Coming back to London made me realise London is not my home. I am not sure where it is but I’m not settled. I can feel it, I can’t deny it. Of course I love London and you know what they say, 'when you’re tired of London, you are tired of life’. Well, I think London is tired.
Sitting on the tube I lose count of the amount of people I see trying to keep their heads up as they fall into a deep sleep. London, we are tired. What can we do about this? Something is not right. We live in one of ‘best’ cities in the world but those who live here are tired. We need to sleep, we need to rest, we need a break.
It’s not easy looking at a fellow Londoner who is red-eyed, frowned and tired. We need a life. This is not life.
We are a fast paced city - time is everything for most of us, I know. But let’s not make time control our lives, better yet take our lives. We need to speak to time and say ‘hold on let me catch my breath, I need a break’.
So what’s the solution? Well, let’s start by recognising that we are tired and that our bodies need rest. Trust me I have learnt the hard way and it’s not fun. To be honest I’d rather not spend my twenties in a city that demands my body to run like a machine when it’s not. It needs to breathe and work the way it was made to work.
Of course one of the reasons why we work is to make a living and create the lifestyle we wish to - but at what expense? Our bodies or our minds?
Taking a coffee break is not a break when you are feeding your body cheap caffeine. You need to sleep, read a nice book, take a walk, speak and spend time with your friends and family - just chill out.
You may say you need to work hard because you need to make that money - yes we all do but again at what expense? Will you be around in 15 years to enjoy it or will you be hospital suffering from an illness due to overworking your body?
There will be days when we need to push ourselves - I can’t deny those days are ahead of me or rather all of us, but I know that’s not every day of the year.
We can make great lives for ourselves by taking breaks - trust me.
You know how far you can push yourself. I have learnt how far I can push my body and I’m not willing to push it until it breaks again.
London, let’s rest.
