Otium: The Ancient Roman Alternative to Doomscrolling

Anytime I go on an extended stay I make sure to bring my journals, some good books, handicrafts, and some essays for fodder to satiate my curiosity. I love to share with you where my curiosity leads me, and I’m so grateful many of you love to learn alongside me and share your own learnings as well.

As of late, I've been commonplacing about leisure, something I've been particularly curious about since University. A little digging led me to the ancient Roman concept of Otium. Otium has a variety of meanings, but the one I’ll be referencing is this:

Otium is a Latin term that refers to a state of leisure, peace, or freedom from duties, often used to describe a condition of productive rest or intellectual contemplation.

The concept of Otium was widely discussed amongst roman philosophers and poets as a state that offered philosophical growth, a call to use leisurely time wisely for self cultivation and actualization, or a usage of time that involves appreciating nature and beauty. Though each philosopher had a slightly different take on how one should spend their leisurely hours, the commonality shared amongst all definitions was that our free time should be spent doing things that edify our minds with beautiful ideas, make us more knowledgeable, and inspire in us better character by way of art, literature, philosophy, etc. Most importantly, it is done with the goal of responsible citizenship in mind.

I love learning because I have a curious mind, so the act of studying and falling down curiosity rabbit holes, and keeping a commonplace book is pleasurable and entertaining. If left to my own devices, without an aim these can easily become a hobby I pursue that benefits no one but myself. (To be clear, this is ok too, but it’s about balance!)

It’s helpful to come back to the ancient Romans’ understanding. The goal is not to fill ourselves up with knowledge, but to engage in Otium, in the hopes that we can contribute to society in a meaningful way. One that values truth, virtue, goodwill towards others, and honor. I love that this inherently acknowledges beauty and knowledge as transformative.

If our leisurely time is spent nourishing our minds, bodies, and souls, a byproduct of that is better citizenship. We are better equipped to love those around us, and live our lives with others in mind because our actions whether there are witnesses or not, and who we are becoming is not in a vacuum. Most if not all of what we do with our time impacts others, and I don’t mean that to overwhelm us with the pressure of perfection, but to communicate the weight of what we choose to do with our time.

Please don’t misunderstand what I’m saying— I do not mean that every moment we spend in leisure has to directly benefit others, I am only speaking to the specific concept of Otium. If you want to drink a cold beer and read a book, by all means do it! I’ll be writing soon about cultivating joy and delight for such activities.

If you are curious about how to cultivate Otium in your life, I’d love to share some ideas that I’ve come up with.

A few ways to cultivate Otium

For the mind

• Keep a commonplace book-copy passages and ideas from books or media that left an impression on you.

• Read old texts- Stoics, philosophers, poets, classics, etc.

• When a curiosity rabbit hole grabs you, keep a running research journal for it

• Carry a pocket journal for your own thoughts

For the hands

• Take up a handicraft- embroidery, woodworking, pottery, needle felting, knitting, needlepoint, leather work, spinning wool

• Churn your own butter- this might seem random, but I think slow tasks like this really contribute to a sense of accomplishment.

• Bind a small book by hand (I adore this book for teaching how to do this!)

• Learn a new skill

• Mend something instead of replacing it

For the body, outdoors

• Take strolls outside like great thinkers have done for centuries

• Sit on your porch or yard and just observe the things around you in silence

• Tend something that grows like a garden, a windowsill herb, or a potted plant

• Become familiar with the birds that visit your property and learn a few birdsongs to identify

For the people around you

• Host a dinner with courses for a few people

• Read something aloud to someone like a poem, a novel, an essay, etc.

• Talk about what you’re learning with someone who’d enjoy hearing it. I love this for assimilating the things I’ve learned and engaging in good intellectual exchanges. (It does not have to be strictly about classics or stiff books)

• Ask yourself periodically: is the leisure I’m practicing making me more useful to the people in my life, or just more entertained?

I hope this gives you some inspiring ideas for how to find joy in self study, and cultivation that excite you! Please leave some ideas you have in the comments!

Warmly,

Lilly