I Highly Recommend Doing Nothing

October 30, 2017 by Jodi 429 Comments

Yesterday was Sunday. I did nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Well if you know me at all, that is not entirely true. I did spend the first two hours of the day preparing a birthday breakfast in bed for my husband. Happy birthday babe! Not exactly the whole two hours. But for two hours I was in charge of the kids and making breakfast. And then I did nothing. At first I was forced to sort of lie down because, I don’t know…it had nothing to do with the cake I ate for breakfast…but my stomach was hurting. I was also only running on a cup of coffee so by the time the kids and I got breakfast delivered upstairs I realized and deeply felt all at the same time that I was beyond hungry. My body does not tolerate swings like that very well. I kind of need sustained energy throughout the day which means a sustained food supply too. So I went from zero to sixty in all of ten minutes with the gorgeous, healthy, homemade waffles I made topped with bananas and cinnamon to a gluten free personal sized bundt cake. With cream cheese frosting I might add. I’m not gonna lie. Cake for breakfast was good. Good only for about the time I was indulging because as soon as it settled I started feeling bad. You all know this is completely out of the boundaries of my paleo lifestyle but I’m human, and I love (and miss) cake, and well…you only live once. And this one time was good enough anyway.

So after the birthday boy had breakfast and I semi-cleaned the kitchen. The kids wanted to watch cartoons and I needed to lie down and let my stomach deal with itself. I kind of napped, I kind of watched cartoons. It should also be noted that it was a raw, rainy day. I was getting a little antsy and thought I needed to be a bit more productive so I got up with the intention of finishing the cleaning of the kitchen, maybe do some laundry. IDK. Use your legs, use your legs. Push, push, push. Nah, not today. None of it sounded appealing. In fact, it sounded appalling. If I was going to live in this moment, be present in this moment as I have tried so hard to practice lately, then I was going to do nothing. And love it. Accept the moment(s) of doing nothing as if it was my job.

The kids were invited for an impromptu play date so I drove them down the street in my pajamas. Dropped them off, drove back home and actually started a load of laundry. Yay me. 1 point for productiveness. You are probably wondering though where the birthday boy was all this time. He was tinkering down in the basement with electronics. I checked in a few times but he was busy doing electronicky things so then I headed up to shower. Now I am up 2 points for productiveness. Then I made lunch. 1 more productivity point, thank you very much. Productiveness? Productivity points, really? A glimpse into the type A brain. I know. It was only this small fraction of time that I was any near productive, if you can even call basic life tasks being productive.

Honestly though I really had no urge to do much more. After I picked up the kids, it was my son’s nap time. I wanted to take the opportunity to play with my daughter but really had no energy for that either. Not even imaginative play like dressing Barbie’s or sorting her Shopkins. Is that bad? Her and I had a little snack, and I suggested watching a movie together. A girlie movie. So we did. Thanks Disney!

And after the movie was over, she went on to read a book and I just stayed on the couch, casually checking text messages and emails and drifting back off to napland. I cannot fully express the gloriousness that I was feeling. A hot cup of tea, a cozy homemade crocheted blankie. I truly felt like I was living large. Once my son was up from his nap we scrambled to get out of the house for a birthday dinner. It was nearly 5 o’clock in the afternoon. Six hours had passed since the birthday breakfast and I had moved minimally. I was liking this! And once back home, after the kids were bathed and in bed, I resumed my couch position.

I had been waiting for a rainy weekend day to take care of some projects around the house. It was the perfect day for it, but I had no motivation to do any project. The only thing that felt right was doing nothing. And while I was doing nothing I dreamed happily of how my body was probably loving this rest. And I was hopeful that a day of rest would recharge me for the week. I never do this. Ever. Or at least I cannot remember the last time I did. I reserve the doing nothing phase for vacations without the kids…so when is that, like once a year? Pretty sure my rickety body cannot sustain a once a year rest period. And all those projects that I had piled up in my head? We have a whole winter still to come and plenty of days to organize my craft room, purge the storage room, hang the last of our wall art from our move earlier in the summer, or finish decorating. I am sure my daughter appreciated our movie time. I know I appreciated doing nothing. I know for sure I didn’t feel bad about it.

I can’t say I went to bed any earlier or I woke up feeling 100% rested. I am not a morning person so, you know, I rarely jump for any kind of joy in the mornings. My joy comes after coffee. What I can tell you is that I feel lighter today. It seems easier to move my body and I have more clarity with what the week holds for me. And even all those long winter days coming up…I don’t plan to overload myself with the projects. I realized how much I immensely enjoyed doing nothing. I am hoping for a better balance of doing nothing days and doing something days.

In case you have not picked up on the theme of today’s post, I highly recommend doing nothing. Sometimes. For as much as I believe you should push yourself each and everyday, what I am truly meaning is making the most of every day. And if that means doing nothing, then do it.

In peace & love.