The lost art of doing nothing
Today I found myself in quite the unusual position. I had the day off Work, I'd finished my workout and I had no plans for the rest of day and it left me feeling a little panicked as though there was something I had forgotten like I was half way into town wondering had I left the iron on.
Now I know there are plenty of people who while away many an afternoon without a plan to be found and if talk in the break room is to believed many of my colleagues fall out of bed mid afternoon on a Sunday barely shuffling out of their pyjamas for the day. I'll admit that until I discovered crossfit I was quite partial to a lazy Sunday reading a book
Or watching a movie but it seems to be something I've forgotten how to do of late.
Now I do understand for plenty of people with families and work commitments it's difficult to sit down for 5 minutes undisturbed but I still feel there's a growing epidemic of people who actually
don't know how to spend time in their own company. I don't know if this is
Because people are leading such active lives but I don't think that can be said for a lot of people as I know plenty who wouldn't walk to the shop unless their car has broken down. I think it's a lost art form although maybe calling it an art form might be stretching it.
Once upon a time, not that long ago I used to be an expert at it. Given half the chance I'd easily spend an afternoon devouring a book without a second thought to other things I should be doing or could be doing.
And I think it's not so much the case that I've forgotten how to relax its more that I'm so used to only having a Hour to spare between the many other things I try to squeeze into days off.
So here I was at my parents house with a whole afternoon stretched ahead of me, no desire to go into town and face the teeming masses of clonmelians. it was only once I took the time to stop moving that I realized how tired i was. too much working and not enough sleeping or fractured sleep punctuated with the strangest of dreams ( possible side-effect to sugar withdrawal ? At this stage nothing would surprise me) and actually it was a relief to not have any pressing commitments. So I settled down on the couch, under a blanket ( to ward off the sub artic climes of my parents house) with a stack of books on one side of me and a vat of herbal tea on the other side and it was good, really good to just stop even if just for a few hours.
I finished a book ( a short book written entirely in poems but still ) and started another and then despite the fact that my breath was practically freezing in little puffs above me, I managed to fall
Asleep for a while. I had forgotten the sweet feeling of a nap and I used to be undeclared world champion of napping back in college ( perhaps not my most productive years). I woke feeling refreshed / really cold and I have to say the main sign that I have changed since college was that within minutes of waking I felt I should do my challenge. Sufficiently rested and feeling sluggish, yea I should definitely work out and I sure as hell never thought that in college.
maybe I am remaking the lost art of doing nothing.
Now I know there are plenty of people who while away many an afternoon without a plan to be found and if talk in the break room is to believed many of my colleagues fall out of bed mid afternoon on a Sunday barely shuffling out of their pyjamas for the day. I'll admit that until I discovered crossfit I was quite partial to a lazy Sunday reading a book
Or watching a movie but it seems to be something I've forgotten how to do of late.
Now I do understand for plenty of people with families and work commitments it's difficult to sit down for 5 minutes undisturbed but I still feel there's a growing epidemic of people who actually
don't know how to spend time in their own company. I don't know if this is
Because people are leading such active lives but I don't think that can be said for a lot of people as I know plenty who wouldn't walk to the shop unless their car has broken down. I think it's a lost art form although maybe calling it an art form might be stretching it.
Once upon a time, not that long ago I used to be an expert at it. Given half the chance I'd easily spend an afternoon devouring a book without a second thought to other things I should be doing or could be doing.
And I think it's not so much the case that I've forgotten how to relax its more that I'm so used to only having a Hour to spare between the many other things I try to squeeze into days off.
So here I was at my parents house with a whole afternoon stretched ahead of me, no desire to go into town and face the teeming masses of clonmelians. it was only once I took the time to stop moving that I realized how tired i was. too much working and not enough sleeping or fractured sleep punctuated with the strangest of dreams ( possible side-effect to sugar withdrawal ? At this stage nothing would surprise me) and actually it was a relief to not have any pressing commitments. So I settled down on the couch, under a blanket ( to ward off the sub artic climes of my parents house) with a stack of books on one side of me and a vat of herbal tea on the other side and it was good, really good to just stop even if just for a few hours.
I finished a book ( a short book written entirely in poems but still ) and started another and then despite the fact that my breath was practically freezing in little puffs above me, I managed to fall
Asleep for a while. I had forgotten the sweet feeling of a nap and I used to be undeclared world champion of napping back in college ( perhaps not my most productive years). I woke feeling refreshed / really cold and I have to say the main sign that I have changed since college was that within minutes of waking I felt I should do my challenge. Sufficiently rested and feeling sluggish, yea I should definitely work out and I sure as hell never thought that in college.
maybe I am remaking the lost art of doing nothing.
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