TED Talks · How to slow down

Leisure

When I was a kid, I fell in love with hockey. Much of my childhood was spent playing it, watching it, or talking about it.

Level: A2 · 64 sentences

Transcript

  1. When I was a kid, I fell in love with hockey.
  2. Much of my childhood was spent playing it, watching it, or talking about it.
  3. Decades later, hockey remains a big part of my life.
  4. I play once or twice a week,
  5. and nothing lifts my spirits more than dishing the perfect pass or scoring a highlight reel goal.
  6. You may not play hockey,
  7. but I'm sure there is some form of leisure that lights you up.
  8. because a leisure is the foundation of a life well lived.
  9. In 1943, Maslow put leisure in his famous hierarchy of needs.
  10. Five years later, the United Nations declared leisure a basic human right.
  11. Healthy leisure brings all kinds of benefits.
  12. Studies show that it lowers stress and anxiety.
  13. It can boost mood and self-esteem, ward off depression,
  14. and give you a feeling of control over your life.
  15. It also offers a creative outlet.
  16. But leisure goes deeper than that.
  17. What we do with our free time gives texture, shape, and meaning to our lives.
  18. As one American essayist put it,
  19. leisure is how we construct the true fabric of self.
  20. Leisure can also guard against loneliness.
  21. It builds relationships, welding us together into communities of shared interest.
  22. Just think about your own leisure for a moment.
  23. Isn't some of it bound up with your social life?
  24. I definitely feel a special kinship with the guys on my hockey team.
  25. Of course, leisure means different things to different people.
  26. For some, it's a candlelit bath.
  27. For others, it's skydiving.
  28. But for me, all leisure has one thing in common.
  29. It exists for its own sake.
  30. In other words, it's not about building status, being productive, or making money.
  31. It is not a means to an end.
  32. True leisure is an end in itself, something you do for the sheer joy of it.
  33. These days, with more and more people slowing down the pace of their lives,
  34. slower forms of leisure are in the ascendant.
  35. Here's an example.
  36. Some book clubs now read the novels of Charles Dickens in monthly installments,
  37. the same way they'd have been read in their day.
  38. The slower pace can open up a whole new world of detail,
  39. nuance and otherwise hidden plots.
  40. Others are now slowing down to give food the time and attention it deserves.
  41. That might mean buying fresh local ingredients and cooking from scratch instead of tossing a ready meal in the microwave,
  42. or eating together around the table instead of alone in front of a screen.
  43. In a similar vein,
  44. the slow art movement encourages us to spend more time looking at a single work.
  45. Forget the average 30 seconds.
  46. We're talking 15 minutes or more to see,
  47. understand, and feel the art more deeply.
  48. Even television is getting in on the act.
  49. Invented in Norway,
  50. slow TV serves up fly-on-the-wall films in super high definition and without any voiceover.
  51. They can last from several hours to several days.
  52. You might watch someone knitting a sweater or crafting a wooden chair.
  53. Others are doing the same with music.
  54. In a medieval church in Halberstadt, Germany,
  55. a concert is underway that will finish in 2640.
  56. Yes, you heard right, the year 2640, more than six centuries from now.
  57. It's a single piece by John Cage, and it's called,
  58. surprise, surprise, as slow as possible.
  59. Every so often, an organist plays a few notes,
  60. which then reverberate around the church until the next organist shows up.
  61. I've been to that church in Germany.
  62. The slowness feels like a deep tidal pull.
  63. I found it incredibly soothing, almost spiritual,
  64. and I left even more determined to slow down my own life.