthy air, soil, water, and habitat are all sacrificed in this biocidal enterprise. We've extended the circle of our ignorance and neglect to the wider "We," the whole planet, while we fiddle with our gadgets and can't turn our brains off to sleep or recreate, take care of our diseased rivers, oceans, air, and soil. We're in the midst of the Sixth Mass Extinction. Yep. Our Hurry Sickness is at the expense of creation.

What can we learn from Nature to address Hurry Sickness?

Image courtesy of Laura Weber

As Spring approaches, it is a great time to appreciate and imitate Nature's rhythms and cadence for gentle emergence. Nature moves at a much slower rate than our tech-saturated posthuman context. Compared with Nature, humans have the capacity to change significantly faster. And the effects of human causes of natural change are measured at 170 times faster. Those who conduct research using the "Anthropocene Equation" note the impact of intense human activity on Earth exponentially exceeds that of natural events spread across millennia. If we could slow our visual, olfactory, and auditory perception by paying attention to new life emerging at Nature's pace this Spring, we might learn to dance more in rhythm with Earth's time and subtle awakening.

Image courtesy of Laura Weber

Spring offers an opportunity for recalibrating our internal rush-clock, for healing our Hurry Sickness with a decelerated tempo, calming reflection, sensory healing and circadian reset. Take a deep breath and enjoy sunrise. Listen for the first songbird. Notice emergent budding in the spring bulbs and the trees. Gently sink fingers and toes in the soft garden soil and luxuriate in the aroma of Earthy scents. Look for surprises! Linger with a hot cuppa at sunset, noticing every tinge of color and shadow falling across the horizon. Let Nature's insouciance - the daydreaming, optimism, and slow-burning energy surge provided by Spring Fever cure the Hurry Sickness of body and soul.