I recently caught a lot of (loving and thoughtful) flack for saying that our pasts and our problems are in our imagination. Way back, I caught a lot of flack for saying weekends aren’t real and that the idea of days off is stupid.
I still believe this, but in a softer way. It makes me sad to think that we have bought into this idea that there are days that matter less than others, or that there are days we screw off and do whatever we want.
Every single day you live is subtracting from the time you have to be alive, and being alive is really cool.
This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t take time off or enjoy ourselves. I do it all the time, I love my life and enjoy all of it. It’s just important that we are mindful in how we spend this time off, or it can degenerate into being useless, and even harmful. I frequently talk to people whose time off winds up involving too much alcohol or weed or porn or Netflix or video games or sleep. These aren’t the hallmarks of skillful choices.
So take time off, but not from being intentional and mindful.
Take care of the things you need to take care of, and do them peacefully and joyfully.
Make a conscious choice about how you spend your day(s) off.
Go outside.
Get some exercise.
See other people in a meaningful way.
Go to a movie if you’re rich.
Learn something.
Put your phone in a drawer.
“No such thing as spare time, no such thing as free time, no such thing as down time. All you got is life time. Go.”
Henry Rollins
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