S2 E16 Unpacking the Laziness Lie (Part 2 of 2) with Wisdom from Dr. Devon Price
Hello All.
I'm returning for part 2 of this exploration of Dr. Devon Price' book Laziness Does not Exist. Please head back to episode 51 first if you haven't already heard that one, since I lay the ground
Feelings of laziness can be a powerful self-preservation instinct.
I talk about Tara McMullin's notions about how we think about working people, and her essay which explores people who don't work. This might include people who are unemployed, or struggle with a disability, or have some other limitation.
The three main tenets of the Laziness Lie (as characterized by Dr. Devon Price) include:
Often in Western culture we define people based on what they do, what their career happens to be. But given the changing nature of work, and the fact that people are less and less likely to spend their entire career doing the same job, or even being in the same field, this really doesn’t make sense anymore.
I reflect on my experiences with depression and how this can affect our ability to get things done. I also explain how this isn't typically a "constant" condition but has its ebbs and flows.
When someone is suffering from an acute episode of depression, from the outside they can look lazy. In reality, fighting depression is like a full time job in itself. When someone’s brain and body chemistry are out of sync, it takes enormous effort to accomplish basic tasks.
Dr. Price cites research that show that “when an employee divulges to their manager that they have depression, they’re more likely to be punished for taking sick days than other employees are. Their odds of being fired go way up too, even if their quality of work remains the same.”
The WHO indicates that depression is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. In 2018 people with Major Depressive Disorder made up 8% of unemployed US adults.
I remember one of the recurrent thoughts I had while depressed was that I wasn’t trying hard enough. If you are there, please know this is a false and erroneous thought that your mind may be feeding you. Getting support is a sign of strength, not weakness.
I explore the concept that the body sometimes says "no" when we truly do want to keep working, and how this is a protective mechanism, not a weakness. This happened for me when I suffered an appendicitis attack in 2017.
Our creativity benefits from a little laziness (aka loafing time) also. So many great inventions and brilliant ideas came forth not when people were working hard, but when they allowed themselves to daydream or take a little time off.
Seeing through the Laziness Lie means we can see it for what it is, question it, and push against it in subtle or sometimes not so subtle ways.
Accept that your body is perfect the way it is today. Yes, you have limits, and those limits can be honored. Your body doesn’t need to conform to a societal standard that makes no room for size diversity. Our associations with fatness and laziness are completely false, and conditioned.
That brings me to point two and probably the crux of the argument presented by Dr. Price, which is that compassion kills the laziness lie.
Lacking compassion for a struggling group actually makes it harder to be gentle with ourselves. To make this practical, notice when you’re tempted to judge someone as lazy, and ask yourself if there may be some hidden challenges.
Using curiosity rather than judgement is a helpful way to allow for a more expansive view of what situations may be eliciting this behavior.
As always, thanks for listening! I appreciate you! If you have time to leave a rating or review on your favorite podcast player (especially Apple podcasts) that would be amazing! Thanks in advance for helping me grow this show.
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Music credit: https://www.melodyloops.com/composers/ihsandincer/
Cover art credit: https://www.natalyakolosowsky.com/
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