The Subtle Art of Relaxing
Everywhere you look there are articles telling you to do more.
You might have seen them, How to be more productive. How to hustle 24/7. How to finetune your habits for guaranteed success.
As useful as these articles are, what you don't see is the opposite. How to relax. How to Be Still. To enjoy the finer parts of life.
Hard work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. This saying is as true today as it was when I first heard it when I was a wee child.
Society has a strange addiction to work. Feats of 50 or 60 hour working weeks are celebrated like military victories. Those who don't work hard enough are vilified as idlers.
Why? Is it such a bad thing to relax? Given the chance, you'd take lounging in the sun over an 8-hour shift. I know I would!
Work is a means to an end, not an end itself. Hard work can be a good thing, but it's not everything.
No one looks back on their life and wishes they worked more. The finer parts of life come in quieter moments. In moments of nothingness. In the stillness of relaxing.
You can measure productivity, but you can't measure something more valuable, happiness. The art of relaxing is going out of fashion, it's time to bring it back.
Doing nothing shouldn't make you feel guilty. Not every moment has to be optimised. Reserve time to feel stillness. To notice the cool breeze in the morning or the smell of the flowers in your garden.
You're not a relentless working machine, you're human.
In the immortal words of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, relax.
Great article Tom. I do have 2 comments, not sure if you know but there is an italian word "Dolce Far Niente " = The Sweetness Of Doing Nothing. It is a philosophy ingrained in the Italian psyche. We should learn from them to just enjoy doing our own thing in our own time. Learn to enjoy yourself, relax, we have plenty of time.
Also, we do not live to work, we work so that we can live and enjoy life.