A Strategy to reduce Commuting Difficulty


A Photo from the Backyard of the author's home.
A horror of modern life is the time, pollution, risks, expense, fatigue and stress caused by commuting to work everyday. This is a major factor leading to a reduced quality of life for very many humans in the modern world. In a much older satirical article in this blog -seven steps to unhappiness - this was mentioned as one of the seven contributing causes of unhappiness amongst modern humans.

A day has twenty four hours. On the average if we take away eight hours for work and eight hours for sleeping one is left with eight hours for other things. Of this half or four hours on the average may go for essential work such as  meals, shopping, cleaning, bathing etc necessary to maintain life. Just four hours of free time is left. Imagine if two hours of this is lost in commuting, an hour each way, fifty percent of time in a day is lost that could have been spent on making life happier and better. Not just this, more time is lost because every hour spent driving on road reduces one’s energy, life and health by a tiny bit that adds up to a substantial amount over a year. When one considers one’s spiritual/emotional state, just as green surroundings, forests, lakes and mountains are a boon for it, a crowded highway drive kills it sooner that one may realize.

Yet, in spite of all this, there is little choice for many. For some avoiding this commuting may mean settling for an insect like home in a large city instead of a greener spacious home in the suburbs. This author has described apartment complexes as insect homes in an earlier post because like beehives there are places above, below, to the left and right of your own. For others eliminating much commuting may mean staying away from family or loved ones. My own daughter who is presently a medical practitioner in the US is facing precisely such a dilemma.

However, there are some strategies that can reduce this pain. A person with a busy job in a city and a large home an hour away could consider renting a studio or a compact two room apartment or rooms in a city. Assuming a five day work week, let us say he or she drives to work on Monday morning sleeps at his city apartment on Monday and Tuesday night then drives back to the suburban home on Wednesday evening. The drive back and sleepover in the city is on Thursday. Driving back on Friday evening after work one gets to spend the weekend at home and more important gets to sleep for four nights out of seven in the suburban home. No doubt this strategy is only for such persons who can afford the luxury of a reasonable suburban home and a car to drive to work everyday. There are very many others who do this commuting by public transportation. For these others a major rethink and planning is called for and they may begin by going back to the older article on seven steps to unhappiness

With this strategy, ten hours of commuting is reduced to four and one gets back a major portion of one’s life. What about the additional expense? That would vary from place to place. Some savings will occur on driving expense and health bills as well as some other things like eating out, hurried shopping at the corner store etc. Overall, the additional expense may not be substantial and a small price for the entire joy one can find in return. Most important for those with young children it means that you get to spend more time with them, an opportunity that comes only for a few years in every life. What about those mothers with an infant child and a grandma or nanny that looks after the child during work hours? Just take them to the city apartment with you, they might just love the change as a lovely outing  while the hubby can enjoy golf or a beer with friends three evenings a week and enjoy a dinner from the fridge, unless he decides to do the same with an apartment in another city. The precise mechanics will vary from person to person but do think about it in case you are in this situation.

A friend and fellow blogger Keiko Amano just sent me this link that describes the results of several studies on how destructive modern commuting has been to human happiness. it is here: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/nov/01/secrets-worlds-happiest-cities-commute-property-prices

Comments

Ashok said…
The article on the linked post describes that those who commute more divorce more - not unexpected at all giving the stress such persons have to contend with.
November 7, 2013 at 7:02 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

From Birds to Telepathy

Image
  Sparrow by  Laitche T he house that I live in presently was built in stages  beginning in 1991 during  vacations and sabbaticals in my career. By 1995, the ground floor of the house was more or less complete except for some finishing that continued later. In the center of the roof of the living room was a hole meant for a center light. To hide the protruding wires a small round plastic sheet covered it with another circular hole in the center of it for the light. A similar one existed in the front porch of the house. I lived in the house through most of 1995 with frequent visits of three or four days to Delhi. At this time a pair of house sparrows occupied the porch roof cavity and made it their home. There were no complaints about that since it was not intended to fix a light there in a hurry. Sparrows are cute little birds anyway and I often leave seeds out for them in the garden. Sometime later the female of the pair moved into the living room cavity and began
Read more

Inflation: Stealing from the Poor for the Rich

Image
Robin Hood and his Merry Men I n today’s complex economy it is useful for the ordinary citizen to understand a few simple principles about economics. That way, they can manage their own money better and also contribute their voice to policy making in their countries. This post is about inflation, its causes and ramifications and how it can be managed  in any country. Money is a used for acquiring goods and services and when the price of goods and services rise we say that inflation is taking place. The price of something depends on many factors but two of the primary ones are 1. Demand and supply balance 2. Extent of Money Supply.   Both factors are easy to understand. If a commodity becomes in short supply then its price tends to rise. If apple crops have been destroyed by untimely frost then apple prices will rise. If the demand for a product increases then too its price rises but if demand falls prices fall or crash. The balance of demand and supply is one of the f
Read more

Neem tree: As the Magical Sleep Aid

Image
  T here is an older article in this blog on the Neem tree and its medicinal benefits but it does not mention its effects on sleep. For years now what was happening to my sleep is that after sleeping well for a few hours, sometime in the middle of the night I used to get up and feel completely awake. If   I stayed awake after that, I would feel tired the next day. Therefore I would just take a cup of tea, sit out in the patio for about half an hour, or work on a computer when after an hour or so a second round of deep sleep came. However, this also delayed the morning hour to get up. Four days ago, due to some unrelated reasons, I took a bunch of Neem leaves from a tree nearby and chewed them in the evening at around 5 pm. That night, I woke up again in the middle of the night for a visit to toilet and from old habit decided to check emails for an hour or so. But the moment I turned on the computer, I was sleepy again and began to doze off on the keyboard so I shut off t
Read more

Edgar Cayce and the Almond Tree

Image
A s one advances in age it is inevitable that one would have to contend with some health issues. Some that I have faced in recent years is reduced energy, occasional disturbed sleep, stiffness in muscles and occasional lapses of short-term memory. However if one works on these or other such health issues it is definitely possible to improve the situation. It is wonderful if one can age gracefully without any major health issues and move on to the next world when still physically independent. It is tragic and basically bad karma if one undergoes a prolonged disability requiring help or hospitalization before exit from this life. There is much about karma in older posts. I do not rely on modern medicine and allopathic methods for chronic and minor ailments. For me allopathic methods are a resort for acute conditions, emergency or diagnosis. Therefore I have been working on my health issues through more natural means such as diet, exercise, yoga, life style changes,
Read more

You are what you eat, and drink

Image
C onsume an ounce of whiskey and you will notice the change in mood and behavior immediately. However, it is not just whiskey everything we drink, even the quality of water, or anything we eat has some subtle or significant influence on our behavior. Consumed over a period, not just the weekend binge, the type of food we consume literally shapes our personality prompting ancient thinkers like Hippocrates to remark, “You are what you eat”. Some question this by saying that it is our experiences and habits that shape our personality but the two are linked because it is our habits that shape our tastes and food choices. In another post in this blog it was  mentioned that a human personality is shaped by memory and experiences and one might ask which of the two is more significant - food or experiences?. My understanding is that humans gravitate towards the foods and actions that agree with their inner inclinations and personality and so in the end both causes are two sides of the sa
Read more

The Balsam Flower - Magic of Medicinal Herbs and Flowers

Image
     Balsam flowers W hile a huge variety of seasonal flowers grow on our planet when it is neither too hot nor too cold, unfortunately some do have to put up with extreme heat or cold for a part of the year. In northern Indian plains, summer temperatures may easily exceed 40 Celsius in the months of April, May and June and it is only the early mornings and evening that are cool to get out into the garden and have late evening garden parties. However the difficulty at this time is what flowers to grow in the garden. Few can tolerate that heat. However, with the grace of the Lord, there are some. The most popular are Zinnia, the yellow Cosmos, Portulaca and Balsam. The botanical name of the flower is Impatiens Balsamina.   It is an annual plant growing to 20–75 cm tall, with a thick, but soft stem.   Aside from the flowers the plant has beautiful leaves that are toothed and spirally arranged and that is something one has to look for in a pretty garden. The flowers range
Read more

The Palash Tree - Magic of Medicinal Herbs and Flowers and Back Pain

Image
The Palash Tree Flower B efore modern medicines became prevalent, humans treated many ailments with flowers, leaves, roots and barks of plants and trees. Ayurveda,  an ancient Indian medicinal science, makes use of many herbs and plant materials without substantial extraction of active ingredients as modern medicine does. The idea is that additional compounds in a medicinal or edible plant is an organic whole and a part of life that supports other life.  The complimentary compounds appear to play a useful balancing role whereas individually extracted and isolated compounds can be harmful. A modern example in wide use as food is sugar, a pure chemical isolated from the juice of sugar cane. Indeed there is no food or herb that does not contain a compound or two that could be from mildly to extremely dangerous if isolated and consumed but is beneficial as a group with other compounds. That is the reason why alcohol distilled from a natural fermented fruit juice and then dilu
Read more

Spirituality and Evil

Image
Albert Einstein   " A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. The striving to free oneself from this delusion is the one issue of true religion. Not to nourish it but to try to overcome it is the way to reach the attainable measure of peace of mind.”   Albert Einstein I t is so much nicer to talk of beautiful things that exist on our lovely planet that it is really a pity that I had to write this post that touches on something that to me is evil. Nevertheless I have written it because if an evil is ignored it is difficult to eradicate it. The evil I am referring to is about the denial of freedom of belief and imposition of beliefs on people and that is something even the followers of the greatest of religions on earth have not been free of though they have done so much g
Read more

Impact of Lust and Nudity on Spiritual Growth

Image
S ome modern philosophers have argued that sexual pleasures, beyond those necessary for procreation, of the appropriate kind are a useful part of the human experience and therefore worth pursuing. What exactly is considered appropriate varies with thinkers but in no case does it involve compulsion, inducement or force by one human on another. Sexual indulgence, if any, must only be between adults and from mutual interest and agreement. However, spiritual literature and saints across diverse traditions of the planet have advised humans to overcome urges of lust and described that along with two other emotions - greed and anger – it is a cause of driving humans to hell. The Bhagvat Gita, a revered scripture of the Hindus, describes these as the three gates to hell. It only lauds limited sexual desire i.e. that associated with procreation as divine. The new testament of the Christians warns not just against lustful activity but even lustful thoughts. However sexual desire w
Read more