Life in the Slow Lane Is the Route to Happiness, Contentment and Inner Peace
Photo:Good Magazine
Life and the Cult of Busyness
GIPHY
As The School of Life has so candidly observed, ‘For the last two centuries, a cult has been spreading widely and rapidly around the world devoted instead to a single, striking ideal: busyness. This cult of busyness insists that a good life is one of constant activity and application, where every hour of the day must be filled with intense activity.
This mindset isn’t only making us tired and stressed. It’s based on a fatal misunderstanding of what we actually need to be productive: namely, regular periods of inactivity that allow our minds to work effectively. Quiet days, in which nothing much happens and we don’t accomplish anything (days the busy person would consider dull and wasted) can be deeply fruitful.
In moments of stress and exhaustion, we need to prescribe the remedy of slower, quieter days – and to free ourselves from the oppressive ideal of the busy life that is slowly destroying us.’
Photo: SchoolofLife
‘We live in a time when many people experience their lives as empty and lacking in fulfillment. The decline of religion and the collapse of communism have left but the ideology of the free market whose only message is: consume, and work hard so you can earn money to consume more. Yet even those who do reasonably well in this race for material goods do not find that they are satisfied with their way of life. We now have good scientific evidence for what philosophers have said throughout the ages: once we have enough to satisfy our basic needs, gaining more wealth does not bring us more happiness.’- Peter Singer
‘What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.’ - William Henry Davies
And Now, the Biggest Question of them All: What is the Antidote to BUSYNESS and the Age of Anxiety?
As Prescribed by the GCGI for many years now, The Antidote to the Cult of Busyness is to Do Nothing!!
'When Doing Nothing Is Doing Everything’
‘To do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world, the most difficult and the most intellectual.’- Oscar Wilde
‘Going nowhere ... isn’t about turning your back on the world; it’s about stepping away now and then so that you can see the world more clearly and love it more deeply.’- Pico Iyer
'A generation that cannot endure boredom will be a generation of little men… of men in whom every vital impulse slowly withers, as though they were cut flowers in a vase.'-Bertrand Russell
…’because I live in a society that tells me I should never be alone. I live in a society that tells me I should always be connected, I should always be doing something,... We’ve become so busy that our days are mapped out to the second, our sleep is forced off rhythm by lack of time, our solitude is planned out to the minute, and we’re expecting ourselves to do it all. Another paradox to explore is that solitude was birthed in community; as we cannot know summer without winter, we lose sight of solitude when we isolate ourselves from community. Do the people around me truly know my needs in and out of solitude? How can we encourage one another to find those crevices of ourselves to love and explore more. How can we truly go away from commitments and people to come back more full of love, understanding, and compassion towards ourselves and others?’... Cassidy Hall
The Art of Living a Happier life: Solitude- The Most Important Skill Nobody Taught You
What is Money? Is it Money Money Money, Must be funny?
First, I invite you to watch this very beautiful video, with its timeless lyrics, words of wisdom, all about MONEY. This, I hope will focus and sharpen our minds on what is to come a bit later, the wonderful Story of Money!
This is the story of how the modern world fell in love with money
This is How to Balance Purpose and Profit to become a Force for Good
Hello Fat Cats! Do you fancy a dialogue for the Common Good?
In Praise of ‘Enoughness’ and 'Lagomist' Econom
In Praise of Frugality: Materialism is a Killer
Life is too short not to live it simpler
What is the essence of a good life?
The Road to Bliss: My Joyous Journey in the Company of Poets
Land As Our Teacher: Rhythms of Nature Ushering in a Better World
‘Nature and Me’: A Beautiful and Inspiring Path to repair our relationship with life
On the 250th Birthday of William Wordsworth Let Nature be our Wisest Teacher
What a blissful day it was visiting "The loveliest spot that man hath ever found”
The IPCC Report- I Refuse to give up Hope: Earth Is A Mother that Never Dies
Detaching Nature from Economics is ‘Burning the Library of Life’
A Sure Path to build a Better World: How nature helps us feel good and do good
Healing the world as if the web of life mattered: In Praise of Ancient Wisdom
A very telling and moving story of life and death, who we are and why we are
The old , frail professor, a former student and the insights on life’s biggest question
GCGI and our Path to a more Meaningful, Rewarding and Happier life
Photo by William Patino Via JuciyWorld
GCGI is our journey of hope and the sweet fruit of a labour of love. It is free to access, and it is ad-free too. We spend hundreds of hours, volunteering our labour and time, spreading the word about what is good and what matters most. If you think that's a worthy mission, as we do—one with powerful leverage to make the world a better place—then, please consider offering your moral and spiritual support by joining our circle of friends, spreading the word about the GCGI and forwarding the website to all those who may be interested.