We need to slow down
For millions of years man has had only one strategy. Getting more. So when we liked or loved something we chased it and got it. In cases of jobs, marriage, etc. we stopped at one – sorry many did not stop at one. They still continued their chase. So we chased and got (or did not get) more money, food, information, more work, more stuff, more options, more happiness, more friends, more………
We are not a rational animal, but a rationalising animal. We prove it time and again.
We now need to train the mind in a different way. A mind which will feel satiated, and start staying no. It takes 20 minutes for the signals to send a message to the brain saying “Enough Food”. It takes 10 hours for the body to finish all the fat in the food – so that it can burn the fat. However if we eat every 5 hours..it never comes to burning fat for our needs.
In case of other things the brain gets NO SIGNAL of ‘Enough’. Start giving away all the things that you do not need. Then start giving away things which you think you need but have not used for the past 6 months. It will not matter at all.
Stop buying things. Go on a fast. Fast can be no food, no shopping, no screen (enough info!), …the world economy does not need so much of stimulation. Actually we have reached a stage when there are more obese and overweight people in the world THAN malnourished and underfed children. We are so proud of our ‘possessions’ that we even say ‘I have diabetes’ or ‘I have blood pressure’.
These days for the upper class of people we have more of everything than we can use – food, information, stuff, entertainment, media, screens, and we have the resources to buy them. In fact we have too much -much more than what we can use, enjoy, afford (time wise), BUT THAT has not stopped us from chasing for MORE. We are a ‘more’ animal not a ‘rational’ animal. It is time the homo sapien is rechristened..
For achieving (ha ha) all this – bigger house, bigger, higher, faster Suv,…we are happily burning through the earth’s resources, ecology, and the worst thing is..ALL THIS is leaving us sick, tired, angry, frustrated, over weight, unwell, ….but we will not give up the ‘more’ part of our lives. Ha.
Let’s get off the treadmill of ‘MORE’. Time we looked at life with gratitude and say ‘Enough’.
umang jain
Very nice article in the morning. I pledge enough of food for me.
karthikraja
“Avarice ends in loss”
“the content heart is the best medicine”
“Feel that you have enough. Things will fall on your hands”
In Tamil one saying is there, ” Pothum endra manamae pon seoyum virundhu” – ” Perasai peru nastam”
Shan
The irony of life is that the people who have enough (those who _can/should_ slow down) never feel they have enough and the ones who do not have enough (those who _shouldn’t_ slow down have either given up or convinced themselves that they need to slow down!
Truth is there’s a yin and there’s a yang. You need to work hard in order to not work hard later. It’s quite contradictory (for many people). You can’t do just one part, you need to do both.