Bohemersbestaan

Op de website van The School of Life, de in Londen gevestigde hogeschool van de levenskunst, vind je regelmatig tips voor een beter leven. Deze week Robert Wringham over wat we van het bohemianisme kunnen leren (hier):

1. Embrace entropy
One absolute truth about the universe is that things fall apart. Worrying about this is a Bourgeois trait and distracts from pursuits of real value. Learn to enjoy the dust and dirt. Learn to find beauty in imperfect or malfunctioning things. Allow your beard or leg hair to grow. Allow your bare feet to touch the grass or the dust today. Spend less precious time and energy trying to tame nature.

2. Combat Status Anxiety
If you knowingly divorce yourself from the status symbols of Bourgeois life—cars, white collar employment, brand names, daily newspapers—it no longer feels like a failure when you do not to have the best examples of these things. You'll spend less energy keeping up with the Joneses and eventually forget about status anxiety altogether. Stop competing. Adopt Bohemia and leave status anxiety behind forever.

3. Live cheaply and work less
The Bohemian life is, by necessity, cheap. It costs very little to engage in truly Bohemian pursuits. You don't need to save up lots of money to become Bohemian and you don't even need to have regular income. You can begin today by turning down the volume on the Bourgeois command system in your brain. By living cheaply—by lowering your overheads to the absolute minimum—you can probably afford to work part-time instead of full-time or put less stress on your own small business.

4. Embrace mindfulness and experimentation: the keys to happiness
The Bohemian does not usually believe in an immortal soul. In many cases, the Bohemian will keep a human skull on display somewhere about the garret as a reminder to live for the moment. With no gods and few Christian morals, the Bohemian is largely uninhibited and prone to experimentation.

Het prentje (via Ye Olde Evening Telegraph): Ida Verstrepen uit Wommelgem kan iedereen het bohemersbestaan aanraden. Way to go, Ida.