Don't Just Do Something...Sit there!

We seem to be engrained with the idea that the faster we go, the more we do, and the further down our checklist we get, the better we are.  We're used to hearing/saying, "Don't just SIT there, DO SOMETHING!"  I remember feeling that my worth was based on how much I DID and what I accomplished.  It wasn't until I had to face a long and difficult battle with depression, in which simply getting myself out of bed each day was a grand accomplishment, that I began to learn that who I am and my worth as a living, breathing being has nothing to do with my finished checklist or my latest bragging rights.  For years I have been learning that independent of ANYTHING I do, my worth and greatness simply ARE.  Who I am at a soul-level, who I've always been, the me that is housed in my mortality could do NOTHING for the rest of my life and yet would still have merit and be worthy of love and appreciation and belonging.  My worth as a living being has its own claim on me regardless of what I've learned or how many degrees or certifications I have.  That's the beauty of being offspring of God.

It took yoga and a summer detached from my normal reality in which I SLOWED DOWN to realize the merit in sitting rather than doing.  I remember attending a Buddhist Zen House for a meditation and worship service as a part of my university requirements, and for the first time that I could remember in my entire life, I sat for 30 minutes straight with nothing in front of me (i.e. book, screen, earphones).  I just had to sit there for 30 minutes.  I knew nothing about meditation at that point, so I just took advantage of the time as best as I could by pondering and thinking about things that mattered to me.  I was in awe that I had actually sat still for 30 minutes with nothing to do but think.  There was no reading, no writing, no listening to talks no music ... nothing.  And I actually found it really refreshing.  And so began my entrance into a world in which just sitting is allowed and even applauded ... where breathing is as worthy of my time as getting my to-do list done.  And now, my goodness, I LOVE the nothingness. 

After I had begun studying meditation and practicing yoga my mom clipped out a newspaper article for me entitled, "Don't Just Do Something, Sit There!"  The article spoke of the great benefits of slowing down enough to sit still ... to bring meditation into our lives.  It's a new concept for a lot of us: sitting ... emptying the mind ... being still.  Surprisingly, it's NOT a waste of time.  Really grand things happen in stillness ... internal things that can't happen when our pace on the outside pushes us too fast and hard.  Few experiences in life compare with the one when your mind really does become clear and releases the thinking burden it doesn't even know it's carrying.  "Be STILL and know that I am God."  It has been in the stillness in which I've been able to connect with that Source and my own true nature better than in many other ways.

So if your little inner critic is on your case to get moving and do something, feel free to let go of that voice and replace it with an allowance to just sit still.  It really IS okay to not just do something ... and rather, just sit.

http://www.gobodhiyoga.com/