Laziness, considered by some to be one of the seven deadly sins, is generally agreed to be a condition in which a person is not disposed to exertion, work or activity. Whereas, Rest, considered to be essential in every person's life, is defined as a period of relative inactivity to allow recovery and growth. Why are these two essentially same activities on man seen in such different light? Having jogged my thoughts on this issue, I am inclined to think laziness is nothing but a term coined to describe rest-abuse. But, if rest is essential for recovery and growth, then why is excessive rest i.e. laziness a bad thing??? Faced with this conundrum, and in no small part, my allegiance to the cult of lazy people, I present my first blog in defence of us lazy folks.
I am sure all of us, at a very young age, must have been told by our parents and well-wishers that laziness is a disease you should do without. On the contrary, I feel it is 'Dis' very 'ease' of body and more importantly of mind that every person tries hard to find throughout his/her adult life. Some are able to find it, others get a crash course on it by Mr.Death. Most of us never learn to control this 'state of ease' and hence avoid indulging in it. Controlled laziness, in fact, can be used as a very effective stress-buster provided we know its correct dosage. Its different for different people and there is no doctor who will be able to give a correct prescription. I have done many trials on myself but am still unable to arrive at the correct dosege and overdo it on most occassions ;). The trick is to indentify the exact moment when a prolonged bout of laziness fills you with the energy and desire to get back to action.
Having said that, I venture in the next few lines, to justify my take on laziness. Besides the obvious benifits of physical recovery and mental peace inherent to resting, a sufficiently long period of laziness can open up new creative vistas in us. The reason being creativity stems from virgin thoughts and our mind will be able to think such thoughts only when it has broken down all the previous thought streams. A good night's sleep or a short nap in the afternoon (power naps is what they call it) which we tend to call as rest last only for few hours. Hours are not sufficient for old thoughts to dissolve. It is possible only with days of relative inactivity which is nothing but a bout of laziness.
So, in my opinion laziness is the seed of creativity. So people, there is nothing wrong in being a lil bit lazy. But mind you, once the seed has sprouted the best manure for it is long periods of relentless action. If anyone knows how to do this, tell me how!!!!
