Life hacking: Learn to do nothing
Text: Natalia Kudryavtseva
LOOKING FOR SIMPLE AND NOT VERY WAYS TO IMPROVE LIFE AND EXPLAINwhy they work. Today we understand why sometimes you should stop and do not do anything for a while.
The modern pace of life suggests that every minute counts. We are in a hurry, trying to do everything that is possible in 24 hours. This leads to fatigue, apathy, depression and, finally, complete emotional and often physical exhaustion. Therefore, it is very important to take breaks. All the great people took the time to break away from their usual life, leave or just lock themselves at home and do nothing but to go out for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and go to noon and night sleep.
As practice shows, this kind of "idleness" is actually a very useful activity. “Doing nothing,” according to most psychologists, is not a passive state, but, on the contrary, a time when you can watch the moments of your life, think about your thoughts and feelings. And if by idleness it is customary to understand the expression “not to do anything useful,” then useful is work, making money, which is then spent on things. This "utility" pulls us out of real life, the opportunity to enjoy little things and see the world around us. In this case, “doing nothing” is something synonymous with the notion of “feeling alive”.
Purposeless relaxation and boredom can increase creativity. Some studies have shown that people who took a break from their creative endeavors showed better results after a short break. In another study, several people copied numbers from the address book of one phone to another. This boring task made their brain work harder to find a creative and fast solution to the problem. A Danish scientist Manfred Kets de Vries writes that the desire to load himself with work "can be an effective way to protect oneself from disturbing thoughts and feelings." When we do nothing, we are face to face with our problems and can find a way to cope with them.
Too much employment is counterproductive. We often confuse the concepts of "diligence" and "efficiency." A day spent in small matters gives us a feeling of pleasant tiredness in the evening and seems useful to us. But it's not always the case. Often, in a day filled with petty worries, we do not do anything really useful. Inaction affects how well the brain works. According to most neurologists, the rest of the brain is needed not only for recovery, but also for the processing of all that we have experienced. In addition, it is these “downtime” that strengthen the nerve tissue of the brain, memory and learning ability.
Doing nothing is not an easy task. It is very difficult not to be distracted by the Internet or calls. But it is the ability to break away from all this leads to concentration. Italians know a lot about this: they even have the expression "Dolce far niente", which means "Pleasure to do nothing," and this feeling will not replace any other.
Photo: 1, 2 via Shutterstock
The material was first published on the site Look At Me