A new disease of the townspeople — the eternal employment

OnBeing columnist Omid Safi discusses the new disease of the townspeople — the eternal employment.

A few days ago I saw my friend. I stopped to ask how he was doing. He looked at me and lowering my voice whimpered: "I'm so busy... so busy... so much going on".

Almost immediately thereafter I ran into another friend. He muttered the same thing: "I'm so busy... have So much more to cover today".

These people talked to me a tired, broken voice.

And this applies not only to adult family members. When we moved to North Carolina, I was amazed at the direction the school system. All was well until, as my daughter once did not justify to mom: "I can find a 45-minute break only two weeks. All this time I've got to get to the gym, then piano and singing lessons... I'm just so busy...".

Destructive habit is to bury yourself in your Affairs starts to develop in us very early...

But why do we aspire to this life? Why are we doing this with ourselves and our children? How long have we forgotten that we are people and not mechanisms for performing tasks. Whatever life we live, and what profession would not have, we do not always have time to stop.

I believe that the always-on mode of employment is a disease. It destroys our health, undermining the welfare and undermines our ability to enjoy a leisurely chat or even lunch.

When 50-ies. began to computerize, we thought that we create all these things in order to get the opportunity to work less. We thought that they would make our lives easier. However, no relaxation and the masses of free time, have dreamed of the inventors of electronics, is not in sight. Things have only gotten worse.

Those people who consider themselves "elite" of society, they even can't draw a clear line between work and life. They work in the evenings and as long as I brush my teeth. Smartphones and laptops have made our lives an endless office. When our children are in bed, we're back online.

My personal problem is e — mail. Letters piled on me like an avalanche, and almost daily I promise tomorrow to declare this Jihad. But all this is repeated for many years.

But why do we need all this? I can understand the hard workers, work hard 14 hours a day, because it's the only way for them to feed their families. 20% of Americans are open until midnight just in order to feed their children and pay for the stay of the family under the roof. We even eat all sorts of crap, because we don't have time to cook something edible, or at least a little bit useful.

But it should not be.

In order to live a full life, we need to be able to focus and live a conscious life. Met an old friend on the street? Find five minutes to stop. Finished with the report? You deserve to make tea and chat with colleagues. Want to spend time with family? Disconnect the smartphone from the Internet. Do not buy an iPad. Not put TVs in all the rooms in the house.

If you can afford to not make to-do lists. If you live consciously, you always know what and in what sequence to take. And what did not — so the time that was physically impossible. Learn to prioritize.

I can't give you any magical solutions. All I know is that we lose the ability to live a truly human life. We need a different attitude to work and technology. We want to live a meaningful life, to experience a sense of community with others, to relax and to stay as relaxed as possible while maintaining motor or cognitive activity.

Our society needs in recovery. But the medicine only to think thoroughly about your life, to prioritize and to consciously refuse things nothing good happens, but that only takes time and effort. Learn to reduce the number of cases for the day, not increase. published

Source: lifter.com.ua