The Art of Doing Nothing

Recently, I walked part of the Camino. My friend and I started in Santiago de Compostela, the usual end goal for the pilgrimage path, and concluded at Finisterre. This small city sits on the Atlantic. Hundreds of years ago was considered the end of the earth because nightly, the sea engulfed the sun, only to rise again in the morning.

The greatest teaching of my pilgrimage? Besides knowing I could survive blistering heat and sore muscles, I realized how important it is to do nothing.

You can question my logic. How can hiking about 20 kilometers a day equate with “doing nothing?” It’s simple. I wasn’t doing any of the all-important somethings that spin me into a tizzy at home.

Ponder your daily somethings. I’m sure your list is like mine: laundry, cooking, emails, working, overworking, grocery shopping. Now be honest about what you do during your slow time. I bet you are a “catching-upper” like me. Bills, scrubbing the stain out of a shirt, getting off that late birthday card. The margins of life are occupied by the tasks required to break even. How long do we remain at this plateau? Maybe a minute, then back to overload.

The hours spent on the Camino were often grueling. Rain and heat, pebbles in my socks, hilly terrain. But they were also mindless. When the body is occupied the soul can easily slip inside of it. The time outside of hiking was equally inane, focused on eating, recovering, wandering, and talking endlessly about unimportant subjects.

Such is the true poetry of life.

Whatever nothing is to you—and to me, it’s the avoidance of daily clutter and work preoccupation—you owe it to yourself. You’ll be healthier if you do nothing every day, even schedule in chunks of it.

Scientifically, down time provides a system reboot for the brain and the body. Stoppages lower stress. They downshift us into the parasympathetic nervous system from the flight-fly-freeze-fawn sympathetic nervous system. Respite reduces our baseline stress hormones, lowers our heart rate and blood pressure, and rejuvenates our creativity.

I’m continually surprised at how my body responds to de-escalating. It’s like entering a Mai-Tai state without the drinking.

Since returning, I’ve built in at least half an hour of doing-nothings into my life every day. I only choose actions, or inactions, that would never appear on a list. I can’t call anyone or answer the phone. I must be unreachable. But I can stare at trees, walk Garfield the Cat (who is leash trained), or hum a tune.

What will work for you?

Take a few minutes and start doing nothing right now.

Be silent. Silly. Humdrum. Boring. Whatever. Give yourself ten minutes and then ask your inner spirit to respond to this question.

How best do you want to do nothing every day?

If you get stuck, simply do this short exercise again. Then enjoy your Mai Tai mood.

One of the greatest misconceptions about spiritual growth is that it comes from constantly doing more. In the recently announced Energy Healing Academy, we also learn how to become still enough to notice what has been there all along. Because intuition isn't something you force. It's something you learn to receive. We'd love to have you join us! Check it out!