"If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned to live." Lin Yutang (1895-1976)
Lin Yutang's book, The Importance of Living, is one of my favorite books. Yutang is a Chinese philosopher, and a light-hearted one who said, "To me personally, the only function of philosophy is to teach us to take life more lightly and gaily than the average business man does." Now who couldn't like this guy? You might want to check him out; he has a lot of good stuff on living and enjoying your life which brings me to the point of this entry, and that is, "Ways to Enjoy Doing Nothing Without FEELING GUILTY.
Like most of us, I grew up with that Christian, Puritan ethic which said that one needed to be busy most waking hours with meaningful tasks. It is still hard for me to take time for myself, and in fact, "do nothing" of any significance. Sit on my deck, listen to the birds sing, look up at the cloud formations, dream, rest, and generally be a "slug." Not in my makeup, but in being so busy with worthwhile activities, I think I am missing a part of life for myself that is equally important, and deserved. So I have been WORKING (poor choice of words) on this concept, and have been gathering ideas and suggestions to put this into my life. And I am getting better at it, and enjoying those times more and more without Gretta-Grrrrrr standing over my shoulder reminding me that I am wasting time. I just know that I am learning to live, Yutang style.
Some ideas:
*Play a game just for fun without keeping score or competing
*Think of Aristotle who praised the contemplative life
*Carry a book of poetry in your pocket to pull out and read now and then
*Take a drawing pad out into nature and sketch what you see; you will look more closely; start
with flowers that are easy to draw. I am not an artist but I can attest to this.
*Go to a happy or joyful place and just wander around. Sometimes this can be in the middle
of a busy city. I love wandering around in Chicago.
*Try playing an instrument; get a lap-harp that anyone can play.
*Decide that one day a week will be a do-nothing day.
*Take a nap during the day. Naps are highly underrated and are healthy for you.
* Take a drive in the country. I do this a lot, and love it.
*Sit and watch the sun go down, or the sun come up.
*Listen, really listen to classical music without doing anything else. I started listening to the
evening symphony on the radio, not as background music, and I love it.
* Just be. Eek!
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4 comments:
Gretta,
As the one who recommended this book to you, I especially love this post . . .
And you picked out some great quotes of his!
Doing nothing is perhaps one of my greatest challenges. You are probably better at it than I am, and I hope I can learn (more) from you . . .
I have taken up one activity that is synonymous with doing nothing, and that is drawing. You mention drawing as one of your suggestions.
Drawing totally relaxes my mind. I'm not trying to get anything done. I'm just being, and that is a different experience for me.
Thanks for this wonderful reminder and beautiful post,
Chris
Thanks Lethe; drawing is a great idea; I love it when I do it. And, yes we are alike. It seems that our minds are always moving faster than we can stop them to do nothing. Life's challenge indeed. And, yes...thank you SO MUCH for introducing me to this book!!!
How can you say drawing is doing nothing? I think many artists whould hit you over the head with their easels. Is is because you feel you have no talent? To me, doing nothing is when you're wasting time, as watching reality TV. v
Mary..you are absolutly right! Drawing is hardly doing nothing! I wonder if I was thinking of doodling when I wrote that??? Also, I may have been thinking of things that complete absorb us (getting into flow) and take us away from conscience doing, i.e. things we love. Anyway, thank you for pointing out the obvious to me. I appreciate it!
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