Lazy is a Privilege
I like being lazy. It’s a gift of living in a rich country, where everything I could want or need is readily available. If I lived in a less fortunate place, I would need to go fetch water everyday or spend hours, just making sure I had food to eat.
Because I live in America, I get to choose between being with friends or going to the movies. Pursuing a hobby or going to school, and thousands of other choices. How lucky am I that, when I get home and turn on the tap, clean water will come out?
I Want to Slow Down Too
I savor my lazy time. There are so many things that I “could/should” be doing, but really, I don’t want to. This doesn’t mean I don’t work hard. I do. But I’m also trying to not speed my way through each day.
I’m trying to learn to slow down.
My mantra, for a long time, has been… when someone asks me what I’m going to do that day, is to say, “I’m going to less and then, I’m going to do less than that.” This is the antidote to… I’m going to work, then eat out, then do this and that, then…the never ending cycle of “busy-ness”.
I feel I’ve been programmed… “to do”. And my phone doesn’t help. It’s always there, waiting to be checked. In my head, I’m thinking, I have to check it… what if someone needs me! And there are times in our lives when we do need to check regularly because we are parents, caretakers, chauffeurs or whatever. But I’m not in that position today. So I could let my phone sit for hours and nothing tragic would happen.
The Best Thing I Can Do…
Is to be a human “being”, not a human “doing”. I’m trying to:
- take more deep breaths
- put my phone out of reach
- sit still
- stare into space
- imagine myself on a beach somewhere
- pretend I’m a sloth and just…go really slowly.
What do you do to slow down? I’d love to hear what you are trying.
Image credit: Sloth Amazon Brazil
What do you think?