it's well understood by good parents
that life should only ever get so
exciting for a baby after friends have
come round and brought presents and made
animated faces after there's been some
cake and some cuddles after they've been
a lot of bright lights and perhaps some
songs - enough is enough the baby will
start to look Stern and then burst into
tears and the wise parent knows that
nothing is particularly wrong though the
baby may by now be wailing it's just
time for a nap the brain needs to
process digest and divide up the welter
of experiences that have been ingested
and so the curtains are drawn baby is
laid down next to the soft toys and soon
it's asleep and calm descends everyone
knows that life is going to be a lot
more manageable again in an hour
sadly we exercise no such caution with
ourselves we shed you'll a week in which
we're going to see friends every night
in which we're going to do 12 meetings
three of them requiring a lot of
preparation where we'll make a quick
overnight - to another country on the
Wednesday where we'll watch three films
read 14 newspapers change six pairs of
sheets have 5 heavy meals after 8 p.m.
and drink 30 cups of coffee and then we
lament that our lives are not as calm as
they might be and that we're close to
mental collapse we refuse to take
seriously how much of our baby hood is
left inside our adult selves and
therefore how much care we have to take
to keep things simple and very very calm
what registers as anxiety is typically
no freakish phenomenon it is our minds
logical enraged plea not to be
continuously and exhaustingly over
stimulated these are some of the things
we may need to do to simplify our lives
it is theoretically a privilege to have
a lot of people to see and things to do
it is also psychologically speaking
exhausting and ultimately therefore
rather dangerous the manner of
expression is a little dated and brutal
and one might want to quibble over the
exact timings but this point from
friedrich nietzsche remains acute today
as always men fall into two groups
slaves and free men whoever does not
have two thirds of his day for himself
is a slave whatever else he may be a
statesman a businessman an official or a
scholar we need to recognize that what
is physically possible for us to achieve
in a day is not for that matter
psychologically wise or plausible it may
well be feasible to nip over to a
foreign capital or two in a day and run
a company alongside managing a household
but nor should we be surprised if such
routines ultimately contribute to a
breakdown plenty of it of course at
least seven hours or if we can't manage
it we need at a minimum fully to
recognize how much we are deprived so
that we won't aggravate our sorrows by
searching for abstruse explanations for
them we don't necessarily have to get
divorced retrain in a completely
different profession or move country we
may just need to get some more rest what
we're taking in when we check our phones
is perhaps the single greatest
contributor to our mental ill-health for
most of history it was inconceivable
that there could ever be such a thing as
too much news information from political
circles or foreign countries was rare
prized and expensive but since the
middle of the 20th century News has been
commodified and in the process it's
become a major though still too little
known risk to our mental survival every
minute of every day presents us with
untold options for filling our minds
with the mania exploits disasters Furies
reversals triumphs insanity and
cataclysms of complete strangers all
around our bure knighted planet always
news organisations speak of a need to
know and they need to know right now but
what they've left out is our equally
great and often even greater need not to
know because we can't change anything
because the stories are too violent
dispiriting and sad because our minds
are fragile because we have
responsibilities closer to home because
we need to lead our own lives rather
than being torn apart by the stories of
the lives of others who are ultimately
as remote from and irrelevant to us as
the inhabitants of the Egyptian Court of
Kingston affair ooh
in late 2613 bc insomnia and anxiety are
the minds revenge for all the thoughts
we refuse to have consciously during the
day in order to be able to find rest
we need to carve off chunks of time
where we have nothing to do other than
line bed with a pattern paper in order
to think we need to consider three
topics in particular firstly what's
making me anxious secondly what's
causing me pain and how and thirdly
what's exciting me
we need to sift through the chaotic
contents of our minds every hour of
living requires at least 10 minutes of
sifting
of course it might be pleasant to be
extraordinary
famous and world-beating but maybe it
will be an even greater achievement to
stay sane
and kind we might opt not to conquer the
world in favor of living a longer and
more serene life we're not backing away
from a challenge
we're simply shifting our sense of what
the real challenge might be and more
importantly whether real rewards may lie
a quiet life isn't necessarily one of
resignation or flight it may constitute
a supremely wise recognition that the
truly satisfying things are available
away from the spotlight and the big
cities on modest salaries and as far as
possible from the manic sleepless
competition to win the professional
status race as we're discovering
excitement can be fun for a time but
also it kills simplicity is true wisdom
we may need a lot more naps do you need
a detox from your devices our phone
detox is designed to help give you a
well-deserved break from your phone
you