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Home » Idleness As Necessity
CoSoThoughts

Idleness As Necessity

Elaine Barlow
Last updated: June 24, 2025 5:44 pm
by: Elaine Barlow
Original Publication Date: January 3, 2023
Reading time: 4 minutes
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Summary

Puritanical and capitalist brainwashing and grooming that has lead people to believe that being idle is bad. It's absolutely NOT. It's NECESSARY.

Elaine @thewebrecluse

January 3 2023 10:00am

The puritanical and capitalist brainwashing and grooming (yes grooming) that has lead people to believe that being idle is bad has lead to so many mental, physical and spiritual issues in the world we live in. The brainwashing is designed to create forced labor … to make people work themselves to death, to create a sense that hard work equates to elevation and that money and worth are the only things of value. It’s grooming designed to make wealth for others, not you specifically.

An idle mind is not a bad thing and the only reason the puritans said it was the devil’s playground is because it gives people time to THINK and QUESTION their lives and the conditions within which they live. When people stop, slow down, have a chance to reflect without noise in their minds, they tend to find themselves overwhelmed with negative thoughts and depressive thoughts. Why? Because they aren’t happy. Because they aren’t balanced.

It takes idleness … silence … to see truth.

SLEEP and REST are not the same thing. Crashing at the end of each day because your body is completely depleted and your mind is spent doesn’t always lead to restorative sleep. LIGHT sleep is not the same as DEEP sleep. It doesn’t give your mind and body a chance to properly heal.

SLEEP is biological, REST is more mental.

REST is a choice you make. To stop. To meditate. To take a moment and breathe. REST is something you decide to do for yourself as you need it, as you need balance.

People who think being idle is lazy are brainwashed into thinking idleness is somehow a weakness when it’s the opposite. If you look at ancient civilizations … ones who made great leaps in science, engineering, architecture, literature, philosophy, and more … they embraced idleness, they embraced entertainment, they knew that balance was necessary and that idle minds were a breeding ground for CREATIVITY and INSIGHT.

Idleness is a garden from which springs NEWNESS and FREE THOUGHTS.

Just as a HUGE amount of “holidays” are corporate creations designed to brainwash you into spending money on products and making money for THEM, so is this ingrained propaganda about being “idle” and being “lazy” when you STOP and SLOW DOWN or take time to DO NOTHING. It means you aren’t working. It means you aren’t being driven forward. It means you’re not earning, buying, spending, making money for businesses … not ruining your health and spending money on medicines etc.

Open your eyes.

There is a time for all things. For work, for play, for rest, for sleep, for love, for dance, for joy, for pain … and the only way to get the most out of life and your time on this earth is to have mental, physical, and spiritual BALANCE so you can be healthy in your mind and body and spirit. Without balance you crash and burn … without rest and without reflection and without insight you cannot see clearly and live with light and positivity.

An idle mind is necessary for growth.

TAGGED:balancebrainwashingcosocountersocialgroomingidlenessmental healthrestselfnesssocial mediasocial media post

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Because this is my life. Not a conversation.

I use this space to journal, to express myself, to have fun … to be me.
Who I am, how I express myself in my own space, my feelings and my lived reality are not up for debate and don’t need your commentary.
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Not everything you see online requires your input or opinion.
In fact, almost NONE of it does.
Learn to just enjoy and accept who people are.

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© 2009-2024 Elaine Barlow / ☰ / The Web Recluse.
All gif animations and drawn art by the amazing Christina Oei
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