I have worked for all sorts of people since then, geniuses and morons, quick-witted and dull, bighearted and narrow. I’ve had many kinds of jobs, but since that conversation with my father I have never considered the level of labor to be the measure of myself, and I have never placed the security of a job above the value of home.
Multitasking is probably the single most overrated skill in modern life. It drains your brain of oxygenated glucose that could be put toward paying more focused attention, makes it difficult for a person to switch between tasks, and is generally an illusion anyway.
What contemporary and ancient meditators have always known, however, is that while the hype may be warranted, the practice is not all peace, love, and blissful glimpses of unreality. Sitting zazen, gazing at their third eye, a person can encounter extremely unpleasant emotions and physical or mental disturbances.
We’re often told that you can’t get rid of a habit; you can only replace it. Heck, even I’ve said that. But mindfulness didn’t replace smoking with anything: “Our data showed that mindfulness decoupled this link between craving and smoking.”
If all you can think about Monday morning is how quickly your weekend flew by, you might want to consider expanding your horizons a bit in the future. Turns out, the key to a fulfilling weekend that doesn’t feel too short is to seek out “newness.”
