By Nanci Dixon
I just realized that I have spent almost all of my adult life hurrying. I have concentrated on getting from one place to another, doing one thing and then the next. Always checking off a to-do list on paper or in my head.
Our RV trips have been the same, even after retirement. Rushing from one stop to the next stop, racing through one National Park after another. Checking them off my list. Hurrying against what? I have had to ask myself. Against the inevitable end of times? Or at least against the inevitable end of my time? What deadline am I racing to?
I took a breath the other day and realized I could take as long as I wanted to do whatever menial task I was doing. It was somewhat of a revelation and in that moment I stopped the rush to the next task. I realized that I had relaxed! My breathing slowed and I felt different—different in a good way. It was so unusual I just had to look up “Hurrying and relaxing.” Little did I know there is a name for that state of doing: “Hurry Sickness”!
Hurry Sickness
Cardiologists Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman first noted the term “Hurry Sickness” after seeing a lot of their heart patients suffering from a sense of time urgency. They noted it as “a constant struggle and unremitting attempt to accomplish or achieve more and more things or participate in more and more events in less and less time.” They noticed that “Hurry Sickness” releases more cortisol in the body and that can lead to health problems.
Hurry Sickness is a real thing!
According to Healthline.com, Hurry Sickness really is a thing. Hurrying evidently has physical effects like trouble sleeping, changes in appetite, fatigue, decreased immunity, headaches, stomach and even heart problems.
Slow your roll
To help calm the hurry they suggest slowing down, slowly.
- Take a leisurely walk, particularly out in nature.
- Be mindful and quit multitasking. Be aware. Instead of just rushing through a task like chopping veggies, slow down, relax and pay attention to that simple act.
- Take care of yourself with exercise, good food, sleep and companionship.
- Prioritize relaxation. Even 15 minutes can make a difference.
- Set boundaries and stop saying yes to more tasks before you reach your limit.
- Stop and take a break.
True confessions
I will need to confess that I am not doing so well in all the points above, particularly in multitasking. In the course of writing this, I opened my treasured Amazon box, hooked up a new water meter, put anode rods away, read the directions for my new convection “Air Fryer” and started roasting peanuts in it. More on how that turned out later!
Looking again at the list, I think a break is in order. In my case, taking a break would mean sitting outside in our rocking camp chairs with my very relaxed husband. He is on the completely other side of the spectrum of Hurry Sickness. Hmmm, I wonder what the term for that is…
##RVT1115
I’m pretty sure I have this, and now that I’m retired it doesn’t serve me at all. Your tips are somewhat helpful but just reminding me to slow down is very appreciated.
Driven by a military occupation that was driven by exact time, I find it difficult to slow down and smell the roses.
Good article. I’m sure I suffer or have suffered from this. Fasted paced, demanding, high stress career certainly is a culprit. I’ve always had a bad habit of taking on too much. Always been a can do guy, fixer, problem solver. Way too often putting my needs/wants dead last.
Now retired, I’m doing better. But I have to often remind myself that It’s now my time. At least part of the time, it’s important to put me at the front of the line for needs/wants. Still hard for me to say no.
I do enjoy the slower pace now retired. Sometimes I still feel overwhelmed by stuff but it’s much better these days.
No problem at all – after I retired the second time!
My hurrying started in Marine Corps boot camp mess hall, recruits go through the chow line, sit down and eat as fast as they can in order to be finished and standing in formation before the Drill Instructor finishes his meal. That was 61 years ago, recently I had a physical problem with my food wanting to hang up before entering my stomach. After a Dr researched my condition he said I was eating faster than my esophagus could send the food down and was told to eat slower, something DW has been saying for a long time. Lol everything I do I’m in a hurry, I’ve got to slow down.
Your mess hall experience sounds familiar except mine was in the Navy. You’d just sit down with your chow and some guy would be standing next to your table shouting “Eat the @%$&, don’t shoot it!” But once out of that situation, I want back to leisurely everything. Even today, my wife is up and running every morning while I just putt along. I’ve learned not to argue with this situation.
I push back against my spouse’s sense of spontaneity because she will frequently make me skitter between things then berate me for things I had to stop and forgot to complete. I much prefer to plan things and contingencies at a more relaxed pace. As a scuba diver, the mantra is “plan the dive and dive the plan”. With some thought about contingencies, I don’t have to hurry. I don’t have to get anxious when things go off track. We can just deal with them and continue to enjoy the day. Spontaneous things are things we enjoy, not life disruptions.
After 40 plus years of nursing this is me. Though I have no problems sleeping and do run/walk 3 miles a day. What I hate is what this has done to my kids and now I am really trying with my grandson.
As well as hurrying, or in some cases not doing something at all because it will take too long, I have realised that I have also tended to make everything “epic”. No short walks in the woods, has to be a long steep hike, no afternoon rides on the motorcycle, has to be a 500 mile day. No more!
I used to hurry. Now I’m just busy. I have realized that’s the home chores and projects, one has by trying to keep a lot of “stuff” running, reveals one of the great things I love about RVing. When we are RVing, all those home projects and chores shrink down to just maintaining the 5th wheel and truck. Life becomes much more simplified and relaxed.
“If you, or anyone you know, has experienced Hurry Sickness, ( a REAL medical condition! ), call our lawyers: Dewey, Cheatem, and Howe, who are standing by!”
Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go. This was my SOP all of my professional life and even after I retired. Then a friend gave me a book entitled “The Ruthless Destruction of Hurry”, by John Mark Comer. Wish I could have read this book years earlier. Corrie Ten Boom said, “if the devil can’t make you sin, he will make you hurry”. Both sin and hurry cut off your connection with God and to other people, even your own soul. I regret how my hurry robbed me of spending more time with family and friends. I have not licked all of hurry but I sure am experiencing the goodness of not being driven by hurry.
Which is worse “hurry sickness” or “time blindness”? I saw a video of a young lady saying she couldn’t believe her employers didn’t recognize her “time blindness”, that she couldn’t get to work on time, meeting on time, etc. And the Cleveland Clinic says it is real (SMH).
Since retiring I don’t really hurry but I am 10 to 15 minutes early for anything I need to do/be at or have promised to do/be at.
That is Vince Lombardi rules. “If you aren’t 15 minutes early, you’re late”.
The Japanese tea ceremony was designed to remove one from such a hurried state of mind and give focus to existing only in the present moment. (For Elfquesters, desined to put you in the “now” of wolf thought) IOW you exist without past or future. I’ve always tried to be “it’s about the journey and not the destination”. The unfortunate corollary is that when I’ve designed interesting places to enjoy along the journey, or see something that looks fun along the way I’m urged by others in the family to “hurry up so we can reach the destination sooner.” Which defeats the purpose.
Wow, I have not thought of Elfquest for years. Thanks for the memory!
Another great article Nanci… a very special person in my life helped me learn to slow down and look around, think about what I was doing, in actions and in words.
When we both retired and on a trip into Utah, I had to slow my late wife down.
We had spent the night camped at Escalante C.G. The next day pulled into Kodachrome S.P. Joyce asked me what was I doing, we’ve only been on the road for xx minutes?
I looked at her and said this is where we are staying tonight.
Do you have to be somewhere else tomorrow, next week,; next month..
It still took her a while to slow down.
Much happier lady and me too after that….. 😉 ……
I don’t “hurry,” but I always have a long list of projects in my head to get done. I am a multitasker…something that was a mandatory skill in my career.
My bigger issue is that I always want to achieve perfection. My brother, who is a carpenter, tells me: “You’re always trying to build cabinets. Sometimes a framing job will do.”
My sister was also a very goal-driven busy person. Her Christmas letters made me tired just seeing everything she had done in the past year. She passed last year from ALS. I try to remember a phrase in her memorial: “I have always had so much to do, but now those projects will just have to go undone.”
There’s a lesson there.
“Is there somewhere you need to be?” is a good mental gymnastic to slow things down for retirees.
There’s a huge difference in quality between spending ten minutes at one place versus one minute at ten places.
I’m always in a hurry; my honey is always way slower than me. I try to meet somewhere in the middle, but it doesn’t always work out.
You describe my wife. Her grumpiest time is prior to events like holidays and trips. She puts too much on her list, adds more, is average at figuring out and timing the steps needed to accomplish her list then wants me to help with HER list when I have my own far less stressful pretty well planned list in play, now making me stressed to accomplish what I previously knew I could do. The run-on sentence was deliberate because that’s how life can feel, needlessly.
We are leaving for our 6 month winter migration in 3-days. Guess what?
“Guess what?”? As in… I’m surprised you even had time to comment, Jim.🤣 Have a great trip! 😀 –Diane
I am efficient by nature and I used to be that person in my family and friend groups who planned and took care of everything. I was always hurrying and scrambling to get things done. Three years into being a care-giver for my mom while working a very stressful & time-consuming job I became completely overwhelmed and told everyone I quit. It took some time, but I’m never in a hurry anymore and I learned how to say “No.”😁
There is another term for this condition which has cost a lot of lives – and especially of professional people – It is a combination of a pilot certificate and a condition known as “Get-There-Itis”. Many airplane accidents by pushing the envelope and the usually the weather together. Exchanging learned skills and planning with fatal consequences.
I don’t like being rushed so when making plans or have work to do, I allow way more time than is probably necessary. We are heading south soon but have been slowly packing for 10 days now. This way, we don’t feel rushed and also don’t usually forget anything. We can arrive at our snowbird destination in about 3 travel days, but I am allowing 6 travel days so that if we want to stop somewhere in between, we won’t feel rushed to get there. My wife likes the no rush, relaxing lifestyle too.
I too suffer from Hurry Sickness. I think mine is more that I’m afraid if I stop being busy, I will end up like my mom who was very sedentary in her later years and lost her mobility. I try to keep moving as much as possible!!
Thank you, Nanci! This is a great reminder to, not so much “stop and smell the roses,” as it is “don’t rush off to another task after checking the ‘smelled roses’ box.” I can’t honestly say if I do or don’t do this, but I do hope that I will remind myself to hurry less when no “real” deadline exists. Have a great weekend and safe travels! 🙂