“Back to Reality”

It’s a line we’ve all said at the end of a holiday, weekend or vacation.

It stems from the idea that having free time to relax and focus on yourself, to enjoy the simpler things in life, is somehow not reality. That grinding through the slog of work and mundane is a more realistic vision of what life is about.

This is troubling in many ways and goes against the way we’ve evolved as humans over millions of years.

Even in hunter-gatherer tribes that still exist today, they only work as much as they need. They typically only spend a few hours each day on important work-related tasks. The rest of the time, they socialize, tell stories, play games and relax.

Of course, our modern society could never function if everyone was always on vacation. Our current model of work/life balance — however unnatural it is — has become the norm.

I want to emphasize that: it has become the norm.

What was is no more. It changed, evolved into the current state. Everything is always changing.

This can too.

Rethink the idea of reality.