10th March 2024
Continuing with our yesterday’s theme,
Being busy all the time can give us an illusion of productivity which may feel reassuring, but isn’t there a risk we are too busy to enjoy life?
For some people, being busy is unfortunately not an option. Students working part-time to pay for their studies, parents with two jobs just to stay afloat—not everyone has the luxury of managing their time the way they see fit. But many people do have this flexibility, and yet rush from one task to another without ever taking a step back to ask: am I really enjoying any of this?
Or are these tasks actually making me too busy to enjoy life?
Research shows that humans tend to do whatever it takes to keep busy, even if the activity feels meaningless to them. Dr Brené Brown from the University of Houston describes being “crazy busy” as a numbing strategy we use to avoid facing the truth of our lives.
We are scared of idleness because stopping would mean having to really consider what we want out of life and what we currently have. Sometimes, the gap feels so wide, we’d rather stay on the hamster wheel.
Being busy is a defense mechanism.
It’s a way to avoid just being. Having responsibilities, deadlines, a long task list, Overloading our senses can make us believe we are moving in the right direction, or at least in a direction.
But the constant cycle of tasks we tackle without ever thinking often leaves us stagnant.
So many of our conversations seem to start and end with
“Hi, how are things?”
“It’s busy, but I’ll take some time to relax when things ease up.”
I recently caught myself giving a variation of this answer every time I was asked how I was doing. “So much work, but hopefully it will be better next week.”
Having been a really “busy” person who felt overwhelmed by days and weeks and years of running around, it’s time to re-examine this four-letter word.
Often, we toss this word around without much thought. (Maybe we’re too busy to examine it further!)
This Sunday, lets re-prioritise life by looking at what we are ‘busy’ with.
It will help because most times we are busy doing nothing much.
Stop being just ‘Busy’ and
Stay blessed Forever.