 My favourite place to go to escape from the hustle and bustle of life is any place in nature, like the forest, waterfalls, the ocean, the mountains. Anywhere where the noise of the world disappears into the calmness and balance of the nature around me. I feel like I've stepped into another world in these places, a world where everything seems to slow down for a bit and the time is only told by the sun moving across the sky above me. Here, I can forget about my daily tasks, emails I have to reply back to, errands I need to run, even if it is just for the moment. There's nothing to do but to sit here and absorb the beauty and reconnect with nature. These are the places I go to practice the art of doing nothing. Doing nothing seems counter-intuitive in our busy, fast-paced world that is obsessed with productivity and efficiency. It's almost like busyness has become the new status symbol and to be honest, I'm guilty of this too. I've gotten into the habit of thinking of what more can I do or how fast I can do this so I can get a jumpstart on the next thing on my to-do list. I used to feel so guilty when I wasn't optimizing every single minute of my day and when I crossed off something on my to-do list, I would just feel it with another thing and this would become a cycle that became impossible to stop. I noticed that we do this with leisure time too. We are so busy filling our calendars with social events and planning our next trips, filling our time with mindless activities, not giving ourselves and allowing ourselves to take a pause and take it all in, to take time out for ourselves. I think it's in our nature to not want to be left out, to feel like we're missing out if we say no, because we will feel like the odd ones out. But this way of thinking and this mentality has gotten us to push even further and work even harder, which will eventually lead us to burning out. I couldn't help but ask myself, what am I trying to achieve? What are we all trying to achieve by doing this? I mean, are we just keeping busy to distract ourselves? Why do we keep running away from the present moment? Why is it so challenging to sit and be present? A quote I love by Joan Kabat-Zinn is, Mindfulness is about love and loving life. When you cultivate this love, it gives you clarity and compassion for life, and your actions happen in accordance with that. With unlimited access to entertainment, social media, emails, we have so many distractions and arms reach, which is why doing nothing is actually really hard. That's why it's an art, because it takes time to practice and master this way of seeing life, of approaching life. I think it's needed now more than ever before, and this is something that I've been trying to implement in my own day-to-day life. I'm trying to take my time in the morning to enjoy waking up, having my tea, getting ready, actually being mindful and present with what I'm doing in that moment, instead of going through my list of things to do that I want to get done that day, and how I'm going to fit them all in. I sit with my morning tea and actually enjoy it. I taste it and savour the moment. I'm also trying not to listen to music or podcasts when I'm out walking or waiting for the bus. I'm starting with baby steps, but I've noticed such a difference in my state of mind, and I'm really enjoying it. It's really helped give me this overall sense of calmness. These simple changes have been my way of appreciating the simple moments in life, not focusing on anything, just letting my mind wander. This is my way of practicing the art of doing nothing and fostering more time for nothingness in my life. I think the most challenging part about this is finding the time to do it. When I have piles of work that I want to get through, taking an hour, even 30 minutes out of my day feels quite overwhelming, but this just shows how backwards everything is. I mean, the more that you have on your plate, the more that you need to take some time out for yourself. It doesn't have to be as extreme as taking the whole day off, but it can be as simple as taking that extra 5 minutes to drink your coffee in the morning or eat your lunch. This art is practiced by many cultures around the world, particularly by the Italians and the Dutch. In our modern world, I feel we have to be more intentional about taking a pause. While different cultures have different phrases to interpret their own way of doing nothing, on a deeper level, we all seem to agree that when we take a pause, we can have this deeper connection to life and deeper connection to ourselves. We don't have to escape to the mountains or to the forest to embrace the art of nothingness. It can be done anywhere, anytime, because it is just a mental shift, a state of mind. Our days are so structured, and if we step back and just give a little bit of distance between us and our lives, it can definitely give us clarity, a reset, and bring about with it a sense of peace. Thank you so much for watching this video. I really hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what your practices are for cultivating the art of doing nothing in your own life. I hope to see you again soon. Take care. Bye.