The modern connotation for the word "discipline" often refers to punishment. Younger people need discipline, older generations say, and we are reminded of the aftermath of our mistakes as children with consequences ranging from grounding to whatever else they deemed enough to help us realize what we did was wrong.
If we take a glance at the etymology of this word, discipline, there are two major derivations that it comes from. The first, from the Old French (11th Century) word descepline, means physical punishment, teaching, suffering, and martyrdom. This is where we get our modern connotation, but before this, in the original Latin that French was greatly influenced by, the word disciplina meant instruction given, teaching, learning, and knowledge.
In either case, discipline was something that meant you were working hard to attain or change something, which could be partially why the negative connotation has persisted. For most, discipline is not relaxing at all, but is an undertaking that takes energy, rather than restores it.
My understanding of the word is slightly different from these definitions, because for me, discipline and relaxation go hand and hand. The two concepts are not dependent on one another, but without one or the other, life could become unbalanced.
Discipline, in my opinion, is a process of letting your life fall into a comfortable and flexible routine. Before you free-spirits out there shake your heads at any type of organization (before they wade through the clothes that cover the floors of their rooms), understand that I was one of you, and would rather have picked clothes from the clean pile in the corner and thrown them in the dirty pile in the other corner. But as I have come to experience college, working a job, and then balancing a social life on top of those, I have found that I am much more inclined to work a little bit ahead, and pick out a routine, rather than I am to wing it 24/7.
But don’t think that this means being horribly meticulous about each moment of my day. In fact, that would likely be worse than being open-handed. I mean that I am careful about what I say no to, and I am very adamantly supportive of what activities and decisions I say yes to. For instance, a type of daily devotional, a good night’s sleep, my job, my close friends, and attending my classes are all, in my mind, fairly important, and enough so that I stick to them like glue. Besides these, and the work that accompanies them, I leave all the rest of my time open for whatever may come.
But where does relaxation fit into this?
I have found that by entering this routine, and sticking to it, the routine itself becomes familiar enough that I can relax when following it. This doesn’t mean that any of that open time I have fails to involve time of relaxation, but I find that not having to worry about what is coming next makes sense, and lifts a great deal of stress from my mind.
While I am not completely centered on organizing each facet of my life, I am willing to organize what time I don’t have to be organized, and by doing this, I have at least found a good balance for me. But no matter how you organize or do not organize your life, earning the freedom of spontaneity is much more satisfying if you don’t have to worry about what happens next.
Try it! It may help you out. It has certainly helped me out.
