A lot of monasteries have way more social interaction, unwinding time, and exercise than most IT workplaces offer.
The month I spent in a temple was definitely like that!
I mean, where else do you have tea every evening together with dozens of diverse people?
I went jogging every other days and did weight training and yoga the other days. Every day involved hours of mostly light physical work (cooking, cleaning, some crafts, sometimes construction, etc). And the relaxation I had there was deep and rejuvenating.
The difference between monastic or temple architecture and routine, and that of offices, is really interesting... If I ever create my own office, it will be more like a temple!
(Without the religious hierarchies and faith affirmations, probably...)
That sounds pretty awesome actually. Apart from the exercise/socialising what was the main activity you did in the monastery? I'm assuming its something religious/faith based?
Whether it's religious or faith based is a kind of tricky question because it's a "Zen Buddhist" place (in rural Sweden, as it happens).
To make a long story short I'd say yeah, basically you spend the time eating, working, praying, and sleeping, except that the "praying" doesn't have a content except for something like "realizing that awareness is already inherently clear and ready", or just abiding in awake alertness without "complaining", or something like that.
There's also chanting which is more explicitly religious, but I interpret this whole religious business as being basically just memetic strategies that use this aesthetically coherent gestalt to reinforce some hard-to-describe point.
Image google for "zazen" and that's basically what's going on for hours every day, during meditation retreats many hours every day (with breaks every 30 minutes or so so your knees don't implode).
The month I spent in a temple was definitely like that!
I mean, where else do you have tea every evening together with dozens of diverse people?
I went jogging every other days and did weight training and yoga the other days. Every day involved hours of mostly light physical work (cooking, cleaning, some crafts, sometimes construction, etc). And the relaxation I had there was deep and rejuvenating.
The difference between monastic or temple architecture and routine, and that of offices, is really interesting... If I ever create my own office, it will be more like a temple!
(Without the religious hierarchies and faith affirmations, probably...)