7 reasons why it’s beneficial to learn the art of doing nohting

7 reasons why it’s beneficial to learn the art of doing nohting

OK, so as many of you would well be aware I'm currently working on a reality TV show called Excess Baggage (it's early days and there's much more to come but you can see the beginnings HERE) where I, along with my colleagues, are trying to help a group of contestants to shed their excess baggage, physical and psychological, and to find more health, wellbeing and happiness. 

Now many people think that TV is glamorous and exciting and…well, it is quite a lot of fun and I'm going to some amazing locations, and meeting and working with some fantastic people but if truth be told, it's not all fun and games!

There is fun and games, which is great, but there's also lots of waiting around and frustrating delays! There's lots of time where we're all very busy doing…nothing! 

This is life doing what I'm doing and again, I'm enjoying so many aspects of this new work but it's hard for me, as someone who tends not to do a lot of sittting around and waiting. And I know many of my colleaguges on the production find it challenging too. 

But whereas I found the first few weeks frustrating and difficult I'm increasingly finding the last few weeks satisfying and educational. 

You see, the first thing is I'm getting better at it; at least I think I am. And that's reassuring and pleasing and pride provoking. 

But in addition to this I'm seeing this project as an opportunity to learn what I need to learn; which is to cope with change and uncertainty, to accept lack of control and to put it simply, to just be (when and where appropriate). Increasingly I'm thinking that if I can learn to enjoy these "down times" more then I will, personally, enjoy more happiness. 

Now this might sound a bit waffly but this is (in my humble opinion) an important issue (for me, anyway!). Accordingly, I'd like to share with you the following 7 reasons for learning the art of doing nothing including…

  1. We have no choice about it as there'll be times when, whether we like it or not, we'll have to sit and wait

  2. We might not have complete control over what's going on but we can choose how we deal with what's going on (including how we think about "down time") 

  3. Doing "nothing" is not always a bad thing; I'm not a fan of laziness or time wasting but as I learned today, some time spent relaxing and meditating and reflecting can be time well spent

  4. We all need to recuperate and regenerate and if we go none stop we tend not to have time to do this

  5. Happiness comes from being "on" and accomplishing goals but happiness also comes from appropriately switching "off" and allowing ourselves to relax and unwind

  6. Doing "nothing" is not really doing nothing if we're meditating and/or practicing mindulfness

  7. Living a good and happy does not always require visible action (although it sometimes does!)

So there it is; 7 reasons why happiness and living a good life can come from "doing nothing". Do you have any other good reasons for doing nothing? If so, share your ideas on The Happiness Institute's Facebook page HERE