
Rest: A Revolutionary Act in Modern Society


So let’s banish the myth that resting, relaxing, taking it easy, or whatever you want to call inactivity is an unnatural, indolent absence of physical activity. Let’s also refrain from stigmatizing anyone for being normal by avoiding nonessential exertion.
Daniel Lieberman • Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do Is Healthy and Rewarding
We have inherited from all this a deeply bizarre idea of what it means to spend your time off “well”—and, conversely, what counts as wasting it. In this view of time, anything that doesn’t create some form of value for the future is, by definition, mere idleness. Rest is permissible, but only for the purposes of recuperation for work, or perhaps fo... See more
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
Here’s the problem: Our schools, our workplaces, our society are built atop that bad metaphor. Activities and habits that we’ve been taught to associate with creativity and efficiency often stunt our thinking, and so much that we’ve been taught to dismiss — activities that look like leisure, play or rest — are crucial to thinking (and living!) well
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