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Resisting the Tyranny of a To-Do List Life
The recipe for reclaiming a slower and more sensuous existence
I don’t know about you but some days the to-do list can feel like one of those ancient scrolls that seems to roll on forever. The relentlessness of our lives can oftentimes feel completely overwhelming as the once 9–5 creeps its way into our evenings and weekends with the prevalence of a technology that makes us permanently available. Then, even in our down time, exhausted, we reach for that same technology to provide mindless relief.
Yet something about it always feels unfulfilling, it provides us little hits of dopamine and our body reacts to the rush of endogenous happy hormones but our nervous system is still wired, leaving us on edge, tired and disengaged.
Our illnesses are often ones of inactivity, we have no connection to the natural world and when we see it in its raw state we are often shocked by it. Most of us are completely unable to fend for ourselves in our natural environment and yet we have evolved over millions of years to exist in these habitats, our bodies long to be in the lush forests, bracing rivers and open grasslands.
Often when I have felt overwhelmed by the pressures of daily existence I have stepped outside into the woods and breathed what feels like my first full…