why do nothing?
It can seem counterintuitive to do nothing during an apocalypse, when you’re in the middle of a sea of crises and everything seems like it’s on fire and it feels like the whole world needs fixing every minute of every day. It feels wrong to sit and take a nap, it feels wrong not to scurry from place to place trying to do *something*, anything to help. But there are real and important reasons to stop doing.
ways it helps
less stress on your own body
Heart disease is currently the leading cause of death in humans and human hearts on average get 2.5 billion beats in a lifetime. The finite heartbeat theory suggests that the higher your heart rate is consistently, the quicker you’re burning through your lifetime of heartbeats. Our ability to regulate our heart rates comes most easily though yoga, breathwork, rest, and meditation. Sea turtles live for 100+ years, partially because they can slow down their heart rates to as low as a beat per minute when necessary, and researchers are currently trying to learn how we can apply this knowledge to humans. I believe it’s through restful practices, through emulation of the examples in our natural world. Meditation is doing nothing :)
less caloric needs
Basal metabolic rate is the calories your body needs to perform life-sustaining function. Mine, for my height, weight, and age is around 1300 calories, so if I stayed in bed all day I’d still burn around 1300 calories doing absolutely “nothing” (thinking, heart beating, cell production, respiration, etc). And it’s another 15% less when sleeping. An olympic swimmer like Michael Phelps needs more like 12,000. Being that active comes at an environmental cost, needing 9 times more calories means so many more chickens, cows, grains, veggies, etc.
less petroleum use
The less we commute from place to place, the less fuel we use. If we committed to even a day a week of walking, biking, or just not going, then that’s a day where we don’t need to use our cars, and a whole day of energy and pollution reduction.
less stress on the land itself
The sabbath is a day of rest, not just for you, but for the earth. A rest of the lands from human hands. Our constant disturbing, digging, mining, ripping up, paving over, etc harms mycelial networks just trying to do their thing, harms plants, harms animals, harms the whole web of life. Sometimes it is best to know when *not* to do.more time being present with ourselves and loved ones and the natural world
When we slow down and have nothing on the agenda then we are able to be truly present and cultivate mindfulness. We then have so much more capacity for the emotional needs of the people we love, for our own emotional needs, for appreciating the natural beauty that still remains. Presence creates richness in all of our relationships.
more creative time
Our best ideas often come when we aren’t trying so hard for them. Giving ourselves time for our minds to wander and daydream allows the creative brain to be accessed more easily. Creativity flows naturally from the source when we’re an open channel.
more free time
We currently live in a work culture where the average workday has crept up to 8.5 hours, the average vacation time has been cut down to 11 days, and free time is not considered an important need—even though time without commitments helps us find our own meanings, explore ourselves and our interests, tend to our relationships, and rest and recover from our work. If we have the freedom to our time but don’t use it freely, then we effectively don’t have that freedom. We need to utilize our free time, to savor it, to stretch it out, and to advocate for more of it. A do nothing practice helps us cultivate a positive relationship with our free time, to our “hours for what we will” so we can know what we’re fighting for :)
Sources
The Finite Heartbeat Theory: Does Anxiety Impact Our Lifespan?
https://theaqapp.com/blog/2021/07/27/the-finite-heartbeat-theory-does-anxiety-impact-our-lifespan/
Research: What Turtles Might Tell Us About Surviving Heart Attacks
https://www.uaa.alaska.edu/news/archive/2014/01/research-turtles-might-tell-us-surviving-heart-attacks/.cshtml.cshtml.cshtml.cshtml#:~:text=Its%20normal%20heart%20rate%20is,is%20still%20alive%20and%20healthy
Ten Leading Causes of Death in the US
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/282929#heart-disease
Basal Metabolic Rate
https://www.garnethealth.org/news/basal-metabolic-rate-calculator#:~:text=BMR%20Definition%3A%20Your%20Basal%20Metabolic,stayed%20in%20bed%20all%20day
Sabbath and the Art of Rest Ezra Klein Podcast
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sabbath-and-the-art-of-rest/id1548604447?i=1000592037827
Why Great Ideas Come When You Aren’t Trying
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2012.10678
How to Use Mindfulness the Strengthen Your Relationships
https://www.gottman.com/blog/how-to-use-mindfulness-to-strengthen-your-relationships/
Worth Your Time: Free Time by Julie Rose book review
https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.dartmouth.edu/dist/3/517/files/2015/02/Res-Publica-Review-by-Douglas-Bamford_Rose_Free-Time.pdf
Average PTO in the US
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business
