If you have a dent in your couch the size of your body and flies swarming over the dishes in your sink, then this post may not be for you.
On the other hand, if you find yourself rushing from one task to the next, have trouble settling down at night and never feel like you’re tackling enough of your to-do list, then I say, join me here. You too, probably need a push in the art of doing nothing.
I say, “Art,” because it is an art. There is a tremendous amount of skill needed to do nothing.
Maybe. Just maybe you won’t have to get an illness to learn it.
Doing nothing requires as much patience as meditating. This is especially true if you are a mother. Stay at home or full-time worker does not matter. The amount of tasks we’re signing up for are undoable in a day. Yet, we all subscribe to these same expectations.
Equating self-worth with how much we accomplish in a day is particularly devastating.
It’s far easier to take a break once in awhile then get diagnosed with an illness or feel so sick that you can’t do anything for weeks at a time but rest.
That’s my short message for you today moms.
Mother’s Day is coming up. Do yourself a favor and lavish in the one day a year when you have a break, when the little people in your family celebrate you. You do it all year long sometimes without any sick leave or vacation time. No matter how hard it is, I beg you. Do not check your email, listen to a podcast or do a load of laundry.
Sit. Stare off in space. Lie down. Don’t even pick up that magazine.
We all need the silence as much as we fight it.
In fact, I would suggest you make it a habit. But keep it short. Devote 5-10 minutes a day to revel on all that glorious nothingness.
You will find after a month of doing nothing that you will not only feel better, but will gain intuition, creative insight and even a burst of meaning-making. Imagine that! Everything we strive for is attainable when we simply sit still.
