“What did you do today?”
“Nothing.”
How we wish they would have instead asked, “What made you smile today?” Then we wouldn’t have that brief moment of guilt about not checking off a long to-do list. When was the last time we gave ourselves permission to do nothing? Interestingly, we tend to do nothing more often than we think. Fifty percent of our waking hours are spent daydreaming, but we usually aren’t aware that we are in this state, which can happen when we are driving, brushing our teeth, waiting in line, making dinner, walking the dog, etc. However, if we are conscious of our “doing nothing” time, we can make it a healthy, productive habit that stimulates creativity.
It’s simple. Relax. Stare. Relax. Think.
Truth is the offspring of meditation and silence.
– Isaac Newton
Daydreaming spawned many inventions. Albert Einstein daydreamed the riddle of the universe with a cat on his lap. Thomas Edison daydreamed the light-bulb filament while rolling kerosene residue between his fingers. Isaac Newton daydreamed about the law of gravity while sitting under a tree.
Mary Shelley (author of Frankenstein), poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lewis Carroll (author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland), and J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter novels) were all struck by inspiration and creativity during bouts of daydreaming.
The Italians use the term La Dolce Far Niente which translates to “the sweetness of doing nothing”. Doing nothing is and should be an event, an art. The art of doing nothing is not a passive state. It is a conscious act of invoking a state of mind that lifts us beyond the day-to-day modes of survival. It is a pathway to new opportunities, new experiences, new perceptions. We learn to trust that each moment will guide us rather than us guiding the moments (remember that long to-do list?).
Studies as far back as the 1970s have shown that certain states of doing nothing, such as meditation, can reduce heart and breathing rates. More recent studies show that doing nothing, such as meditation, can positively influence neurological activity and perception, giving us the opportunity to pay attention to our deepest desires and dreams and inspiring us to reach for new goals and live a more satisfying life.
Practicing doing nothing is a worthy endeavour for our wellbeing and our creativity. Make some conscious decisions during the day. Leave our phones alone for at least 30 minutes and do nothing. While driving, turn off the radio, leave the coffee alone. Turn off the TV. Say no to a dinner invite. Just do nothing. Put the book down and stare out the window. Lounge. Nap. Watch a sunset. Meditate. How different would our quality of life be?
Doing nothing is a key factor in meditation. The art of doing nothing teaches us to move effortlessly with the current instead of clinging and fighting the flow. Doing nothing is a way to overcome resistance to anything we experience. With no agenda, nothing to change and nothing to do, we can open receptively to the present moment.
Meditation Grandmaster JinBodhi explains how this “nothingness” during meditation leads to inspiration: “Where does inspiration come from? It comes from the state of Zen, where consciousness is endlessly expanded. In this expanded vastness and nothingness, there’s wisdom. In this state, the meditator is not thinking but receives inspiration. Sometimes when I encounter a big difficulty and don’t know what to do, I’ll meditate, and inspiration concerning how to deal with the difficulty will appear. Sometimes I don’t receive inspiration during the meditation, but maybe on the day after, when I engage in something else, the inspiration feels like it simply drops into my brain, clear and strong. It feels like receiving a letter or package delivered to my mailbox.”
“What made you smile today?”
“Nothing.”