\u201cI\u2019m too busy\u201d. The axiom of our time. In this ever more \u201cconnected\u201d world of apps for everything embedded in the morass of social media and gold rush for the commodity called our attention it\u2019s no wonder we feel \u201ctoo busy\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Too busy to eat (let alone cook), too busy to sleep, too busy to exercise, too busy to see people we tell ourselves are important to us, too busy to relax, to busy to take care of ourselves, too busy to have fun and enjoy life. This is the dis-ease of busyness<\/strong> and it\u2019s something you, me, we and us as society need to start taking very seriously. Because if \u201ceverything that\u2019s good is bad and everything that\u2019s bad is good<\/em>\u201d, everything is, if it hasn\u2019t already, going to get bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n You\u2019ve definitely heard it and you\u2019ve probably said it \u2013 \u201cI\u2019m too busy\u201d, \u201cI don\u2019t have time\u201d, \u201cThings are crazy busy\u201d, \u201cIt\u2019s madness\u201d, \u201cThings are so hectic\u201d, \u201cWork is insane\u201d. The good news is it\u2019s not just you. Or me. The bad news is it\u2019s far too many of us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Pause now, even if you\u2019re in a rush, to reflect on these words of common parlance that so effortless slide off the tongue to describe our lives –<\/p>\n\n\n\n Crazy<\/strong> It\u2019s no wonder how this is powerfully affecting our health and wellbeing. If life feels crazy, mad and insane, that\u2019s because that\u2019s how you are feeling<\/strong>. Life doesn\u2019t have a feeling, it\u2019s simply a subjective simulation of how your nervous system, emotions, hormones, thoughts and psyche\/soul processes experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Which is why busyness is having such profound consequences. And let\u2019s be clear, it\u2019s not the busyness per se that\u2019s harmful, it\u2019s that busyness is in effect a code name for stress<\/strong>. And in my estimation stress, that casual word, is the be all and end all of dis-ease. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Stress associated to busyness aka overworking aka under-resting leads to a chronic deficiency in both quantity and quality of sleep, of which I explore the dangers here, higher likelihood of depression, higher instances of diabetes and heart disease, higher frequency of self-destructive addiction like habits such as drinking and drug abuse and a reduction in memory and cognitive function<\/a>. And these are only what have been proven in scientific studies<\/a>, which are inherently and functionally myopic in scope. The down-stream consequences of stress are near limitless and often circular mechanistically<\/strong>. For example, busyness = stress = depression = more stress = more busyness = more depression = inflammation = social isolation = deeper depression = stress around depression = victimhood mentality = hopelessness = stress around hopelessness = burnout = exhaustion = chronic fatigue = despair etc etc until there\u2019s only two place for the equal sign to go. Either = change and a tough road to recovery or = giving up and the resultant misery and suffering before the body lets go of life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n More bad news, busyness is also probably making you worse at the job your being busy for and leaking into your social relationships. The stress and fatigue from overwork leads to a worsening in interpersonal communication, decision making, judgmental calls, reading facial cues and self-regulating oneself emotionally. None of that leads to a happier and healthier <\/strong> But the crisis of busyness encompasses far more than physiological and psychological malaise. There is true meta nature to being busy which revolves around one\u2019s identity and self-worth<\/strong>. Being busy makes you a good person. Not being busy makes you a bad one. The busier you are, the more good a person you become. Being busy has perversely become a badge of honor, a status symbol. It is signaling to others that you are valued, wanted and important. Perhaps that signalling is even subconsciously internally directed. In a volatile world, where economies bubble and burst, employment comes and go, people are infinitely replaceable, so closely coupling self-worth in busyness is a precarious condition to live by. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Much is rooted in \u201cworkism\u201d, a concept I came across in a recent article<\/a> that explored how workism is making people \u201cmiserable<\/em>\u201d. The author defines workism as \u201cthe belief that work is not only necessary to economic production but also the centerpiece of one\u2019s identity and life\u2019s purpose<\/strong><\/em>\u201d. This, coupled with the continuing demise of genuine communities and spiritual\/religious practice as well as the rise of the homo-economicus<\/a>, \u201chas morphed [workism] into a kind of religion, promising identity, transcendence and community. It\u2019s emotional, even spiritual, [choosing] the office for the same reason that devout Christians attend church on Sundays: it\u2019s where [one feels most oneself]<\/em>.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The problem is work and its associated busyness is a fickle pursuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt is a diabolical game that creates a prize so tantalizing yet rare <\/em> This is proving particularly and frightening true for millennials. The much-maligned generation, in another recent article<\/a>, is said to be operating in a perpetual state of burnout<\/strong> thanks to living by the paradoxical maxim \u201ceverything that\u2019s good is bad, everything that\u2019s bad is good.<\/em>Things that should\u2019ve felt good (leisure, not working) felt bad because I felt guilty for not working; things that should\u2019ve felt \u201cbad\u201d (working all the time) felt good because I was doing what I thought I should and needed to be doing in order to succeed<\/em>.” No wonder stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness and a host of other dis-eases are on a rampage given millennials now represent the largest living generation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The results are in folks. It\u2019s ever present. It surrounds us. Humans are not designed for this degree of busyness<\/strong>. Why<\/strong> else, despite the umpteen billions and billions of dollars sunk into medicine and science, is chronic dis-ease epidemic<\/strong>? Nothing has changed genetically over the past 20 to 30 years, so why are (to name but a handful) chronic fatigue, depression, anxiety, dementia, Alzheimer\u2019s and suicide running riot? Well, because we haven\u2019t changed but our environment has. Homo-sapien became homo-economicus which because homo-industrious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, I know there is obvious pushback to this thesis. Yes, one must work for a living. And yes, those that achieve great things put in great effort. True, I concede. But remember, there will always be a payoff<\/strong> in pursuits of promotions and greatness. Either it will be your health or your relationships, probably both. Wintston Churchill and Margaret Thather, both proud self-professed busyaholics and chronic undersleepers both ended up with dementia. Steve Jobs died of cancer before 60. Which isn\u2019t to say a path of excellence and wellbeing isn\u2019t achievable. It certainly is. Which comes down to awareness, balance and asking oneself fundamental questions concerning one\u2019s relationship with time<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, here are some key questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What are you sacrificing in the name of busyness? To what altar do you worship?<\/strong> Okay, this last one is a little abstract, but it\u2019s what I\u2019ll leave you with. It comes from a speech of immense wisdom and value I\u2019ve mentioned before, This is Water.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBecause here\u2019s something else that\u2019s weird but true: in the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. <\/em> Perhaps worship being busy and you will never be busy enough. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A podcast brigade member? Check out workism and burnout here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Image credit: Disclaimer: You\u2019ve definitely heard it and you\u2019ve probably said it \u2013 \u201cI\u2019m too busy\u201d, \u201cI don\u2019t have time\u201d, \u201cThings are crazy busy\u201d, \u201cIt\u2019s madness\u201d, \u201cThings are so hectic\u201d, \u201cWork is insane\u201d. The good news is it\u2019s not just you. The bad news is it\u2019s far too many of us. This is the dis-ease of busyness and it\u2019s something you, me, we and us as society need to start taking very seriously. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,37],"tags":[59,60,20],"class_list":["post-308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","category-life","tag-busyness","tag-disease-of-busyness","tag-stress","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humancoachsa.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humancoachsa.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humancoachsa.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humancoachsa.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humancoachsa.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/humancoachsa.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humancoachsa.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humancoachsa.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humancoachsa.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humancoachsa.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Madness<\/strong>
Hectic<\/strong>
Insane<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
work life or social\/family life. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
that almost nobody wins<\/strong>, but everybody feels obligated to play forever. <\/em>
It\u2019s a blueprint for spiritual and physical exhaustion<\/strong>. <\/em>
Long hours don\u2019t make anybody more productive or creative; <\/em>
they make people stressed, tired and bitter.<\/strong>\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
What and who are you willing to lose?
What really matters to you?
Twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years down the line,
what are the things in your life you will be most proud of?
Think about the top two or three most meaningful, joyful and
memorable moments of your life. <\/strong>
Where did those happen? Who were you with?
What makes you valuable and worthy?
What do you do to love and care for yourself? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It\u2019s the truth. <\/em>
Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. <\/em>
Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. <\/em>
Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. “<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Photo by Carl Heyerdahl<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Remember dear reader, I am neither a doctor nor any sort of medical physician in any capacity. None of the information presented above can be construed as any sort of medical advice in any sort of manner. You as the reader is solely responsible for creating and implementing your own physical, mental and emotional well-being, decisions, choices and actions. As such, the reader agrees that the author is not and will not be liable or responsible for any actions or inaction taken by the reader or for any direct or indirect results. This information is simply presented and whatever you decide to do with it is your choice and your responsibility. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"