Ambitions of ease

As someone who has the constant sense that she is "not accomplishing enough," I love this piece that Elizabeth Gilbert (the author of eat pray love) wrote about ease:

"We are the strivingest people who have ever lived.  We are ambitious, time-starved, competitive, distracted.  We move at full velocity, yet constantly fear we are not doing enough.  Though we live longer than any humans before us, our lives feel shorter, restless, breathless . . .

Dear ones, EASE UP.  Pump the brakes.  Take a step back.  Seriously.  Take two steps back.  Turn off all your electronics and surrender over all your aspirations and do absolutely nothing for a spell.  I know, I know  –  we all need to save the world.  But trust me:  The world will still need saving tomorrow.  In the meantime, you're going to have a stroke soon if you don't calm the hell down. 

So go take a walk.  Or don't.  Consider actually exhaling.  Find a body of water and float.  Hit a tennis ball against a wall.  Tell your colleagues that you're off meditating and then actually, secretly, nap.

My radical suggestion?  Cease participation, if only for one day this year  –  if only to make sure that we don't lose forever the rare and vanishing human talent of appreciating ease."

And this is exactly what I plan to do for the next month in Thailand!