The Power of Doing Nothing
Most of us spend most of our lives in constant motion. We spend our days bouncing from one task to the next, without taking a moment to pause and consider why we do what we do.
If you do take a moment to detach and analyze your life, you'll realize that almost everything you do is done as a means to an end. We drive our cars to get to work. We go to work to make money. We make money so we can buy things to keep us alive and entertained.
Rarely do we ever do anything purely for the sake of doing the thing itself. When was the last time you took a walk just to take a walk? Not for the ancillary health benefits of getting your steps in, but just to enjoy walking in and of itself. When was the last time you read a book, just to enjoy reading? Not to learn some necessary factoids for your career?
The reason I raise this point is because if we aren't careful, our limited time on this Earth can become nothing more than a revolving door of task after task, day after day. Next thing you know, weeks have gone by and the seasons are changing. Life passes before us all too quickly, and if you blink, you'll miss it. For this reason, if we are to live as fully as possible it's imperative that we punctuate our busy schedules with time that is not filled with yet another to-do.
On a deeper level, the end goal of all of our endeavors lead back to the same place; the present moment.
We make money so that we can have the free time to do things we enjoy. We do things we enjoy so that we can be in the present moment without any reason to rush out of it. Everything we do circles back to the search to finding good enough reasons to reside in the present.
The thing is, it is always the present moment, and we all have the capacity to reside in it without resistance, regardless of what happens to be going on. You can equalize all experiences by training yourself to be satisfied now. Your commute in traffic need not be miserable, and you need not be overcome with sensual pleasure or entertainment to be content in the now.
This is where the power of doing nothing comes in. It forces you to sit with the present moment, whatever happens to be going on, without filling it with any tasks or activities that distract you from simply being. If you are incapable of simply existing without distracting yourself with busyness or entertainment, you will need to spend the rest of your days busy or distracted to avoid discontentment. This is no way to live.
The main point I want you to takeaway from this blog is this. If you pay enough attention, you'll realize that everything you in your entire life is done as a means to arrive in the present moment. But you have the power to simply exist in the present moment as it is any time. In this way, you can be satisfied no matter what happens to be going on. This is a superpower that can bring about perennial equanimity.
If this doesn't make much sense, I highly recommend you take up a meditation practice. I'm still developing my writing skills and esoteric subjects like this are challenging to articulate. Meditation, often touted as "the art of doing nothing," will give you firsthand experience of what I'm trying to describe that is certain to be far more profound. A great place to start is Sam Harris' app Waking Up (to which I have no financial affiliation).
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on Instagram and I'll be happy to describe what I mean in more detail.