| Have you ever wondered who you are if you are | | | | am being present in the moment. |
| not busy? Busy taking care of other people, busy | | | | As I begin to practice what I often teach others |
| working, busy doing "stuff"? | | | | about befriending any situation that we find |
| Years ago, due to a serious foot injury, I was | | | | ourselves in, I am able, with a compassionate |
| forced to stop doing things. I couldn't exercise, I | | | | heart, to begin looking at the core of what is |
| couldn't drive, I couldn't distract myself by | | | | coming up for me. I begin becoming acutely |
| continuously running around, and I noticed that I | | | | aware of how our society encourages the myth |
| slipped into a mild depression. This may have been | | | | of busyness. This ranges from the multi-tasking |
| due, in part, to the fact that I wasn't exercising | | | | that we do at work, either by our own choice or |
| regularly, but the biggest awareness that I came | | | | being forced to, to the continuous stimulus that |
| to was, "Who am I if I am not being of service?" | | | | we are inundated with minute after minute, hour |
| It was fascinating how that question literally shook | | | | after hour, day after day. It's as if our "on" switch |
| the very essence of who I thought that I was. | | | | never goes "off'. If this happens for a long period |
| For years, I have been a mom, a wife, a single | | | | of time, we can start to feel the ill affects of it in |
| parent, an educator and a seeker. When I was | | | | areas of our life that we are most vulnerable in. |
| forced to slow down, it was as if my system | | | | For instance, our health can become comprised, |
| went into shock. I began thinking of all the ways | | | | our relationships strained, or our overall outlook on |
| that I had failed in my life, all of the things that I | | | | life one of dread rather than of joy. |
| "couldn't" do, and how much time I had used | | | | Stepping away from the notion that one must be |
| simply by filling up my time with "busyness". I was | | | | busy all of the time is truly a retraining of who |
| very hard on myself and found myself being | | | | we think we are in this world. I have come to |
| envious of those folks who could spend hours | | | | realize that if I don't take time to slow down and |
| seemingly doing nothing, and it didn't seem to | | | | refuel myself with stillness, nature, solitude or |
| bother them! I allowed myself to be swept away | | | | doing nothing, I will pay for it. I will not be as |
| with catastrophic thinking. It was a powerful | | | | productive, optimistic or compassionate as I know |
| experience that I was more than ready to let go | | | | that I am capable of. |
| of. | | | | There are some of us who have been taught to |
| Years later, I still catch myself noticing how I am | | | | believe that if we take care of ourselves by doing |
| when I don't have a task at hand. While there at | | | | nothing, that we are being selfish and |
| times the unease of doing nothing, I know that it | | | | unproductive. I have learned over the years that |
| is all right to give myself permission to stop doing | | | | it is selfish not to take time to do the proverbial |
| and start being. | | | | "nothing". |
| In everyday life, how does one step off of the | | | | It's all about finding balance, and knowing that |
| "dread mill" of busyness? What I find works for | | | | doing nothing on occasion is a really wonderful gift |
| me is the awareness that I may be experiencing | | | | to give to our self and to others. Try it. You |
| a withdrawal of doing. I begin to notice what my | | | | might be pleasantly surprised. |
| thoughts are, how my body feels, and whether I | | | | |