A call for calm. how to free up space in our head

Hyper-connected, forever accessible, drowning in an uninterrupted flow of information, always rushing in the real world and searching in the virtual world, we have become what Sylvain Tesson calls the “21st century neo-agitated” in the preface. sound out A small treatise on the infinity of the world.

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Slow search

However, whether it is the result of our minds being limited or saturated, the search for relaxation seems to reverberate through all parts of our society. Soft mobility is booming in cities, trainers are recommending phlegm, ecological sobriety is being combined with an increasingly necessary slowing down of our lifestyles, relaxation manuals and zen are selling as much as cookbooks. And now even some teenagers dress up with their old generation phones and imitate their mother, at the end of her mental overload, falling asleep in front of ASMR videos (Autonomic Sensory Meridian Response), sound montages of light noises that can release certain endorphins.

Finding peace has never been easy. Seneca already wrote before our era. “I force my mind to constantly pay attention to itself and not turn outwards,” and we also know Pascal’s formula in the 17th century: “All the unhappiness of people comes from one thing. which is not knowing how to relax in the room.

But obviously the digital age has come to complicate things. “Our technologies are extremely demanding,” explains Anthony Mahe, a sociologist specializing in the attention economy and Chief Knowledge Officer at Eranos. Many industries believed that to get attention, you needed to give an ever-increasing amount of notifications, notifications, but we reached our brain’s inability to process all the signals. The overproduction of messages has led to their dilution, which is creating problems for many companies and brands today. The pursuit of rest is a response to this satiety.

This is turning into a new urban planning. The dream city of the future has nothing to do with the connected smart city or the futuristic metropolises of The Fifth Element. The opposite. And the health crisis has further strengthened this desire for more tranquility, urban dwellers seek localization, want small self-sufficient neighborhoods, soft mobility. An analyst consulted by La Poste and the France Télévisions group on these economic issues takes the example of remote work: “Companies have shown that it is possible to reorganize rhythms. People are not working less, but they are connected to this reorganization of their time. Even the digital world is uniting its comfort brackets. Do you know ASMR videos? The hashtag is booming on TikTok. Made of small repeated and slightly amplified sounds, they would have soothing properties and would help teenagers and sometimes their parents sleep.
We see it in society, faced with the flood, we throw “slow” at the names of all industries: slow food, slow beauty, slow attitudes, slow technology, slow fashion…

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What if “doing better” rhymes with “doing less”?

While climate, health and diplomatic crises have made sobriety imperative, fashion, the champion of volume, has been one of the first to break out of its grip, questioning its model and showing its intention to calm down the game. And if the latter is in some ways similar to the former, now “doing better” rhymes with “doing less”. This leads to a rethinking of the relationship with time in our practice, our work and even our plates, which rediscover the rhythm of seasonality.

For everyone, tranquility is a matter of meaning. For some it merges with silence. For others, it means isolation. Others will require still more space. For others, it’s a moment of digital blackout

Caroline Jolivet, Sophrologist and Hypnotherapist

Another area where relaxation is the focus. sport. Previously, it was distinguished by a unique performance, now it includes soft disciplines and relaxation. Pilates, yoga, meditation never cease to hybridize. Recreation centers are also in line with the aspirations of the times. The Breton hemp-based skincare brand has teamed up with meditation studio Bloom to offer a bubble flotation session. We immerse ourselves in 37°C water, full of salt, plugged in our ears, cut off from the world. A new generation quiet time option for stressed city dwellers. For its part, the Hôtel de Crillon in Paris called on Lily Barber-Coulon, a yoga teacher and author, to imagine a complete wellness offer for its clients: a QR code for audio meditation in the rooms, to create a massage formula. a purposeful playlist, a meditative sound bath…

Our societal ecosystem includes more and more islands of calm, but the individual continues to overheat. It is to find a little of this inner peace that patients of Caroline Jolivet, a sophrologist and hypnotherapist, come to consult. “By expressing the diversity of their needs, patients discover the multi-meaning of the word,” explains the practitioner. For everyone, tranquility is a matter of meaning. For some it merges with silence. For others, it means isolation. Others will require still more space. For others, it’s a moment of digital blackout.

Thus, we distinguish external calmness, which refers to the environment, and internal calmness, which can be polluted by negative thoughts, reflections. By working on breathing, sophrology helps to find inner balance; “By focusing on the breath and allowing memories of calm, safety and tranquility to emerge, we are able to tame anxiety,” adds Caroline Jolivet. Searches vary as much as definitions of relaxation; some will go on silent trips like the writer Sylvain Tesson, others will go to nature to recharge their batteries, and others will insert moments of downtime into their schedules.

Train in peace

To the hyperactivity that says “we want to do everything, have everything, be everything, immediately, all the time,” Dr. Serge Marquis, a specialist in occupational medicine, adds another evil, which he calls ego boost. This illusion of believing that one must become one to succeed in life. As a result, he says, we’ve lost what he calls “the faculty of patience.” To illustrate his point, the doctor, in a work published by Flammarion, uses the image of a hamster spinning in his wheel and christens it Penswillard. We ourselves are polluted by a series of preoccupations, which he invites us to rid ourselves of through “personal growth” exercises to drive away ruminations and other unhelpful judgments. Like the feng shui in our homes, it shows us how to free up space in our heads.

Bringing attention back to the present requires training

Serge Marquis, doctor, specialized doctor

Serenity wins, it’s a search, work, effortless, but sometimes unnatural. And only after that, the stress chains are disconnected.” But when this peace is restored, what to do with it? “The possibilities to love, create, taste, wonder, learn and transmit are in that case their full potential,” the author emphasizes. After opening a place, you can live again.