Laziness As Balm For Burnout

The benefits of allowing yourself to relax and embrace laziness are clear. This can be difficult to do since we live in a world that’s designed to keep us busy and distracted. Twenty-first-century living can lead to chronic stress and burnout, and strange as it might sound the more stressed we are the more we 'drive ' ourselves, pushing harder and doing more.

Taking a fresh look at laziness allows us to remember that It’s okay to need breaks; to allow ourselves the time that we need to relax, to breathe, and to simply 'be'. Focus, hard work, and productivity are good, but not when it comes at the expense of the rest and play that allows us to live as human beings, not just human 'doings'.

Transcript

I think I'd like us to reclaim laziness as a way of unlearning our hustle culture.

You see,

As 21st century human beings,

Without even knowing about it,

We're always plugged in,

We're always on,

We're always doing.

And no matter how much we do,

No matter how long our to-do list is,

We are usually also a bit cross with ourselves because we're not doing more.

So we're always plugged in.

And laziness,

Of course,

Is an awful,

Slothful,

Sinful thing,

Isn't it?

But I'd like to redeem laziness a little in this way,

That we know from all of the ancient wisdom traditions,

And we know from nature,

And we know from neuroscience,

That bursts of extreme activity are balanced by periods of rest and restore.

Should we know that?

We see it all around us,

Right?

Well,

We've kind of lost our ability to believe that or to live there.

And that's why often when we're,

I'm talking out of direct experience now.

I'm a poor scholar teacher.

Often when we're very stressed or tired is the time when we're least able to give ourselves a rest because we think the thing to do is push through,

Keep going,

I have to keep going.

And so we're out of tune with the natural rhythm,

Which says,

Yes,

There are times of extreme activity,

And then there's a rest and restore and recover.

That's the natural rhythm of life.

And so for me,

I want to reclaim laziness,

Which I want to define as times when I do nothing.

So it's not like,

Well,

I'm not working on Saturday,

You see,

Because on Saturday I'm going to deep clean the family and I'm going to get all that ironing done and I'm going to feel great because I've cleared all the decks.

Now for me,

Laziness is,

I'm doing nothing on Saturday,

No plan,

De nada.

Might end up in bed in the morning.

Might end up having five cups of coffee,

Looking at the boards out in the garden.

I don't know,

I'm not planning it,

I'm being lazy,

I'm doing nothing.

And I realized that I actually have to unlearn the busyness and learn the laziness,

Learn the being.

And I want to share one tiny way that helps me and then I'll stop.

One tiny way that really helps me is I'm a great woman for the to-do lists and the diary and all that.

Well,

My life is organized for me.

But I've now started putting into my diary what I call white space,

Which for me is do nothing time.

And it really works.

And the white space,

You know,

Might only be five minutes or a half an hour or an hour or actually increasingly I'm putting in a half day of white space into my seven day week.

Which means,

No,

It's not the ironing time,

It's not the washing time,

It's not I must visit auntie May time.

It's nothing time.

And boy,

We talk about mindfulness being a discipline and a skill that we have to learn.

I really had to learn the white space thing and I'm still learning it,

But it works for me.

So I'm encouraging you to consider laziness,

More being rather than doing as a potential good thing,

Especially if you're a bit out of culture and a bit over busy.

But it's hard to do.

So my way in has been the white space,

Actually blocking in white space.

Your way might be different.

But I bet it's a thing we have to kind of intentionally learn because as 21st century human beings,

We've trained ourselves to be kind of machine like,

To be kind of busy,

Plugged in.

Even when we're relaxing,

I might be involved in three screens and one conversation.

So I'm not being,

I'm multitasking.

Do you know what I mean?

So an invitation to consider laziness,

That's not such a bad thing.

And to consider part of this route away from burnout towards blossoming as our authentic happy selves is to cultivate the capacity,

To reclaim the capacity,

To unlearn all our always on business so that we can be as well as do so that we know how to do that.

I know from my experience,

It actually takes a bit of work and I don't think I'm alone.

Reviews

I love how you’ve framed this! I’m a recovering burnout person, and I have had to intentionally put some white space in this year. It’s feeling so darn good now that I’ve finally gotten over my “guilt” at being “lazy”! 🙂

Wow….this is so true! Thank you dear Dee! I am going to practice this from now on!❤️

Love this concept of making time regularly for white space. What a gift, thank you Dee xx

Loved this insight so much. Yes to the white space on a to do list. The art doing nothing is hard work indeed!
Thank you for this 🙏💜

Thanks for the reminder Dee! And I love your calling it White Space. ✨

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟absolutely fabulous and so incredibly needed. May we all know and integrate this wisdom for health and for life and for love ✨💖✨

Great advice from, as you call yourself, a fellow scholar, really helpful, thank you ☺️