The Art Of Chilling

9 December 2025

A Long-Lost Art

It feels as if chilling, not doing anything, relaxing, resting has been supplanted by every other obligation of life. For when we have been given the opportunity to be constantly productive, our expectations (either subliminal or external) are shifted to always expect work. I can certainly echo this sentiment. I feel compelled to be working on something. To sit still is to 'waste time'. The intellectual side of me knows that to not be true, but the emotional decision-maker whines and complains like a toddler. It moans until I move my stilled hands or disturb my quieted mind.

The constant agitation, the disturbance, the disharmony make our lives, yes, our very existence less fruitful . How can the ideas precipitate out of my mind when the fluid they inhabit is constantly being stirred? All work and no play, they say, is the highway to burnout and depression. And I've got a lead foot and just got my driver's license.

It is easier than ever to avoid boredom. Yet now is the time where boredom would be most helpful. Being bored intentionally paves the way to the sweet spiritual rest that each of our spirits need.

Easier to Ignore

When the body needs rest, it aches and shudders untill it compels the mind to obey. Our bodies seem to be our master, then, in such situations; yet the opposite is true. The spirit is willing.

When our minds ache for rest their methods of aching and yearning are much more subtle. They sour our moods, they darken our thoughts and they taint our decision making. But the line between tired and rested is much harder to see and feel in comparison to that of the body's stamina. The nearest thing to falling asleep is the absolute lack of focus that inevitably comes at the start of a nervous breakdown. Yet some lack of focus is the equivalent of yawining; it seems a poor excuse to go home from work if you quantify your focus at 80/100.

It is much easier to ignore our minds' pleas for respite. We only seem to notice when we are losing our minds. It would the the equivalent of only noticing that your body is tired once you start nodding off at the wheel.

Thus, we have arrived at the epidemic of exhaustion.

Exhaustion's Devilish Reign

More people are tired nowadays. Some people ignore their mental exhaustion to keep working because of the precarious economic situation we are in. Others ignore it as a survival mechanism: they see the flaws of their lives and choose to shuffle the blame onto physical and mental exhaustion. Others are legitimately overworked or overburdened with responsibility at home or at work and are inhibited in some way from getting help. Or others cannot cope (and do not have the space, ability, and/or means to cope) with all the stresses of modern life (of which there are many). Whatsoever challenges them has lead us into an era of exhaustion. Being tired all the time is approaching normative status. Yet in a world where we who are advanced of means and prowess could choose to do less work for the same pay but have chosen to keep our workload the same. Yet I was never able to take part in the decisions that created our society; I am alienated from the system in which I live. Exhaustion is a miasma, a haze that has fallen over us.

Exhaustion's smog has choked the flourishing of the common man. And those who own the factories that pump out such smoke have blatantly, openly cheated their emissions tests. They are keeping us tired so we think worse.

Defiled Off-Hours

Short-form content has defiled our precious few hours outside of work and often chews up our sleeping hours.

Recovering the Art of Rest

Resisting exhaustion now must become an intentional act.

Sabbath

We have cast down the crosses that hung on our walls, torn down the Stars of David from our breasts, and profaned the Sabbath. On a day where we once found rest in imitation of the Creator we now find retail misery for the sake of shareholder profits.

Note how those who have the final say whether we keep the Sabbath would scoff at the idea of them working on it too.

I will not conceal that the broader availibility of goods and services has benefitted me occasionally. But I found a sense of shame kindling in my heart that I was one of the reasons the bagger had to work on Sunday.

When a day of rest had been built into our societal foundations, there was a built-in pressure valve for resting.

Protected Time

Would it not be enough to cordon off a period of time on our schedule to conduce active resting? It does, but the question follows then is 'when?' To protect your schedule's time, you have to jealously guard it. Would you let someone try to schedule a meeting that preempts a date with your beloved? Zealously guard your time.

What, then, would you do with that time? Unfortunately it is too easy to fill it with mindless consumption or administrivia that bog our lives down. But I think choosing to do something is far more restful than pulling up whatever an algorithm tells you next. Consider sitting and reading. Or reclining and listening to a particular album or playlist that a real person made. Or writing. Or drinking tea. Or praying or sleeping or even just staring out into the void. The variety of stimulation any of these provides seem much more natural, much more easily digestible, in comparison to the sugar-IV of slogging out some telly time or playing video games mindlessly (mindful ones probably are okay, but the line is much finer and I would hazard a guess that they are much less restful) or short form content snorting.

"I have too little time," you might say. Me too. But even a quarter-hour repose is better than wasting a week of progress on exhaustion's opportunity cost. If only we could communicate that to our bosses.

The Problem with Speed

We have now the expectation that our rest be the most efficient and least time-consuming. 'Hurry up and rest so you can get back to work!' shouts the mental taskmaster in our minds.

Be different. If someone objects, mumble something semi-incomprehensible about minimizing opportunity costs. If they don't understand, great; if they do, then they probably make an unbalanced amount of money compared to the work they put in and they will probably be pleased with your new econo-empresarial bent.

Let us not quarrel. But rather, let us rest. For there is little work that is worth giving up rest. If only our bosses knew. Urgency is often overstated. Let your rest be holy and filled with blissful nothingness.