My dad once told me he thinks there is a wizard who has control over the speed of the rotation of the Earth. As we get older, the wizard slowly and steadily speeds the spin of the earth, making our days shorter. We are on a constant quest for more time; I think we just need to find more time to do nothing.
As it turns out, there is no wizard. The days are going by at the same speed they always have (for the most part). The difference is we have jam-packed our days with so many different things, we don’t give our brains a second of downtime. Once we finish one thing, we’re off and on to the next–ricocheting from task to task, day in and day out. We give ourselves very little time to do nothing.
Doing nothing is harder than we think. Somewhere along the way, we’ve been convinced we have to keep busy or we’re wasting our day. We have an endless supply of news, games, books, and anything else you can think of, at our fingertips. As soon as any amount of boredom sets in, we flood our brains with information. Constant contact with our friends and family allows us to plan more times to be together, which is great, but when do we get our own time? Every app, every advertisement, every…body is vying for our attention and we are happy to oblige.
Doing nothing is important. The time we spend doing nothing allows our brains to be creative. Ever notice when you sit around– actually doing nothing– where your brain wanders to? Once we stop using our mental capacity to take care of all our daily responsibilities, it is given time to create its own ideas. Doing nothing allows us the time to self-reflect. Once the momentum of our busy day slows down, we should make time to do nothing–and actually nothing. Andy Puddicombe has a great Ted Talk called, “All it Takes is 10 Mindful Minutes”. It can help anyone struggling with mindfulness.
Our brains are given less and less time to wander. I’m as guilty as the next guy to pick up my phone to check all the social media feeds, out of boredom. When I see an opportunity to fill my day with more activities, I jump on it. The days begin to blur into the same, even when we aren’t necessarily doing the same things. Doing nothing leads to daydreams and daydreams can lead to goals. Mind-wandering helps us discover our purpose, which allows for a happier life. I talk about this concept in my article, “Let’s Talk About Disconnecting”
Having a day full of activities isn’t a bad thing. When our days consist of time spent working towards our goals, when they are spent being productive, when you make time for loved ones, when you make time for your passions, when you get a little exercise in–these are all ways to make a full day worth your time. That being said, a full day should also include a little bit of time for nothing to round it out. I also think we should make time for our social media, it just shouldn’t be hours of mindless scrolling. As little mental capacity as scrolling takes, we aren’t giving ourselves true “nothing” time.
If it seems hard at first, it’s ok. Keep practicing. We haven’t always had our devices. We didn’t always have such busy days. Filling every waking moment to the brim was a learned habit and habits can take time to break and be uncomfortable. Anyone who has had to quit a habit they’ve been doing daily knows this. There’s going to be times you succeed and times you fail but, eventually, the times you fail become less and less. Begin with small goals; even five or ten minutes a day is a good starting point. You’ll soon find it easier and easier to take more time to do nothing.
What makes one person happy won’t make everyone happy. The whole point of all of this is to find a little more happiness. If doing nothing stresses you out and does the opposite, don’t do it.
I understand some people thrive with full days. They are precise in their utilization of time–they don’t need time to do nothing. I’m not that person. I need time for long walks with no destination, I need time away from my devices, I need distance from days full of tasks and activities–I also know I’m not the only one. I encourage anyone who needs a little more nothing time to make it a priority and see what creativity can come out of it.
Take the time to do nothing and see what happiness you find.
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A version of this post was previously published on gofindyourhappy.net and is republished here with permission from the author.
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