Moments of stillness

Are your days spent rushing from one urgent ("the world will explode if you don't answer this email!") task to another? Are you finding that the urgent, not important, parts of your day are starting to take over from the important, not urgent?

If so, then your body is being subjected to constant adrenaline rushes.

You may be aware of adrenaline and its role in our survival - it's the "flight or fight" hormone.  A sabre tooth tiger appears and we either need to run fast and fight hard with that big stick. This activity then burns through the adrenaline.

The problem with our modern lives is that we're putting ourselves in situations where we flood with adrenaline but it is not socially acceptable to run or fight, allowing the adrenaline to build up in our bodies.

What solutions are there for handling the demands of modern worklife?

The most basic defence is to look after yourself, to ensure that your diet and exercise are sufficient to ensure a strong and resilient body.

The second level of defence is to train yourself to be active, rather than reactive. One of the training strategies for this is to take moments of stillness during your day.  

“Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future; live the actual moment. Only this moment is life.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

In Unified Inbox we built in our Wise Quotes to run on start-up. They are a reminder for us, that as we login to prepare for another day of running a software startup, to be still for a moment.  The ideal start to our days is when we approach our mail (generally considered a stressor task in modern overloaded lives) with a sense of calm, rather than a sence of trepidation.

Our quotes can also be accessed via our Twitter feed - we hope they make a difference to your day as well.