The Patient Way Forward Is the Fastest Way Forward

In a world where AI, ChatGPT, Instacart, and 5G sprocket pocket devices are speeding life up to a rate that feels like "Ludicrous Speed," we are becoming less tolerant of slower moments. Our ability to wait is less, transitions are quicker and more erratic, and conversations are more interrupted. Patience feels less like a virtue and more like a luxury that no one can afford. No wonder anxiety is on the rise, ADHD is surging, and our ability to feel grounded is becoming harder. It's a race where every time you make progress, the belt under you gets faster.

I'm conflicted with this pressure to keep up, especially having a brand and business. Marketing is no longer about how big your ad is on the side of the highway so it can be seen by thousands of drivers. It's now about how condensed, concise, and how fast it can be seen by millions of scrollers on a way faster highway - the Information Superhighway, where the driver's attention span is getting shorter and shorter. The average attention span when looking at a screen in 2004 was 2.5 minutes. In 2016 it was 47 seconds. Apparently, now Gen Z's attention span is less than 8 seconds. I can push, and I do push, to jump in the undertow of flashing content out there. Create speed reels, a whopping 4 whole seconds with a deep teaching moment squeezed into a couple of words, cute font, and a one-click link. Boom! Post that like you're sticking a 14ft x 48ft billboard in the dirt! I do it like everyone else. However, I do stop and wrestle with this because it can feel hypocritical to everything I try to embody and teach in class. Being thoughtful in longer, slower moves. Not skipping the hard spots to avoid the shakes. Being present and moving deeper not quicker. Even last week's theme - embracing the full journey and slower moving parts of you. Even if it feels slower in the moment, by the end that's how you will feel the most accomplished. Where you fully made progress or allowed yourself to fully heal.

Another reason why I struggle to keep up with society's fast-pace tech culture is because I feel the best parts of me, the more successful parts of me, emerged from a gazillion setbacks. Long, tedious hours and years of hands-on training, making all the mistakes so I know how to spot them and help other people through them. The stuff a quick tutorial on an Instagram feed could never teach. Experiencing a long process, or long relationship with anything, builds tenacity for when things go wrong. If you never take the long way, you lack the patience to recover from life's stresses—both emotionally and physically.

Beyond deep knowledge, even deep relationships. My most meaningful relationships came out of long, hilarious drives, adventures traveling together, the absurd lulls with awkward pauses, or sweating in an uncomfortable line together. All the stuff that happens between the adventures. That's the stuff that really creates bonds.

The best control group out there, a species that doesn't ever scroll for a quick answer (because most of them don't have fingers), is the animal kingdom. It's just like the book Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers. Robert M. Sapolsky talks about how you don't see animals with chronic stress. They still have fears and competition and major stress. However, they do not experience prolonged stress. When they are chasing for food or being chased as food, there is a boost of adrenaline, increased oxygen, glucose, and cortisol. There is a sharpening of cognition, alertness, even pleasure. What's fascinating is as quickly as they can turn on their fight-or-flight reaction, disappear behind a cloud of kicked-up dirt in full sprint, they return to a state of homeostasis. The stress response subsides as swiftly as it arises. Unlike humans, where our complex cognition amplifies stress, turning everyday worries into persistent sources of anguish. Sapolsky believes observing the resilience of animals and their ability to slow down, fully recharge after spiked stress responses, gives good insight into how we as humans can better control our coping mechanisms to stress. Who knows, if they were able to use their paws and order an antelope leg on Uber Eats, they might be anxious, neurotic creatures like us, stripped of all their patience, essential instincts, and coping skills.

Look, am I going to keep posting the speed reels, zipping my finger around social media, and sending funny memes to my friends? Yes. Did a package just come in the mail today from an impulsive Instagram purchase? Some sort of dress I think... Yes! So I don't think it's wrong or that it doesn't work. I just don't want our society and our next generation to substitute deeper life experiences with these shortcuts. Deny ourselves of beautiful, sometimes painfully long-winded processes. I don't want AI, or any flashy app, to serve as our Ozempic for learning. The fast track to saying you're now a professional. It's important we make time for the longer road trip with your bestie, read the WHOLE book, complete the FULL certification, and read the longer articles or BLOGS (ahem!).

This week we're going to continue moving thoroughly and mindfully and shakily. Because the irony is after a class with longer sets and more detailed movement, clients ALWAYS say the same thing when it's over, "Woah! That was fast!"

Excited to make your bodies sweat, smile, and get there faster by going slower.

XO,

Celeste