the art of doing nothing
Over on Instagram last week, I posted one thing you can do when you’re lacking inspiration: Get outside, go for a walk.
Asked how they find inspiration, viewers responded with answers like take a shower, go for a hike, clean house, watch a movie, talk to a friend, and so on.
I absolutely agree with all those answers.
But, I’ve been thinking a lot about another side of inspiration—doing nothing at all.
When we run out of creative juice and need inspiration, we’ve conditioned ourselves to do something.
Can’t get words on the page? You must DO SOMETHING to fix it. Right now.
We see stuck and uninspired as problems that need fixing.
Challenges to overcome.
What if, when we’re stuck and lacking inspiration, one of the best things we can do is nothing at all?
What if, instead of jumping up and finding something to do, we just sat and stared at the wall?
Thinking about doing nothing in our production-oriented society is hard to do.
Living in an age of relentless stimulation and activity, even a minor sense of feeling like we're not doing anything to push ourselves constantly forward towards an improved self, may give you hives. It definitely makes me twitchy.
It also leads to a lack of focus. When one idea doesn't work, we shift to the next. And the next.
More than one client has started a call saying, "So, I didn't get any writing done, but I have a new idea for a new book and it's so much better than the last one! I wrote ten thousand words over the weekend!"
We chase after new ideas, better ideas, like Dug from the movie UP running after squirrels. We laugh because it’s so true. Dug is us.
Writing this newsletter, I refreshed my email, peaked at Instagram, looked to see if anyone responded to my latest post on my personal Facebook page, and watched a YouTube clip of Dug saying, "SQUIRREL!"
We condition ourselves to be in a mode of constant doing.
We make it difficult to nurture the quiet spaces necessary for the slow, boring, thought-provoking, idea generating moments that are required for deep inspiration.
If we learn to sit in the stillness of doing nothing, letting our mind wander, we rediscover an amazing state of inspiring mental play–daydreaming.
Take a moment today to sit and daydream.
Hello!
My name is Jocelyn.
Story warrior, book lover, day dreamer, gardener, and creative. I help serious writers roll up their sleeves, get their novel ready for publishing, and reach readers. When I’m not elbow-deep in the story trenches, I’m outside world-building in my garden and battling weeds with my three criminal mastermind cats.
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