The Art of Doing Nothing

Society enforces an illusion upon us that we always have to do something; while the human being does find purpose and even enjoyment in work, sometimes the only thing one has to do find balance in one's life is nothing.

The concept of doing nothing is appalling to some. Some would equate it to laziness, to being useless. Most would, at the very least, consider doing nothing to be a waste of time. There are better things to do with one's time than sitting idly, they would say.

However, when one presumes that one must always do something productive to occupy one's time, life begins to seem to be nothing else but a production line. It begins to seem as if it is nothing but a factory, producing one object after another, whether it is learning, memories, experiences, or material possessions.

Work is, in itself, simply a means of acquiring resources needed for oneself and the others around one to survive. That is the basic, essential purpose of work. There is a mentality that one has to be extremely wealthy, and to be extremely wealthy, one has to dedicate every waking moment of one's life in the pursuit of wealth.

While material wealth appears conducive to a happy life, it is not the end or the ultimate cause of happiness. We have always been told that time is gold; the ability to sit and do nothing is an expression to the world that one is already wealthy, and that one's self is worth spending time on.

To be in one spot and do nothing, in fact, is an art in itself. It is also much harder than one would expect. Thoughts occupy the mind, coercing it to do something else; the external voices that urge one person to do something productive creates a similar, internal whisper, urging one to always do something of worth.

To silence this voice, one need not counter it with excuses, pleas, promises in the future - instead, one may simply accept everything as it comes. Done this way, one is truly doing nothing, offering no resistance to the temptations of something else.

The great paradox to this activity of absence is that as one does this more and more, one finds oneself possessive of even more and more concentration and even ability to do 'things' afterwards. Perhaps it is the concentration and the willpower required by this activity; perhaps it develops a mental muscle that is so rarely exercised.

Perhaps, in the end, the human is not a factory, but is simply and utterly human, capable of running low and occasionally needing only a moment's respite to go out once again and achieve.