These thoughts have been following me for quite a while now. So I try to write them down. To see if those connections that I have found to exist, work even when they follow one another in a sequence in a text rather than just pop up in the head from time to time.
Imagine that your boss asks you to work less every day going forward (not applicable unless you are a workaholic, most of us have other addictions, though). No, our managers don’t want us to work less. You are expected to be more and more productive and usually get a bonus when you deliver above the expectations.
Human life usually starts with us being dependent and completely unproductive except for the huge learning experience. Other than that, we only consume in the beginning of our lives – attention, mother’s milk, nappies, etc. Until we start giving back affection to the people we are so dependent on. For quite many years our only production is (hopefully) love towards our parents. It is an exchange product – we also expect our parents to love us back and languish if they don’t. We start to produce and give “back to society” when we start to work and get paid for our work. And once we retire, we either stop working and consume more than we give back in terms of high medical bills paid by existing taxpayers or we, for some time, add value by working and receiving retirement benefits at the same time (where they exist, otherwise we depend on our future generation to take care of us).
Economic theories are based on growth models. You either produce more with the existing number of people or the number of people that produce more increases as well so you increase both quality and quantity. And because you produce more, you want this to be consumed by more people so you welcome the increase of the number of consumers. So essentially this means that the economic growth can take place in the societies with positive demography. Or in societies which have borrowed from the future, to finance the present.
And now I come to the point I wanted to make. Something is wrong with the economic theories which are based on growth models which essentially promote an ever-increasing number of human population on the planet. These models are equally unsustainable as the ever increasing human population. The economic curve of the human life illustrates it. There comes a time when you have less of everything – health, money, the bodily range and even thinking speed. So you have to be smart. Do less and invest into thoughts, intentions and deeds which create most value. In terms of our planet, maybe we have come to a point where we have to have less children? To exercise birth control to the full. And get rid of stupid religious hindrances as illogical and misleading as the source documents those beliefs are based on. To be smart, you know.
There has to be a model which is sustainable even at the times of the decrease of everything. And this sustainability is not only based on defined contribution pension models or investing in advance. I have read many theories about how to prepare for the future, not that many about how to handle it when it is already there. Maybe this is the reason why economic forecasting is so inaccurate.
We are expected to walk an extra mile, to make our best, to try hard, to be a top performer, to stand out, to make a difference, to win, to succeed, to be the top notch. We are rarely expected to think and do less. But in yoga, oh yes, you are even encouraged to do, plan, feel less. You are encouraged to be. After all those hours of brainwash which is taking you to the opposite direction, to “just be” can be the hardest thing ever.
How are to the economic theory of growth, your boss and to our lifecycle connected?
As for the theory of growth – there are more ways to grow than the measurable ones we know and apply. We are too much oriented to the numeric and easily measurable growth AROUND us, not within us. We even don’t know how to measure the inner development. No intelligence test will help to completely capture how clever both emotionally and spiritually you really are.
As for human lifecycle and the connection with yoga – it just proves that exponential growth is not possible in other than monetary terms. And who said that money is the only measure of the worthiness of life? And even if someone said it, do you really believe this? If you do, show me a happy society in the developed part of the world (I use the world developed in the way the economists interpret it with GDP per capita). Anyway, what I am saying is that the value of consuming more will not make you happier. The same applies to your life after retirement. You essentially have to do less in order to succeed. Like in yoga.
As for your boss (if you have a boss, maybe you are your own boss:-)) – being busy and becoming even busier does not mean that you necessarily add more value. Becoming more stressed and not being able to focus will not make you more productive in the actual sense of the word. Interestingly enough, unless you have a really smart boss, you are actually not asked to add more value, you are oftentimes asked to do more. So you have to be smart yourself.
This is why I like yoga. To come back to the basics. I do not need to listen to other clever people. I need to find the formula of my own life. Like the Chinese proverb says – if you think it cannot be done, do not stop the person who is doing it. This person who you are trying to stop from the impossible (according to your terms) has most likely found the formula of doing less. The formula of adding value. The essence of being. Yoga. And so much more.