| jun 22 2006 | | The Art of doing Nothing. | We seem to have lost the art of doing nothing. When was the last time you did completely nothing? And if you did, you felt guilty and probably thought you had wasted time. Remember the song lyric “I’m busy doing nothing”, maybe we should sing it more often?
In between working and sleeping there is a short period which you can control what you do. It is easy to fill that time with chores, necessary or invented, hobbies and activities. Whether it is going to the gym, studying seriously or for leisure, we do not set aside time to do nothing.
It is not an easy skill to master because even when we try to do nothing our minds are filled with what we have done, what we should be doing and countless other intruding thoughts. The eastern mystics gave doing nothing a name. It is called meditating. It is a process of switching the mind off from the many distractions of life and concentrating on one thing. You have to have a point of focus, as the mind left to itself, will wander and distract itself if not directed.
It is even more difficult when there are other people to think about. A spouse can be time consuming and children are time-sinks. There is so little time left over for self. So whether you call it prayer or meditation, this renewal of the spirit is well worth learning how to put yourself first. After all it will make you a better person so you can service the other people in your life.
The ancient Chinese had a term Wu wei or the path of non-action. The Chinese manager of the Chou Mutual Funds often writes in his annual reports that whenever he has the urge to trade stocks he will sit on his hands. In other words having set his strategy in motion he avoids the inclination to tinker with it. Brings to mind the old adage, “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”.
Modern Chinese philosopher Lin Yutang has his famous quote “the busy man is never wise and the wise man is never busy.”
Doing nothing is considered a bad thing after decades of the Christian work ethic being indoctrinated into western society. Bear in mind that this work ethic only applied to the working classes and was never supposed to interrupt the pleasures of the upper classes who toil not.
So make a point of setting aside a period of time and promise yourself you will spend it doing nothing. Trust me it will be worth it.
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