Many people feel that the time they spend at work is essentially wasted — they are alienated from it, and the psychic energy invested in the job does nothing to strengthen their self. For quite a few people free time is also wasted. Leisure provides a relaxing respite from work, but it generally consists of passively absorbing information, without using any skills or exploring new opportunities for action. As a result life passes in a sequence of boring and anxious experiences over which a person has little control.
That’s a quote from a famous book called Flow, by a man with a complicated name, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (I’ll just refer to him as M.C.).
Let’s unpack this for a moment. Yes, absolutely most people feel that time spent at work (which I’m assuming is a 9 to 5 situation) is “essentially wasted.” And it’s work in which our emotions and creativity are rarely engaged, e.g. administration, shipping and receiving, prepping ingredients at the restaurant.
M.C. goes on to say that many of us also waste our free time, the so-called “down time” in which we can do whatever we please outside the narrow, drab sphere of the workplace. He points out that most of us just hang out, “passively absorbing information.” And that we’re not exploring new stuff.
His point: “life passes in a sequence of boring [off hours] and anxious [workplace] experiences over which a person has little control [except to click on a new website, or change the channels.]” M.C. seems to be implying that only when we are in control are we involved in strengthening our “self.”
I agree with much of his sentiment. Many of us are so exhausted after a week spent on other people’s agendas that we hardly know where to start to select creative, or active, or pleasurable activities that feed our souls, or develop our network of desired skills and accomplishments. Our brains are fried. We just need to get off the freeway, metaphorically speaking. We need a bit of respite.
For that, there’s the natural world. And here’s where I need to push back a bit. No, M.C. we don’t always need to be “in control.” Drifting is often as restorative and fulfilling to our life’s destiny as is steering. A walk in which we cannot program what we will see next is utterly and completely refreshing to the spirit.
Watching the waves, how the surf forms, curls, recedes. Listening to the sensuous rumble of the ocean, smelling the salty, iodine-tinged air. The fennel and alyssum warmed by the sun, moist from the morning fog. We have no control over any of these spectacular sensory occasions—and yet they nourish and renew every molecule of our being.
M.C. is right to invite us to stay in that space that provides us with most joy, most beauty, most active well-being. And for a lot of us, it can begin with something as simple and spontaneous as a walk on the beach.
Find out a lot more about the radical potential of everyday life in my forthcoming book, Inside the Flame.
