Many articles are devoted to getting rid of laziness. However, recent studies suggest that laziness is a protective function of the psyche. Existential psychotherapist Alfrid Langle reveals the reasons for all condemned behavior and doubts that laziness needs to be overcome.
We are not talking about laziness if a person is constantly sitting on the Internet or in front of a TV screen. This is an addiction, a completely different concept. Laziness is an unwillingness to do anything for no apparent reason.
According to recent studies, laziness is our denial of the rules of behavior, goals and objectives, moral stereotypes and lifestyle in general that are forcibly imposed on us.
We are constantly busy with relationships with the world, with other people, with the future. For the correct construction of life, it is very important to be sometimes busy with yourself, your inner world. Everyone must go their own way. So, the Chinese have the concept of “wei wo” - existence “for oneself” or “for the sake of one's self.” Therefore, modern laziness is nothing but life for oneself, protection from external prescriptions that prevent one from being oneself.
In the subconscious, we divide all things according to the principle of “like-dislike” and react in accordance with the result. We give up some things or put them off for later in favor of more interesting activities.
Psychologist Alfrid Langle in the book “Understanding What Life Expects of Me” says: “Laziness is a way to survive an unfavorable time. I remember a student who turned to me for help, because she considered herself very lazy and was burdened by this. her, if it was necessary to start doing something new. It turned out that under the pressure of her parents she studied for many years that she was not interested in. And when she began to work in her specialty, she did have a nervous breakdown. It was during her studies that this laziness, behind it, like behind a screen, her Person (the spiritual component of the personality) and her life moved, and so, without realizing it, she answered two questions that were most important for a person: First: is there something valuable to me that I do, does life give me something, what do I feel as good? Second: does what I have to do correspond to my essence? This helped her to save herself, wait out the "winter" of her being and live to the "thaw"."
Laziness gives us time in order to be ourselves and think about the need to carry out any business. Time is running out, deadlines are being reduced, and under this pressure, the motivation for completing a task is gradually increasing. As we approach the deadline, we are increasingly asking the question “Do I really need this?”, “What will happen if I don’t do this?”, “How to stop being lazy?” These questions help us to understand the true significance for us of this task and the consequences if it is not fulfilled. And if we do not begin to do this work, it means that "now something else is more important to me."