Naturally

We are forcing ourselves to do the things we would do naturally and effortlessly if we didn’t exist in such a state of abstraction and stress. Worse than that, we glorify the fact that we are forcing ourselves.

In Thailand my life feels far less stressful and far less abstracted. What do I mean by abstracted? I guess I mean, when we take what is natural and make an inferior facsimile of it and live the facsimile as though it is the original or superior to the original. 

It’s like putting a lion in a zoo and setting up its cage to look like its natural habitat. The lion will be blunted. He no longer has to hunt, no longer suffers periods of hunger, no longer has to run like his life depends on it. Everything becomes nice, comfortable.

In the same way that my office was comfortable. With its unnatural light and fake plants. I became blunted to the point that I didn’t want to work or exercise. Sometimes it felt impossible to work.

Walking on a treadmill in an airconditioned gym has replaced walking in the woods and experiencing the elements.

Eating real food has been replaced with eating fake food. The fake food is becoming ever more fake.

Pharmacologically maintained health has superseded naturally maintained health.

In Thailand I spend a lot of time barefoot.

I eat fish and chicken and vegetables. That’s not to say that there isn’t an abundance of fake food here, but real food is more readily available, and I don’t desire the fake stuff.

I don’t wake to an alarm, I wake when I naturally wake.

I work when I feel like working. Most self-improvement tells us we need to do the hard things even when we don’t want to. Eventually the resistance to doing hard things will diminish as we habitualise the work. I prefer the approach of living in an environment where the hard things don’t feel hard and I naturally want to do them. After all, I am lazy.

I relax a lot.

I socialise more. Socialising in the West always felt too formal for me, with its set times and locations. I have never liked eating at restaurants. I always found it felt restrictive and rule based. Sitting in a street food restaurant is much more my thing. It’s like the difference between having a job interview and having one of those wistful, semi-conscious chats with your partner in bed. Both can be classed as conversations, but only the latter has any appeal to me.

I get sunshine. I walk. I swim. I play.

I also get to be child-like again. Child-like in my naivety and having to learn new things. Child-like as I stumble over the language, and the cracks in the Bangkok pavements.