Meditation: Calm, 7 Days of Calm: The Value of Non-Doing Length: 10 minutes Where: Office/Guest Room, Los Angeles How It Felt: Wonderful!
The daily rush against the clock provides the illusion that the more we do and the more we accomplish is what drives our success. This is a misinformed and counterintuitive belief. As we fill up every moment we leave no space to observe what’s going on in our minds and bodies, no opportunity for clarity and insight, no room for rest, recovery, and healing, or for creativity and new ideas to be born. So there’s tremendous value in this time you’re spending in stillness and non-doing.
Calm, 7 Days of Calm: The Value of Non-doing
I had to include these wonderful words in today’s post, because they are so important. She is technically describing our need to stop and meditate, but I believe this applies to life on a larger scale.
I’ve written a lot about my “Introvert Days,” which are just days I schedule to shut down completely and ask very little of my brain. They are useful to recharge socially, but they are invaluable in other ways, too. I often describe them as the days my brain “defrags” and organizes all the information I’ve taken in recently. It’s my time to put things together, to analyze and adjust, to scan myself to see how I really feel about things. I often have mental breakthroughs, big ideas, and my best inspiration these days, or during the period directly after. I refuse to live without them.
I used to be in survival mode 24/7, first out of necessity, then out of habit. I can even recall the point in life when I could start to slow down, and how scary it was. I knew it meant I was going to have to start dealing with my thoughts and feelings and emotions and trauma and everything else lurking in there, waiting for my attention. I managed to fill that time with work and plans and chaos and travel and friends and family and other people’s problems and barely keeping up for a long time… but eventually, it was time.
Now, I meditate daily. I predicted at the beginning of this journey that daily pauses might diminish my need for these full introvert days, and it turns out, I was right! I still need them from time to time, of course, but I also have very little social muscle coming out of this pandemic. I feel like this meditation practice has encouraged me to slow down and process more as I go instead of letting everything build up. I’m taking more silent walks and drives, I’m pausing for deep breaths while I do dishes or giving myself proper stretch breaks while I answer email- just generally giving my brain some space to work.
It’s been awesome.
I’m crazy proud of myself right now because I’m seriously killing it on Day One of this new routine experiment. I got up before my alarm, made the bed, drank some hot lemon water and got outside, spent some time with my cat, answered a few pressing emails, then did yoga and meditated before my first meeting of the day! I feel so organized and less drifty. I even made a goal to check in with my friends more consistently, with one in particular in mind, and before I got a chance she text me out of the blue and we Facetimed!
Synchronicity, I’m telling you. That flow is for real!
On to my next task! Sending out tons of love because my head is clear, my heart is full, and I’m just feeling really, really good!
My Year of Meditation 