Moderating the overly rapid rythm of our daily lives

With about five weeks of classes left before exams are you starting to feel “cooked?” Is a “menty b” appearing on the horizon? As a Benedictine Fellow with SJUfaith, I am aware through the students I work with that exhaustion is real. Not with everyone, but with many. Essays, labs, late-night studying, work demands and trying to maintain relationships with friends and family: holding all the moving pieces together, while trying to get appropriate amounts of rest, requires wisdom. Managing our day-to-day lives requires wisdom.

In Chapter 48 of the Rule of Benedict—a chapter about daily manual labor—Benedict wrote this iconic phrase, “everything should be arranged in moderation.” What captures my attention about this phrase is just how easy it is to write and how difficult it is to practice. More pointedly, it is only in the practice that we can understand how to arrange our lives with moderation. One might argue, moreover, that moderation in a productivity-obsessed country like the United States is counter-cultural. Achieving thoughtful productivity without moderation, though, is like the LA Dodgers defeating the Toronto Blue Jays in the World Series: unlikely. We’ll see if I receive any emails about that comment. I’m just messing. I do want the Jays to win, though.

So, what might moderation look like in the day-to-day dimensions of work, study and prayer? Take frequent breaks. The Saint John’s Abbey Arboretum is a 2,000+ acre human battery charger. A 30-minute hike on one of the many trails can help with stress and exhaustion, or at least has the potential to do that. Punctuating the rhythm of our day—or the liturgy of our day as Benedictines might say—with breaks can also help us see that there is more to living a flourishing life than work and study. Without balance and moderation, burnout becomes a real possibility.

The first word in the Rule of Benedict is “listen.” Listening can take on many forms depending on the context. Perhaps with the remaining five weeks of classes, listening can take the form of listening to what is going on inside of ourselves. Remove the ear buds, turn off Netflix and find a quiet space. We can ask ourselves: Am I anxious? Am I tired? Arranging our day with moderation as a guide requires this kind of self-knowledge and self-awareness.

Another phrase from Chapter 48 is “idleness is the soul’s enemy.” How might this relate to life on campus? It can mean exactly what it seems to say: being lazy or spending excessive amounts of time in leisure activities can make one out of touch with reality. Another interpretation might be offered if we connect “idleness” to the beginning of the Prologue to the Rule of Benedict. Benedict uses the word “drifted” to talk about one who has not been listening to God. Perhaps the words “drifted” and “idleness” can jointly refer to aimlessness or purposelessness.

Feeling cooked might be addressed by tapping into why you are studying what you are studying. Why did you embark on the path that you are currently on? Situating studies within the deeper purpose we are pursuing might offer a slight jolt of energy to help get us to December 13. What is your deeper purpose?