What Just Happened? The MindSpa Field Trip!
What’s the benefit of having a fallow field, and how does that help you escape the relentless demands of the daily grind?
We seem to be besieged by demands and cries for endless productivity: work all day, no breaks; eat at your desk if you’re lucky; get those deadlines; no time for healthy social connection and don’t you dare feel tired after lunch or want to nap! Live your best social life (and make sure you get the best pictures for social media!); be a perfect parent; make sure you have additional hobbies and studies – and make damn sure you learn them in the most productive way possible!
Even our sleep isn’t safe, with demands for a solid 8 hours, no breaks (even though this wasn’t always the norm), or competing to see who can sleep the fewest hours.
If your last refuge from the modern assault of total productivity is your sleep, and then you’re persuaded that sleep has to be optimised, somehow made more productive, no wonder people run out of resources.
It’s like we’re all sprinting in the same direction at a brick wall hastily stickered ‘finish line’. Nobody seems to know where we’re going, but everyone’s running fast as they can, and anyone not sprinting gets run over and crushed. The only people who seem to be enjoying it have a wild look in their eyes or are holding whips. At some point we know we’ll hit the brick wall. The halt will be abrupt, and it will be painful.
What the hell is going on?
This intense and relentless focus on productivity is not sustainable, it’s not healthy and it’s not enjoyable or productive in the long run.
So, what can you do about it?
Maybe you can explore going ‘fallow’.
Farmers know that if a field is farmed too intensively, it can’t sustain the same output or yield. The crops suffer, the land suffers, the wildlife suffers. It’s worn out. Spent.
But farmers can let a field go fallow. They give it a rest, maybe for a season, maybe years. They might use legumes like peas to help fix nitrogen in the soil and replenish it. The rest might bring increased biomass, diversity, wildlife – and, with it, resilience and nourishment, repair and more.
So, what’s the benefit of having a fallow field, and how does that help you escape the relentless demands of the daily grind?
Maybe you can allow yourself a little fallow time to nourish, replenish, take it easy and take care of yourself. You don’t have to take months, or even years. You don’t have to structure it, although that can help.
If you don’t know how to do that or want a little help, you’re welcome to borrow some of my ideas. You can always get the Original Journey into Relaxation and whatever the most recent MindSpa Weekly recording is at https://mindspaodyssey.com/the-mindspa/ .
This week, it just happens to be about fields.
