Why Busyness Is Actually Modern Laziness
¿Por qué la ocupación es en realidad la pereza moderna?--por Rasmus Hougaard y Jacqueline Carter
La adicción a la acción es un tipo avanzado de pereza. Nos mantiene activamente ocupados con tareas. Cuanto más ocupados nos mantenemos, más evitamos enfrentarnos a las preguntas sobre la vida y la muerte. Al mantenernos ocupados con tareas, importantes o no, evitamos enfrentarnos a la vida. Mantenemos una distancia segura y cómoda para los problemas que a veces son difíciles de afrontar. ¿Hemos elegido la carrera correcta? ¿Estamos suficientemente presentes con nuestros hijos? ¿Nuestra vida tiene algún propósito?
Con toda nuestra actividad creemos que nos acercamos a algo más grande. Puede que no sepamos qué es, pero seguimos trabajando en ello. Es como subir una escalera de mano lo más rápido que podamos, esperando llegar arriba. Y algún día llegaremos allí. Llegamos arriba en forma de una promoción en el trabajo o una casa recién adquirida. ¿Pero cuál es el objetivo de llegar a la parte de arriba de la escalera solo para darse cuenta de que está apoyada contra la pared equivocada?
Una vez, el Dalai Lama iba a venir a la ciudad. Más de 10,000 personas se reunieron para verlo. Más de 500 voluntarios, docenas de personas de seguridad y masas de periodistas tuvieron que ser coordinados. El hombre detrás de todo esto, Lakha, era un hombrecillo de setenta y tantos y un viejo amigo y compañero de estudios del Dalai Lama. Cuando le pregunté: "Hola, Lakha, ¿estás ocupado?" Se volvió, me miró con calma y dijo: "Hay mucha actividad, pero no estoy ocupado". Su presencia habló más fuerte que sus palabras. Lakha estaba supervisando un proyecto masivo con numerosos plazos y detalles que administrar. Pasaban muchas cosas, pero no le afectó. No estaba ocupado.
En ese día me di cuenta claramente que el ajetreo es una elección. Es posible que tengamos fechas límite, proyectos y actividades, pero tenemos la libertad de elegir si nos convertimos en adictos a la acción y estamos aturdidos por la ocupación, o simplemente observamos la experiencia de muchas actividades. Es una elección. Y la capacidad de tomar esa decisión proviene del desarrollo de una mente clara, una adicción sin acción.
Hoy en día tendemos a estar todos ocupados, sobrecargados y quizás estresados. Es parte de nuestra identidad. Si estamos ocupados somos importantes. Si estamos estresados, es porque estamos comprometidos y trabajando duro. Está en el ADN de nuestras sociedades modernas. Si no estamos ocupados y estresados, no nos estamos esforzando lo suficiente. Algo va mal en nosotros. Pero Lakha mostró una clara alternativa; tener muchas actividades y ser altamente efectivo y productivo, pero mantener la claridad mental y la calma, no rendirse a la adicción a la acción. No siendo existencialmente perezoso.
Preguntas semilla para la reflexión: ¿Qué significa para ti ser existencialmente perezoso? ¿Puedes compartir una experiencia personal de un momento en el que te hayas dado cuenta de esta pereza? ¿Qué te ayuda a estar en actividad sin estar "ocupado"?
Rasmus Hougaard es el fundador del Proyecto Potencial, Jacqueline Carter es la autora de One Second Ahead. El extracto de arriba es de un artículo en la revista Mindful
Rasmus Hougaard is the founder of the Potential Project, Jacqueline Carter is the author of One Second Ahead. Excerpt above is from an article in Mindful magazine.
SEED QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: What does being existentially lazy mean to you? Can you share a personal experience of a time you became acutely aware of this laziness? What helps you be in activity without being "busy"?
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15 Past Reflections
On Feb 22, 2024 Diksha wrote :
"If we are busy, we are important - this statement is so relatable. I have found myself to embody this statement quite often recently. I would intentionally make up tasks to add to my to-do list in order to seem "busy". For some reason, multitasking has always been one of my strong suits - because now that I see, I felt "important" thinking that there as so much to do. However since the past few months of this self elf exploration journey, I have realize the imp. Of doing "nothing" and slowing down, to make time always for friends and family. Afterall balance in both of these realms is what will keeps the ship afloat. I hope to not add unnecessary talks to my to-do list and approach tasks without pushing them off.
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On Feb 21, 2024 Madhuri wrote :
Alters my thinking!! Wondering how consciousness of self seems to be a task to be avoided . Ofcourse it's easier to get into a lot of hard work then to sit with our own pain and grief and why would we not choose easy? Except when we are ready to liberate ourselves from the fear of pain!
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On Feb 20, 2024 Monica Castillo wrote :
Exitentially lazy means to me , I have not choosen to take the time to pause, and reflect before acting.
When I have been lazy in this matter I have taken enough time to pause, reflect and switch gears to be present to family when I was working. I prioritized busy no value added reports over the human spirits that are part of my heart. Being grounded and intentional in what I am doing helps me be active and not busy. When I am in this intentional space my work, my conversatons and cooking are so rich!
When I have been lazy in this matter I have taken enough time to pause, reflect and switch gears to be present to family when I was working. I prioritized busy no value added reports over the human spirits that are part of my heart. Being grounded and intentional in what I am doing helps me be active and not busy. When I am in this intentional space my work, my conversatons and cooking are so rich!
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On Mar 26, 2023 Michael Maxwell Steer wrote :
I wouldn’t call it laziness. I would call it anxiety – that has to be averted by being active :: in an attempt to convince myself that my life has value/meaning, when I'm afraid of the emptiness within. I guess busyness is my version of other people's muzak.
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On May 31, 2019 jerard lizares wrote :
lazy on a way we tend to avoid some comfrontation in our lifelife, be it intentionally or not. Before , I used to drown myself just working and it consume so much of my time, believing that it fullfills me in the hope of promising career path.
​​Having the though ,on the contrary, it will cover the other side of me, like having a gap with my family, but i was wrong.
​​​​​Having a clear mind will help you to balance among of the aspects of you life.
​​Having the though ,on the contrary, it will cover the other side of me, like having a gap with my family, but i was wrong.
​​​​​Having a clear mind will help you to balance among of the aspects of you life.
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On Apr 5, 2019 steve wrote :
What a person wants to accomplish in life must have a starting point, however, when comes to business finance is vital . If I can realize my dreams without it, show me the way
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On Mar 22, 2019 Rajul Shah wrote :
Being existentially lazy to me means not being aware of the core values of one's life, of being like on a treadmill, running but not reaching anywhere. I was made to acutely aware of this laziness when my life and my family' life were shaken up by illness and death in family. It was a 'wake up' call. Daily introspection at the end of the day asking oneself what am i doing? why am i doing? did it affect any of my core values? helps me personally with this awareness. Being in activity without being 'busy' to me , means being aware of what is the purpose of one's life? Also, keeping Death in awareness, realizing the limited life span one has, helps me to be in awareness and thus in activity without being 'busy'.
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On Mar 20, 2019 Quacinda wrote :
Seed questions for reflection:
1.) What does being existentially lazy mean to you?
To me it means that:
• I have beenunaware of my own domestication - how I was trained to be and to behave.
•It means I am caught up in dysfunctional drama.
• it means I am living by lies instead of truth.
2.)Can you share a personal experience of a time you became acutely aware of this laziness?
Long story short.. when I realized I put-up with crap because I was raised to accept others being dominate and powerful over me. I was taught to give-in, to 'turn the other cheek' accepting and even going beyond acceptance by offering the abuser 'to do it again', all in the name of God [and in this way making a sacrificeof sorts - becoming a martyr, suffering for others and believing God has a reward for me in the endfor God.
I didn't realize I could say no to abuse and walk away from it. And I didn't have to stay in an abusiverelationship in order to live right.
Ibecam... [View Full Comment]
1 reply: Aj | Post Your Reply
On Mar 19, 2019 David Doane wrote :
Existentially lazy means avoiding the most important questions in life, for example: Who am I? What am I doing with my life? What contribution am I making to life? How is my relatedness with others? I became acutely aware of this laziness when I became aware that doing and busyness can be ways to avoid being, and it is being that is most important. Hougaard and Carter's line from Joseph Campbell about climbing the ladder of success only to find out the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall is a way of saying that our striving in busyness may be taking us away from being rather than toward being. When I am in activity without being busy, what helps me is having a sense of being in the world of busyness while not being of it, abiding in awareness of the ocean of eternal Being that we are all part of while I am simultaneously busy with some surface flotations that come and go. When I am in activity being without being busy, I enjoy what Buddhism refers to as equanimity.
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On Mar 19, 2019 Office.com/setup | www.office.com/setup - office setup wrote :
Listed on office setup are the steps in the installation of this software and other things that need to be done by going to office.com/setup and follow the on-screen instructions:
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On Mar 17, 2019 Xiaoshan wrote :
Wise words, "Keeping ourselves busy so we do not have to face life." Keeping myself busy is easy. Facing life is not only hard but scary. So if I choose busyness, which I do often, is because it is easy. It kicks the can down the street so I do not have to do hard work and confront my fear, until perhaps when I am too old to stay busy or I am so ill and have to face my death. Not sure what could be done or thought of at that moment, except regrets and prayers for another chance of life.
The world around me is doing everything it can, to push me staying busy and 'engaged'. Competition of all sorts, job security, peer pressure, 140 TV channels, Clash Of Clans, deteriorating backyard, emails, FaceBook,and Twitter, are only a few among the countless distractions. I am in such a rush to go somewhere, or nowhere. This is, what being existentially lazy means to me.
The world around me is doing everything it can, to push me staying busy and 'engaged'. Competition of all sorts, job security, peer pressure, 140 TV channels, Clash Of Clans, deteriorating backyard, emails, FaceBook,and Twitter, are only a few among the countless distractions. I am in such a rush to go somewhere, or nowhere. This is, what being existentially lazy means to me.
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On Mar 15, 2019 Kristin Pedemonti wrote :
Thank you for this timely reminder! Being existentially lazy to me means giving oneself the time to reflect, the quiet to contemplate and the space to simply be. What helps me be in activity without being "busy" is to be in it mindfully and to focus on one task at a time. This is something I honestly work on weekly because I have had the tendency (especially when I lived in Washington DC) to get really caught up in busy. Now that I am in a more quiet space (literally) I find that it is easier to focus in on one thing at a time, to actually take weekends off and NOT fill the time with tasks or mindless activities.
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On Mar 15, 2019 Jagdish P Dave wrote :
To me being existentially lazy means being mindfully aware of the actions I do in my everyday life. This kind of awarenesshelps me to make wise choices."The ability to make that choice comes from my developing a clear mind, free of action addiction.", as the authors RasmusHouggardand Jacqueline Carter state in this article.
I became clearly awareof this laziness on one nice day when was walking barefooted and fell down and got hurt. This experience made me realize how much my mind was busy, driven by action addiction. I learned a lesson of being existentially lazy, of being mindfullyawareof the choices I make in my everydaylife. I am appreciating the valueof a a couple of a few wise sayings. Easy does it...Hasten slowly... Know when non-doing is better than doing... A wise person knows what to do and not do, when to do and when not to do.
As I am growing up I have been learning many lessons mostly from me. One has been like a mantra. Take 5 deep, slow and gentle breaths bef... [View Full Comment]