It is common in life to think that in order to be productive
one has to be manic; think deadlines, piles of papers on a desk, phones constantly
ringing; a buzz of activity that proves to your managers or employers that you
are busy busy busy earning and earning etc…
But are you learning?
Is there an argument leaning towards taking time to
contemplate? A moment of reflection in life gives you time to properly take a
look at what lies ahead of you, and also to sift back through previous
experiences and knowledge gained giving you the right tools to take you forward
in a situation. While the busy mentality may work for an industrial revolution style
factory production line, like in Chaplin’s Modern Times for instance, that does
not make it the right way of working for all walks of life.
By taking time away both mentally and physically, you are
re-energising, seeking new ways of thinking, opening the doors to a wider train
of thought.
Perhaps the reason that this is not a favoured pastime in
the workplace is because THEY do not want you to think too much.
Thought is the one true thing that stands us out from other
life on this planet; the ability to look at a situation, to wonder why or to
gaze at the beauty which surrounds us. In life we ask ourselves about the sun,
the moon, the stars, the point of life, the reason why things are the way they
are.
Mmmm, perhaps employers don’t want you to even think about
asking questions like that as it would begin a chain of thought leading to the
removal of their power over the individual.
All the more reason to do it in my book!
But if you take time to think about things, then you would
quickly realise how busy and fast life can be, and that we could all benefit
from just taking it easy during the day. One of the ways to slow your life down
is by breathing in and absorbing the arts.
Take this into account: you are standing amidst the hustle
and bustle of a gallery in London, surrounding you are school trips, foreign
students, casual tourists, all jostling for a good position to take a photo on
their phone; you however do not see them, you are engrossed in the life that
has been painted out before you, a brief moment in time captured in oil and
layered onto canvas. The noise that emanates from all of the mouths in the room
mean nothing to you; your mind has gone back and you have immersed yourself
into the image hanging on the wall.
No phone or camera can ever capture that emotion, it is
yours, and is a feeling that could stay with you long after the memory is
stored away in your brains back catalogue.
Statistics and data don’t give you that same emotional
depth, although some bosses would argue that they should.
Reading is also something that I feel has become a pastime,
but needs to remain as a useful tool for learning. Think back to how much you
read while at school. Now what do we read and when? I imagine that there a more
of us who choose to read on holiday rather than every week, and that it has
become something you treat yourself to rather than a part of life. Poetry, for
instance, is a wonderful form used to bring our brains in line with our souls.
Taking the time to look at a piece of poetry and to drink in the words, then
decipher your own meaning from it and your own enjoyment, giving yourself time
to process the emotion that poems can give you if you open up to them, can give
your brain and body a real boost.
Take time to consider your own happiness and your own
journey. Imagine that you are in charge of your destiny and you control the
steering wheel. Because in actual fact you do, we are being programmed to
believe that we are in someone else’s hands and that our employers and
overseers hold our destiny.
No comments:
Post a Comment