I’d like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin again.
Robert Frost, poet
Don’t just do something. Sit there.
Sylvia Boorstein, psychotherapist, Buddhist teacher, author
Here we are in the middle of August, which I sometimes refer to as the sacred idleness month. It’s my time to reflect, repurpose, refresh, and reset. Intentionally, I give myself permission to slow down. I spend time on or near a body of water, mother nature’s elixir.
Sometimes, getting to the place of balance is a challenge. I had to meet a deadline a couple of weeks ago and it was fraught with pressure and resistance. One of the ways out of that when practicing mindfulness is to simply remind ourselves we have a choice. Mindful or mindless.
Switching gears in the middle of frantic is a learned skill. We finish our work as I did. Then I chose to honor my commitment to a lazier August knowing how fast it would disappear and then how disappointed I would be. I recognized my need for the antidote of mindful presencing with gratitude.
So wherever you are right now as you read this, whatever you are doing, whatever you think you must do, are supposed to do, should do, halt. Practice what Beethoven did in a lot of his music; presto fortissimo becomes pianissimo adagio in one beat. It’s a stunning effect. We can learn to switch moods just like that with practice.
Mindful meditators know all it takes is one conscious breath: ever mindful breathing in, every mindful breathing out. Five, twenty-five, or fifty-five are even better. But one single conscious breath transforms your body, mind, and heart. An idle August five minute vacation.
Far from idleness being the root of all evil, it is rather the only true good.
Soren Kierkegaard, Danish theologian, philosopher, and poet
Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.
John Lubbock, British archeologist, biologist
Doing nothing is sometimes doing something.