Sunday, June 22, 2014

"Doing" Life

Things are different in today's era. Many of us don't live for the sake of enjoying life.  There's too much going on, and we are always doing too many things.

I have an imagination (which could be very limited and ill-informed) of a previous era where work was a means to an end - gathering life necessities. But now, work often is it's own large life-consuming category. Similarly, technology is not just a means to an end that will help humanity and the quality of life overall, like more precise heart surgery that saves more lives. Now, technology is its own end. Multiple gadgets are created everyday that have no purpose other than creating a new need - like more computer games.

This has greatly affected one of my core needs and enjoyments - relaxing. In my vision, relaxing is a stream of life that we all float in, enjoying each other's company and the beautiful waters and nature surrounding us. But now, relaxing has become another desirable category within which one can do a lot. It has become a space of doing, rather than not-doing. The options may be going to the spa, getting a massage, reading, watching TV etc. But in my life, these things aren't usually integrated. In order to realize my dream of curling up on the recliner with a good book, I will probably/ usually - research new fiction reviews online, order a book from Amazon, wait until it arrives, wait until I'm free to read it, and get life's pressing needs  (cooking, cleaning,  etc.) out of the way before I can finally sit down and give myself that break.

Is it just me? Am I relaxing wrong? Is there anybody out there who is living a more relaxing life while working full-time and cooking and cleaning for yourself? I mean, I don't even have kids or pets! It could be simpler right? And I do live in New York, one of the most, if not the most, manic cities of all.

One of things I've been noticing recently is that relaxing is tied to simplicity. Having less material goods means less things to clean, tidy, organize, or even go through for purging. We went to IKEA today to get a desk and chair for my home office, and I am proud to say we stuck to the list and did not get consumed by all we could become consumers of. That's the materialism that capitalism feeds. More. stuff. to. buy. All the time.

Any other strategies out there for relaxing into oneself, into one's home, into one's community, without it becoming a project with multiple sub-tasks to do?