The Power of Doing Nothing

There’s an obsession in our society with ‘doing’, often at the expense of ‘being’.

The habit of always DOING something carries within itself the risk that we forget how to simply BE with ourselves and our environment. In my perception, the tendency to avoid getting in touch with what IS, gets bigger and bigger in the omnipresence of digital distraction. This neglect can lead to a build up of stress and a feeling of being overwhelmed.

Integrating pauses of non-doing into our daily lives can be a powerful tool that can create space for listening to the voice of our body and heart. It can help us to remember what really matters to us.

Many of us struggle to some degree to listen to that which is ‘not-mind’, having been brought up in a society that worships science but undervalues much of that which the mind alone cannot grasp. The constant focus on doing, without giving ourselves time to pause, strengthens the tendency to ‘believe everything we think’, without questioning.

Thoughts are of course a valid part of our experience, but if we give too much importance to them, whilst not recognizing that they are only exactly that (thoughts, not reality), then we hand over an immense amount of power to cerebral processes . Through meditation and integrating pauses of non-doing into our daily life, we learn to become more receptive to other voices inside us, which are equally important messengers.

In my opinion, the more we feel under pressure to act, the more important it is to stop and pause. A contracted,pressured mind is not usually one which leads us to make wise decisions.

This is not an appeal for procrastination. There are many times in life when action is called for. Positive change requires action.

However, non-doing is a precious tool in helping us decide which action to take. Out of the non-doing a spaciousness can emerge, so conditions for acting in a beneficial way improve. When our mind is given the possibility to rest, its ability for making good decisions grows. We can trust a lot more in the decisions made by a calm mind, rather than one which is contracted.

If we acknowledge the importance of pausing, of non-doing in our daily life, a whole new world opens up. We don’t have to go on successive retreats or meditate for 2 hours every day in order to create more space around our thoughts. But next time you feel like you have to rush anywhere, resist the impulse and take 5 deep breaths instead. If you find yourself taking two steps at a time, pause for some seconds and feel your feet on the ground. Ask yourself: ‘Will I master this thing, that seems so important to me at the moment as best as I can, if I rush into it…?’

We are more than just our brains. Let us remember the importance of non-doing and of listening to that which emerges out of it. Then we will be better prepared for our next actions.