I have been training for a 100km run for the past 2 months or so. I really learned something valuable about embracing the “laziness” in us. There are times where I just feel like totally not running. Or in any case, just don’t feel like doing anything.
It is only normal that we all go through such situations time and time again. We feel as if we don’t feel like working or don’t feel like getting up of bed. We just want to laze around and just do nothing.
What do you do then ?
The normal tendency in almost all of us is just to force ourselves out of bed or force ourselves to work. We force ourselves to do something even if a part of us don’t feel like doing it at all. This forcing creates tension in ourselves. It makes us feel forceful. You feel confused and it feel like there is a big resistance in yourself when you force it. It makes you feel very uncomfortable.
We are all so used to doing this. I was around the same as well until recently when I realized that doing this made me extremely unhappy. Even though I have done something (be it running, working etc), if I don’t do it fully with my heart, the work seems draggy and unfulfilling.
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Then what is the way then ?
I realized that we all have two distinct energies within ourselves. One is the “doing” energy and the other, the “being” energy.
The doing energy involves us putting in effort. It means that the body wants to move or wants to be doing something.
The being energy wants to just be still, or in our case, to be lazy.
We often treat the being energy as bad. We think that being lazy is a sign that we are not being a valuable person. We are so used to working and moving. Most of us have suppressed this “being” energy within ourselves. We force ourselves to do many things.
Our society is entrenched with “doing” energy. Look around and you see people constantly on the move. We think that constant action is the way of life. We need to progress for our material wealth and so on. Our entrenchment with the doing energy is apparent with people getting bored the moment they sit down. They just can’t seem to “be”. They must always be doing something. Always be stimulated.
We need to embrace laziness as a value. There would be times where we just don’t feel like doing something. Don’t push that feeling away. Just embrace the laziness that we have in the moment. It will do away.
Laziness is also a great tool. It is because of laziness that technology was created. Human beings become lazy to walk, so they created cars. Human beings become lazy to cook, so they invented faster gadgets. All human technology centers around laziness, although human beings like to say it is for “convenience.”
When we embrace laziness, we realize there is a faster way to things. Most of us are too busy doing that we don’t just be. Being allows us to work more productively when we are “doing”.
Embrace laziness as a way of life. Critics telling you’re a bum or what?Ignore them. Most of them are just mindless workaholics who are unsure of what they are doing. Being busy their whole life and feeling important about it.
Rather, get inspired. And the best way to be inspired ?
Being lazy.
