I am learning that there is value in nothing. No input, no output, no requirements, no tasks, not worries. Just plain good old fashioned blank space. Remember when you were a child and you had those days when there was just nothing to do? Those times were incredibly developmental for us. They were just as important as music lessons, sports or anything else. Nothing to do is a good thing.
The problem is that we feel guilty when we are doing nothing. We also might not be comfortable with ourselves just doing nothing. It may force us to think about our situation, and for some of us we are on the run. Avoiding, escaping by filling our lives with noise. This is not a good thing. Every behavioral study I have read on the topic indicates that time free from distraction, time free to just do whatever is vitally important to the human mind.
We tend to fill our lives every second of the day. Now that we have these phones that pour content, video, music, interaction, news and whatever else into our minds all day long, we get very little down time. The reason that things seem to go so fast? Because we do not have time along to sit and ponder and do fun things, things we can just get lost in doing. That is what causes time to slow down, because we forget about it for a while.
We should all consider scheduling time in our lives to just do nothing and not feel guilty about it. You need this time, your family needs this time. Find a day, time to just simply do nothing and enjoy it. Let your mind and body heal from pressure and stress.
I decided to do nothing today. Except for my base commitments that I do everyday!
Guy Reams
