Which lifestyle do you think is better: active or restful?

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I sometimes wonder if it would be in my best interests to make the most of my waking life and remain active all day, performing one task after another in the hope of improving my own and others' quality of life. I know that people out there are suffering and that they feel in desperate need of someone's help. What if I remain conscious of this every day and work through ceaseless activity to alleviate that suffering?

There are a few things I would need to consider before doing this:

1. How would I keep from running out of energy or having a 'burnout' while trying to help these people?
2. How would I keep from losing my soundness of intellect in some other way (through confusion or recklessness, for instance) while doing this?
3. In the case that suffering results from personal mistakes, to what degree should I exert myself to alleviate it?
4. Would ceaseless exertion be 'definitely superior' to a solution of simple genetic adaption, or even suicide, in order to avoid that suffering?
5. To what degree can certain types of suffering be alleviated, if at all? Is it possible to eliminate all pain from the world?
6. How would I do this without creating new problems for myself or others?

It depends on the person I believe. But for me personally, an active lifestyle would be better for me. I'm at my best when I have a lot to do as it keeps my mind focused on the task at hand thus keeping me from getting depressed.

How about just being active, and not exerting so much effort helping the rest of the world? I can see helping others, but, why would one need to be so obsessive about it? It definitely won't guarantee happiness.


I like being active. It keeps you in shape, plus helps clear the mind. Not to mention....it's gets s**t done.

I sort of think it depends on the person, how much they like activity, or doing things with their hands... I dont like either really... I only like silly unstructured physical stuff like dancing, jumping on a trampoline, climbing a tree... I hate structured activities.

I do try and make myself exercise despite this as I need the fitness, and I also make myself do bits of housework... I think it is a matter of deciding how much of what you want in your day.

Of course everyone recommends to me that I do excercise. I am too angry and depressed so I don't, even better would be to die

Oh, and another:

7. If I'm being punished or ridiculed during my work efforts, how do I know it wouldn't be wiser to rebel and rest until I can work effectively without punishment?

That's why I'm resting this Summer -- to punish the world (so to speak) for causing me to have auditory hallucinations, in whatever manner it did. Had I not heard voices, I would have done more deeds this summer.

It seems that I really need to drill it into people that I'm not rewarding them for casting me out or making me suffer. I hope that after all my good deeds it won't have to come to violent actions.

I prefer a healthy combo w/ regular activity & a lot of rest b/c I'm lazy .

My answer is the active life is better, you accomplish more and make more of yourself than if you are calm and restful and go with the flow. You have to swim out to get your ship, not wait for it to come to you. Make your own life, and don't wait for life to happen to you.
You are taking the active life to an extreme though and you are spreading yourself too thin. You can't help everyone in the world. You are human and only have so many hours in a day and so much energy. You should respect your body and your mind, and slow down your pace of life. Devote yourself to helping a few better, rather than many ok, because you are only going to burn out and then not be able to help ANYone. Take some time out for you. Don't you count as a person that matters and should be helped, or do only other people deserve that? No, you are important and matter too.