“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”
:-Blaise Pascal
When was the last time you did nothing?
By the way, lying on your bed and staring at your phone playing “Clash of Clans” (or whatever other mind numbing shit you are into) or stuck in an endless “Scroll….Scroll….Scroll…. Refresh” loop on Facebook does not count as doing nothing.
Neither does getting cuddled up in your bed and “binge watching” on weekends nor watching T.V. count as doing nothing.
And no sleeping doesn’t count either.
I mean doing absolutely, unequivocally nothing.
Not distracted by anything and fully aware of the fact that you are doing nothing.
Just you and your thoughts. Nothing else.
Can you remember when was it, that you did nothing?
I know it’s hard to remember.
Go on and try sitting for just 5 minutes without doing anything. Just try it! Were you able to do it?
As a part of the seemingly busy, restless, impatient, “Slouched over PDAs all the fucking time”, ”Take your ‘dumb’ phone even to the toilet” generation it is virtually impossible to do nothing even for a minute today. We have that constant urge to do something or the other.
Not meaning to be “Holier than Thou”, I too am the same.
The other day I was waiting for my appointment at the dentist’s clinic. Usually TV in the waiting room would have been on with some news channel, but for some reason it was off that day.
There weren’t any magazines to go around. Obviously the room full of people had only one option. Everybody was busy with their phones. And as primitive of a phone I was carrying around with me, I didn’t have that option to get me through the waiting time.
That was the time I realized, despite the fact that being the most lethargic person that I am, doing nothing was hard as hell.
Having to just sit there, doing nothing, for just half an hour (which felt like ages by the way)!!!! The restlessness…the anxiousness… Oh the agony!!! Doing nothing yet distracted.
Why is it important to do nothing?
Doing nothing is and has been stigmatized as being lazy and unproductive and wasting time.
And with the advent of smart phones at the turn of this century, there is always a constant bombardment of information, countless sources of entertainment and distractions on the internet it is so easy to keep yourself occupied with them.
A constant rush unhealthy dose of dopamine that our brains get when we constanly check the newsfeed or notifications on social media almost makes it that much more harder to stop.
And the source of countless funny but true cartoons and memes depicting that we are losing touch with the people around us due to technology; the main problem is that you lose touch with yourself and your thoughts.
Although the story could be a myth; the fact that Isaac Newton decided to sit underneath the tree by himself, just sitting there doing nothing when the apple fell, led him to ponder upon the cause of it, eventually formulating laws of gravity and motion. Had he been in today’s scenario. it could have gone something like this:
Imagine this happening.
Archimedes was in the bathtub when he had that eureka moment.
J.K Rowling was on a train when she came up with the idea for “Harry Potter” and for four hours was lost in her imagination eventually creating a magical universe on its own and becoming its goddess.
Tesla came up with the idea for alternating current while having a walk.
Many scientists, writers and artist find flow when alone and by themselves, doing nothing.
Insignificant but I got the idea of writing this article because I was forced to sit there and do nothing in a clinic.
Probably the reason why, so many ideas were born in showers and toilets.
There is so much going on in our subconscious mind, only if we decided to stop being busy and occupied with all the unnecessary crap once in a while, and devote to do nothing. The wonders we may find!
Try it! I like to call it the “Nothing Trance”.
You get lost within yourself and your thoughts in a trance like, almost meditative state of mind where you disconnect with the banal acts of being busy. Kind of a reboot, perhaps a powernap for your brain. To get your creative juices flowing, unhinging and unclogging the gears of your imagination.
For fuck’s sake, slow down. Give yourself a break from all the nonsense. Take notice of the passing moment, gather your thoughts. And please, stop playing candy crush in the toilet.
You never know what world changing idea, a discovery, an invention or a novel your brain might be cooking up, just waiting for you to notice it, only if you had time to do nothing.
Now go on drop you phone, put aside your laptop and enjoy doing nothing.
