Do Without Doing, The Power of Nothing

Do you feel it?  The stress and overwhelm of life especially around the holidays?  Does your head feel heavy with scary, overwhelming thoughts?  In 2010 I noticed a common message coming through.  The theme?  Let go.

It’s easy to head down the familiar path that spirals into chaos.  What helps me recognize the cycle and shorten the time spent in the spiral is evidence that there is another way.

At your deepest core lies peace and awareness that you have love and abundance all around you. 

Don’t believe me?  Take a moment to sit.  Look around.  What do you see, feel, smell, hear?  What evidence do you see to show that it’s there supporting you? What is beneath your feet supporting your weight?  Do you have an abundance of air to breath?  When you were hungry today, did you find food to nourish you?

“Do without doing.”  This says to me stop working so hard and rest when your body says rest.  Take a moment to breath and take in everything around you.  Life is happening for you, not to you.

It happens when you find yourself in a deep, dark place when everything is collapsing and you may finally turn to nothing.  What you find there….everything you need.

If you’ve grown accustomed to feeling exhausted by the end of the day with nothing left to give I encourage you to consider trying these two steps for one day and see how you feel.

• Choose one thing to remove from your list of “to-dos” that feels awful when you think about doing it.  Try making the choice not to do it.  You can put it back on the list tomorrow…if you want to.
• Give yourself 5 minutes to do nothing, absolutely nothing.  Find a quiet space and breathe, deep breaths into your belly.  If you’re used to running from one thing to the next without ever taking a break you may find yourself fidgeting after 2 minutes.  Hang with it. 

I use these two simple steps all the time now.  Sometimes I go big and chose to let go of anything from my list that doesn’t feel good.

Christmas day happened this way.  As a family, we took a long walk in the rain, stomped in puddles, and watched birds fly overhead.  I made soup and salad for dinner, nothing stressful or time consuming which left more time for connecting.  We spent the evening sharing stories, playing games and being present, engulfed in love.  I let go of expectations and discovered great peace and love all around.

My goal for 2011 is to find a way to let go of something every day to make room for the present moment to be with the ones I love.

What would you consider letting go of today?