Is it bad to be lazy

Would you call yourself lazy? If you live in a messy house and are reluctant to lift a finger to help out, maybe you are. But laziness
 is a subjective thing – sloppiness to one person might be a form of relaxation to another. And if you can be bothered to read on, 
you'll see that opinion is divided on whether laziness is a bad thing.

Generally speaking, we tend to look on our laziness as a negative thing. Inertia, slothfulness, idleness and apathy are used as
 criticisms and insults against individuals and groups of people. We think of lazy people as unproductive or that they don't really 
care about things. And when we find ourselves doing nothing, we feel guilty about it. Could this be because we are not instinctively
 lazy creatures? And is that why we often do things we don't need to do and which are sometimes painful – like running a marathon? Writing for BBC Future, Claudia Hammond explains that "enforced and extended rest, unless we are ill and our bodies demand it, leads not to feelings of being relaxed but of restlessness and irritability."

Others may suggest we are naturally lazy, and that we can't help taking it easy, though it's hard to believe because we're
 constantly told to do more. But kicking back and living life in the slow lane could be better for our health. A study by 
psychologist Dr Robert Levine in 1999, for example, concluded that people living in cities with a fast pace of life had the
 highest rates of coronary heart disease.

Laziness has also been shown to be good for our mental health, so having a nap or some downtime shouldn't be frowned
 upon. And there are other possible benefits too. Dr Masud Husain, Professor of Neurology at the University of Oxford, told
 the BBC: "We found that people who have tended to be more apathetic might in some ways be more creative, so that although
 they might be a couch potato, they might be coming up with one great idea that might be very interesting and useful." So, 
in our frenetic lives, maybe we should chill out, get into goblin mode and contemplate the benefits laziness can bring.