I bought these great Self-Care cards from Cheryl Richardson ($10.85 from Amazon.com) awhile ago which I used to use when I counseled kids. Once in awhile I like to take them out and randomly pull three in a kind of fortune-telling for fun game. Today I chose Silence, Tenderness and Relaxation dealing with resting, doing nothing and being kind to myself. I thought it was an interesting trio especially since I have been home sick for a few days.
Catching the “busy-itis” bug most of my life has made doing nothing seem extremely difficult for me. Even being sick is not enough of a reason for me to lie down and do nothing for the day. I tried it yesterday and looked out the window, noticed how dirty it was and spent an hour cleaning it.
While my hubby is enjoying himself watching TV or surfing the Internet, you can usually find me washing dishes, working on an article or planning my next project. I even asked him the other day, what would happen if he didn’t watch TV or play his online computer game. His reply? “You want me to stare off into space and do nothing?” Although it seemed kind of funny at first, I started to wonder, maybe all of us need to tune out from the outside world every once in awhile, so that we can learn to turn in to ourselves.
The way the world is today, we’re constantly doing something-updating our Twitter or Facebook accounts, texting our friends, or even writing our blogs. Are we becoming more connected or even more disconnected these days? As a child I would sit and look outside my front door at the rain drops falling on the concrete and dream. That’s when the sound of water falling engendered relaxation and creativity, not anxiety. It made me wonder how much of us today take the time to just be.
Pulling those three cards was an “ah-ha” moment for me. Hopefully it will be a constant reminder about the importance of nothingness. It is, after all, in nothingness that we gain insight, develop problem solving ideas, heal and recuperate and begin the process of creativity from potential to reality.
