Maybe at some point in the day, you find yourself gazing at the clouds beyond the curtains or slowly sipping onto your tea or brushing your hands against the soft fur of your pet or noticing the texture of what you are wearing or relishing the taste of what is over your tongue. And at that instant, as soon as you become aware of this sensation and of being with sensation for more than a few minutes, you might find yourself feeling guilty for being lazy.
Modern day world has been structured in such a way that we must constantly be doing something that is overtly observable, whether it is typing on our phones or slamming our fingers on our laptops or reading a book or arranging our desk or walking our dog or playing with our children or buying groceries. We cannot sit still because if we do, we are not being ‘productive’ and not being productive in the modern society is an absolute sin.
It is the people who are always running in between desks, taking calls, completing paperwork, filing reports, hurrying through their tiffin boxes that are seen as the gold star students because they are constantly engaged. But what we may not realise is that they are more likely to be engaged physically. Emotionally, if you ask them about how they or the person next to them is feeling, they are most likely to go shut. And the fear of coming to terms with their emotions, of what is going on inside is what is keeping them running and rolling and hustling. This is the disease that most of us suffer from today.
We are willing to execute but avoiding to reflect. We are loving the physical toil but running away from the emotional work. That is why most adults rarely name feelings in their daily communication, it’s all about what they think and why they think that way.
Laziness takes a lot of courage in the world of today. To sit and do nothing, actually takes a lot more effort than all the running around. To stare at the clouds for minutes and just watch them move can drive you nuts. But it is also this experience or a similar one which will make you ponder over what’s happening with you and your life, in general. You will learn much more about yourself by staring at the clouds than you will by staring at a screen.
So maybe it’s time that we started taking at least 5 minutes out of our day to be with ourselves and listen to what’s going on inside instead of constantly focusing on the outside. Listen to your body, to your emotions. See what they are trying to communicate. Look at the stars and understand how they make you feel. Walk on the grass barefoot, paint, relish your tea. It is these acts that require the most courage in a world where each act has been designed to result in you producing something measurable or quantifiable.
