301-How Doing Nothing Can Fire You Up

I recently found myself sitting in a JFK departure gate, waiting for a flight with hundreds of other travelers. Everyone had a cellphone, laptop, or other electronic device, which they were diligently reading, speaking into, or typing on. We’ve all been there before, nervous about our flight, our bags, our communications equipment. Will I get phone reception, will my internet connection work, will my long lasting laptop battery last long enough for me to find one of the elusively hidden electrical outlets not already claimed by a waiting list of nervously hovering travelers with desperate looks on their faces. No one in that entire airport had a moment to spare. Every free space in time had to be filled.

Who was I to be different? I had work to do too, or at least stuff that could pass as work and allow me to google, yahoo, skype, blackberry, iphone, text, email, and instant message while I checked my stocks, the news, the weather, my frequent flier account, and the newest online issues of several magazines I rarely think of to look at. I began taking out my Macbook (don’t have an ipad, yet), but I stopped myself. I needed a break from the bombardment of hitech digital communication and stimulation. I needed space, empty space, to think, to recharge, to just be. I was overwhelmed by the nonstop rush of modern, urban life. I felt like a character in Science Fiction thriller who discovers that the world is being run by alien robots intent on destroying the human race and turning the world into one big high-tech wonderland devoid of all feeling and emotion. I was Spock, caught up in a world of mathematical equations and logic, unable to experience anything beyond what I could quantify monetarily or technologically. Time is money. Efficiency is key.

I sat in that airport lobby, among the army of overstimulated modern day, information overdosed warriors, and took a deep breath…and exhaled. Then I took another deep breath and slowly let the air out, and with it, the stress and tension that had accumulated over the previous hours. Instead of recharging my iphone or macbook, I recharged my spirit, and r-e-l-a-x-e-d. I did NOTHING, except for being, living, like a human being with a Divine spirit and soul. I was no longer an employee, boss, consultant, attorney; just a person enjoying being alive and free, at least for a short time, from the outside influences that engulfed me and threatened to squash my spirit.

When was the last time you felt free? No, I don’t mean free of all responsibility, I mean free to be in charge of your life, instead of being a slave to all sorts of imposing masters. It’s all a matter of perception, of awareness. It’s about recognizing what’s really important in life – – health, family, friends, love — and holding those things above everything else.

You should try doing nothing sometimes. I know it sounds impossible. You’re just too busy, right? Wrong. You need to make the time, even for just 2 minutes, but once you get used to it, you will feel a lot calmer and peaceful. Best of all, you will re-energize and be capable of accomplishing much more than you would have if you just kept on going without a break. Most importantly, you will take your life back and take charge of your own happiness instead of letting just about everyone and everything else determine it.

Stop for a moment right now. Take a deep breath…and exhale. Do it again. It’s your life. Take control and live it.

Do you ever take time out to just be? What are your thoughts on the subject?