Protect Yourself from TUI

The Journal of the American Medical Association reports about 42 percent of young adults suffer from potentially risky levels of TUI (Time Urgency Impatience).  NO JOKE!

Higher levels are more common among women and Caucasians.  

Time Urgency Impatience is the fastest growing epidemic with over 30 million worldwide sufferers and growing.

To put it simply, TUI is “Hurry up Sickness”.  It’s at epidemic proportions.

TUI Doubles the Increase of:

• Hypertension
• Heart disease
• Anxiety disorders
• Depression. 

Not only does it have critical health deteriorating implications, the impatient, stressed out attitude that typically comes along with this sickness can deeply damage relationships.

*Are you at risk?

1. Do you often get very upset if you are forced to wait for something? Y/N
2. Do you usually feel pressured about time? Y/N
3. Do you feel you don’t have enough time at the end of the workday? Y/N
4. Do you feel you don’t have enough time during the day? Y/N

The more “yes” answers you have, the greater you’re TUI score and the higher your risk of developing hypertension.

Four “yes” answers = severe TUI

Three “yes” answers = moderate TUI

TUI Two “yes” answers = mild TUI

TUI One “yes” answer = low TUI

If you answered even one question yes, it might be time to do an inventory of your lifestyle and see if you can correct this disease before it takes over some of the most important things in your life.

Namely, your sense of peace and serenity, and your enjoyable relations with loved ones.

Use these tips to help heal or immune yourself from this devastating condition:

Inventory your activities

List all your activities, from the moment you wake up, until you go to bed.  Reflect on your list and choose what is the most important to you. 

If the activity doesn’t fall into the most important category, get rid of it.  

Be brutal! This is your quality of life we are working on. You can always add some of the activities in later, but now we want the bare bones highest priority tasks only.

Chances are your most important activities are going to be family, work, and hopefully self-care.

You may still have to cut back or adjust.  While you are looking at how to reschedule your priorities, Keep some open spaces in your schedule. 

It will keep you calmer knowing you have the extra bit of time for the unscheduled circumstances that seem to pop up from day to day.

Center Yourself Daily

Schedule a contemplative activity somewhere throughout your day.

That means – Relax!

Even if it’s only ten or fifteen minutes, quiet time will help create energy and a sense of peace to help with all your other activities.  It will also help remind you to avoid getting caught up in the time trap. 

Choose something that brings you back to yourself and clears your mind. It could be yoga, coloring mandalas, playing music, meditation, prayer, a walk in the park, anything at all that helps you get back to your own center.

Do One Thing at a Time

Multi-tasking is a skill that’s admirable in the workplace, but in all honesty, we become much more productive when we are able to center our mind on one task at a time. 

Use multi-tasking sparingly.

“Doing two or more things at the same time splits our consciousness in two or more ways,” observes meditation teacher Eknath Easwaran. Pursue “One Mindedness”.

Try to remain “one-minded”, you’ll be amazed at how much you can still accomplish when you stay focused and effective on one task at a time.

Throw Away Your Watch

When you see a clock, it automatically puts you into “hurry up” mode. You can still be punctual for appointments as clocks are everywhere.

Time pieces are in your car, your computer, even your microwave. So, give yourself a break from actually having time attached to your body as a cruel reminder of how you little time you think you have to accomplish everything you’d like to.

Plan Your Day in the Evening

At the end of the day, before you wind down for the night, make a list of what you have to do the next day. Get everything ready to go, whether it be laying out work/school clothes, or packing lunches.

Whatever you can do to help prep yourself for the next day – do it now.

Knowing you are prepared will offer you a better night’s sleep.  You’ll also be less stressed in the morning as you don’t feel like you have to “hit the ground running”. You’ll already have that jump start so you can ease yourself into the day in a better frame of mind.

At the end of this article, for just one moment, look around you, listen and feel your body.

Do that several times a day. Just stop, take a deep breath and really look, listen, and feel.  

That experience is YOUR life!  There is no other life than what is happening right this very moment.  Savor it.

* Adapted from the questionnaire used by Lijing L. Yan, Ph.D., M.P.H., in the CARDIA study reported in tire Journal of the American Medical Association.