Pace of life

Monib Sabet
Aug 28, 2017 · 2 min read

Have you experienced that you are behind even before going to bed? Or when you’re in bed? A feeling that tells you, there are a lot to be done and you’re not just catching up. Not necessarily chores, but just a lot going on that you can’t catch up with — not in your life, in the world.

If you feel that way, you are not alone. These are the symptoms of “informasis” (don’t look that up — I just coined this term for this condition), which is a condition caused by information or information overload. We are constantly exposing ourselves to new information from the Internet, news, friends, coworkers, work itself and add them all to the personal challenges and responsibilities in life, and you’ve got a perfect case of ‘informasis’.

The ironic thing is that most of us are aware of what we are dealing with, yet we can’t leave our phone aside and keep indulging ourselves in social media, even before bed — as if it’s some sort of ritual.

Having observed all these behaviors in others and myself, I realized that ‘this is not the pace our brain is functioning at’, and this is the source of that feeling of being left behind and not being able to catch up. Informasis provides too much information to us to process, the information that does not necessarily concern us. Example, our brain does not need to know what a certain YouTuber is saying about her/his daily life!
Informasis takes us away from who we are and distracts us from communicating with our inner self and instead focuses our attention on the things that are not really important in our progress as a human being, as a spiritual being.

The good news is that I have been able to observe and find what ‘remedies’ we have for informasis. I have found that any activity that has a ‘natural pace’ takes our brain back to normal state. There are a lot of activities that can help, some of them include:

  • Reading (it is a slow process compared to watching a video or even listening, and you think and imagine in the process)
  • Cooking (because it takes time! And you make an effort to get what you want compared to having a fast food or processed food that is ready to eat in 2–3 minutes)
  • Painting
  • Praying and meditating
  • Walking
  • Playing an instrument

In short, any activity that helps us reflect, think, imagine and be creative is what resonates with our spiritual side and eventually what makes us feel positive and calm.

Feel free to share your thoughts about the activities that help you reach that state of calmness in comments.

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