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Abstract

id="4554">Guilt is Not a Reason</h1>Guilt is a trick.Last week I finished something that I’d scheduled into my day a little earlier than expected. This left me with (drum roll please) A FULL HOUR (loud clang of the chimes) to myself.And then I began to itch. To squirm. To feel guilty.It’s not that I don’t like having the free time to just stew in my Primark pants, it’s just that — especially in this Apocalyptic Age — I felt bad for not doing something, anything, instead of doing nothing. Like being still and taking a breath and pausing for a moment was a crime. After all, there are languages to be learned, books to be read, old Tumblr accounts to be wiped clean and deleted from the face of this or any other version of Earth. Doing nothing, even if only for 3600 seconds, is clearly not an option.Except — oh wait — it is.<h1 id="36e0">Time is Not a Reason</h1>Despite what your pastel green Filofax planner might tell you — YOU HAVE THE TIME.It’s odd really, because time itself is limitless. But our time is limited. We need to strike that perfect balance by embracing every moment of it without letting every moment of it embrace us, in a choke-hold, and suffocate us. We cannot experience all the opportunities born from this Earth if we’re too damn tired to reach out for them. We cannot understand all the lessons this planet has to share if our heads are too frazzled to remember what we’ve learned. We cannot appreciate all the beauty of this world (most of which is concentrated explicitly within Robert Pattinson’s jawline. Dense and divine) if we can’t keep our eyes open long enough to see it.Time exists for us to harness it. But you don’t have to put it to work once you’ve grabbed it. Sometimes it’s okay to just sit with it, admire it, taking this time and showing it a little attention.We are not wasting time by doing something that we might deem less productive or beneficial or improving. We’re not wasting it even by occasionally doing anything. We are simply utilising it in softer ways, in tender more thoughtful ways, even. We are letting time brush along our skin rather than sinking in its claws and dragging us along with it.There is always time to make time for yourself. And it’s time that you realise that.<h1 id="9bad">Survival of the Rested</h1>Survival of the fittest was so 2003.There is not one vehicle on this planet that is in constant motion. Planes land. Cars park. Boats dock. Even race-cars have to pull up momentarily to refuel. Eventually, everything comes to a rest. Even you. And there are exactly two ways you can go about arriving at this point:<ul><li>You allow yourself a break. You grant yourself permission — not that you need it. It’s a bloody human right and you’re nothing if not human, right? (Ever wondered why vampires don’t sleep?) — to rest for a moment or two. Maybe even (gasp!) a full thirty minutes.</li><li>You crash. You burn. You plummet. You push yourself too hard, too far, too harmfully, and eventually you rocket straight into that wall, fragmenting and exhausted. Shattering and shattered.</li></ul>Either way, it is both physically and mentally inevitabl

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e that you’ll break. Whether that’s taking a break or being forcefully broken, it’ll happen. Your body will ache, your mind will burn out and your soul will feel heavy and sore. Don’t put yourself through it.Sometimes you need a second to yourself to discover what is really going on in your mind. You need to alleviate some stress by taking twenty minutes to buy yourself a new dress. You need to ease some of that worry by grabbing an Oreo McFlurry. You need to soothe the surface of your brain by dancing for an hour in the rain.Sometimes you need a month or two to let your body heal. You need a week of comfy sitting to stop your future self quitting. You need to fix these freshly made scars by taking an evening off to shop for bras. You need to recover from this aching pain, but not by dancing in the rain (if it’s your ankle that’s injured then it’s probably for the best).See dad? Told you poetry was science.And if nothing else, if you still feel guilty for not putting all your time to use, then yeah okay, here’s something you can do to fill it. Pretend to be somebody else. Pretend to be somebody who depends on having nothing to do for a little while. Pretend to be a tree, slowly and unobservably growing into itself. Not visible in mere moments, but spread across decades as it evolves and adapts and flourishes. It needs these seconds of stillness in order to feel the sunlight and absorb it’s nutrients — a trees sole job is to just exist. Or you could pretend to be one of those royal guards with the big ass fluffy hats who’s unable to move or respond or react to anything. Stand still, ignore your family members, don’t even think about glancing at your phone — break any of these rules and our Queen Lizzie’s going to kick your ass, son.Whatever the case, just give it go. Imagine yourself taking a second, an hour, a whole day off to live life at it’s rawest — experiencing only the air and the Earth and the pulsating universe around you. And once you’ve envisioned all the benefits and beauty and biscuits that come along with it, then try it out for real.We are literally caught in the midst of The Era of Free Time (otherwise known as The Time When Time Stopped) right now. Being unproductive, being stationary, being stuck at home with an abundance of possibility and very little motivation to outwardly embrace it, this is us saving the world. By letting ourselves have moments even months off from real life, staying indoors, keeping safe, we’re protecting our planet and our people. And that is the very nature and intent of productivity to begin with, you know?So remember; we, as living entities, are meant to breathe. It literally sustains our existence and here were are, paying very little attention to it. So notice it for a moment. Be aware of your life being lived.Because we are human beings. And as humans, sometimes we need to simply just be.<h1 id="287a">Mind Cafe’s Reset Your Mind: A Free 10-Day Email Course</h1>We’re offering a free gift to all of our new subscribers as a thank you for your continued support. When you sign up using <a href="https://mindcafe.ck.page/fba9da7818">this link</a>, we’ll send you tips on how to boost mental clarity and focus every two days.</article></body>

You Do Not Have to Fill Every Hour of Your Day

Fridges are for filling. Days are for living.

The year is 2103. The location is Earth, but nobody has called it that since the apocalyptic aftermath of 2021. Productivity is no longer a mere trait or skill or action — it is a faction. It’s a segment of the entire population, the elite, the capable, the qualified. They reside on the top floor of a sleek chrome tower, protruding through the clouds and disappearing out of sight. Nobody knows what goes on up there. They just know that something is going on. A lot of something’s. A lot of practical and useful and innovative something’s. That’s the whole point.

The planet is no longer run on leadership. Rulers and their rules are permanently obsolete. The world now survives on the credibility of the Productive. What they accomplish, what they achieve, it sustains the entire human race. Without them, there would be nothing left. It is imperative that whatever they’re doing up there — beyond the clouds and disconnected from the rest of the world so that no distractions can bleed through — they never stop doing it. They evolved past the requirement for sleep. They, themselves, developed the technology to allow an influx of nutrients into their systems and dispose of any waste without the need for them to pause. Any break, any gap, any fracture in their momentum and that’s it. Life halts. And then it crumbles. The year 2020 showcased that much. So the people depend on them. Desperately and definitively.

The people depend on Productivity.

Bit Dramatic, Don’t You Think?

Okay yeah, that’s a bit much. Take a day off, son!

Sure, structure is great. Routine is ace. Plans are sexy (don’t get me started on lists! Wink wink, growl). Being productive is pretty damn cool.

But do you know what else is cool? Freedom. Spare time. A second to rest, to relax, to breathe. You know, a moment to experience the life you’re so busy planning for. Like the generically defined embodiment of cool — the high school jock — you have to have a little fun! Skip a couple classes! Be incredibly offensive to anybody you fancy (okay, scratch that last one).

Being too productive is, well, counter-productive. And at that point, you’re just redundantly wasting your own time. It’s simple maths:

Productivity = +1
Counter-productivity = -1
Productivity + counter-productivity = +1 + -1 = 0.
EQUALS ZERO.

You know that phrase; you can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time. Well the same applies here.

You can’t do all of the damn things, all of the damn time. So please my friend, stop trying to.

Guilt is Not a Reason

Guilt is a trick.

Last week I finished something that I’d scheduled into my day a little earlier than expected. This left me with (drum roll please) A FULL HOUR (loud clang of the chimes) to myself.

And then I began to itch. To squirm. To feel guilty.

It’s not that I don’t like having the free time to just stew in my Primark pants, it’s just that — especially in this Apocalyptic Age — I felt bad for not doing something, anything, instead of doing nothing. Like being still and taking a breath and pausing for a moment was a crime. After all, there are languages to be learned, books to be read, old Tumblr accounts to be wiped clean and deleted from the face of this or any other version of Earth. Doing nothing, even if only for 3600 seconds, is clearly not an option.

Except — oh wait — it is.

Time is Not a Reason

Despite what your pastel green Filofax planner might tell you — YOU HAVE THE TIME.

It’s odd really, because time itself is limitless. But our time is limited. We need to strike that perfect balance by embracing every moment of it without letting every moment of it embrace us, in a choke-hold, and suffocate us. We cannot experience all the opportunities born from this Earth if we’re too damn tired to reach out for them. We cannot understand all the lessons this planet has to share if our heads are too frazzled to remember what we’ve learned. We cannot appreciate all the beauty of this world (most of which is concentrated explicitly within Robert Pattinson’s jawline. Dense and divine) if we can’t keep our eyes open long enough to see it.

Time exists for us to harness it. But you don’t have to put it to work once you’ve grabbed it. Sometimes it’s okay to just sit with it, admire it, taking this time and showing it a little attention.

We are not wasting time by doing something that we might deem less productive or beneficial or improving. We’re not wasting it even by occasionally doing anything. We are simply utilising it in softer ways, in tender more thoughtful ways, even. We are letting time brush along our skin rather than sinking in its claws and dragging us along with it.

There is always time to make time for yourself. And it’s time that you realise that.

Survival of the Rested

Survival of the fittest was so 2003.

There is not one vehicle on this planet that is in constant motion. Planes land. Cars park. Boats dock. Even race-cars have to pull up momentarily to refuel. Eventually, everything comes to a rest. Even you. And there are exactly two ways you can go about arriving at this point:

You allow yourself a break. You grant yourself permission — not that you need it. It’s a bloody human right and you’re nothing if not human, right? (Ever wondered why vampires don’t sleep?) — to rest for a moment or two. Maybe even (gasp!) a full thirty minutes.
You crash. You burn. You plummet. You push yourself too hard, too far, too harmfully, and eventually you rocket straight into that wall, fragmenting and exhausted. Shattering and shattered.

Either way, it is both physically and mentally inevitable that you’ll break. Whether that’s taking a break or being forcefully broken, it’ll happen. Your body will ache, your mind will burn out and your soul will feel heavy and sore. Don’t put yourself through it.

Sometimes you need a second to yourself to discover what is really going on in your mind. You need to alleviate some stress by taking twenty minutes to buy yourself a new dress. You need to ease some of that worry by grabbing an Oreo McFlurry. You need to soothe the surface of your brain by dancing for an hour in the rain.

Sometimes you need a month or two to let your body heal. You need a week of comfy sitting to stop your future self quitting. You need to fix these freshly made scars by taking an evening off to shop for bras. You need to recover from this aching pain, but not by dancing in the rain (if it’s your ankle that’s injured then it’s probably for the best).

See dad? Told you poetry was science.

And if nothing else, if you still feel guilty for not putting all your time to use, then yeah okay, here’s something you can do to fill it. Pretend to be somebody else. Pretend to be somebody who depends on having nothing to do for a little while. Pretend to be a tree, slowly and unobservably growing into itself. Not visible in mere moments, but spread across decades as it evolves and adapts and flourishes. It needs these seconds of stillness in order to feel the sunlight and absorb it’s nutrients — a trees sole job is to just exist. Or you could pretend to be one of those royal guards with the big ass fluffy hats who’s unable to move or respond or react to anything. Stand still, ignore your family members, don’t even think about glancing at your phone — break any of these rules and our Queen Lizzie’s going to kick your ass, son.

Whatever the case, just give it go. Imagine yourself taking a second, an hour, a whole day off to live life at it’s rawest — experiencing only the air and the Earth and the pulsating universe around you. And once you’ve envisioned all the benefits and beauty and biscuits that come along with it, then try it out for real.

We are literally caught in the midst of The Era of Free Time (otherwise known as The Time When Time Stopped) right now. Being unproductive, being stationary, being stuck at home with an abundance of possibility and very little motivation to outwardly embrace it, this is us saving the world. By letting ourselves have moments even months off from real life, staying indoors, keeping safe, we’re protecting our planet and our people. And that is the very nature and intent of productivity to begin with, you know?

So remember; we, as living entities, are meant to breathe. It literally sustains our existence and here were are, paying very little attention to it. So notice it for a moment. Be aware of your life being lived.

Because we are human beings. And as humans, sometimes we need to simply just be.

Mind Cafe’s Reset Your Mind: A Free 10-Day Email Course

We’re offering a free gift to all of our new subscribers as a thank you for your continued support. When you sign up using this link, we’ll send you tips on how to boost mental clarity and focus every two days.