Relax in the Flow
How to stay calm in a world full of crazy work
We all know the concept of “work hard then you get your rewards”. Maybe I am late but suddenly strikes me the insight — exhausting yourself at work and trying to relax at after-work hours is the wrong concept.
This again is just another internalized occurance of the ancient way of distributing power. “Do this and then you’ll get that” means in reality: someone issues a command and you better follow along, to get your food, to stay with the flock, to not be alone, an outlier and lost. And, over time, we consider this to be “how it goes”, to be “the natural way of things”. Then, we begin to construct systems which follow that paradigm — schools, companies, states and other crazy structures in our mind to align forces, because being aligned means being safe.
When pressure increases, we align even more, work even more, and want to be the best so that we not get punished, at least not as first in a row. And the time that is supposedly for relaxing, is increasingly filled with fears of missing out, thoughts about what might go wrong next day, and what else could get done to stay ahead.
Instead we should relax “at work”. Being in the flow, following the lines of power where your passion leads you, has more calming qualities then the after-work beer with colleagues and talks full of complaints. Design your work in a way that it has these qualities, so you can go home relaxed in the evening, and can spend your free time to reflect, consider next steps, spend real quality time with your family, or worry a little about everything. Never mind, you will have a relaxing day tomorrow, again…
