The Art of Doing Nothing

30 day blog challenge - day 10



I spent the majority of my time from 2003 to 2012 being BUSY AS HELL. I was almost always in school of some kind, working a job of some kind, and involved in some artistic project of some kind whether it was being in a band, making a film, producing a play, acting in a play, writing plays or poems or novels, or whatever other project I thought up. Sometimes I was participating in more than one artistic project at once! If I dated people during this time, it was usually someone who was either involved in school or the artistic projects with me. (Otherwise, how would I ever see them?)

There were a few breaks in between there where I was less productive, but I never really had a lot of "free time." At one point senior year of college, I had five classes, I was working a part-time job, I was doing an internship two days a week, AND I was writing plays on top of that. 

Needless to say, when I graduated from grad school in December 2012, I wasn't really sure what to do with having so much "free time." I was still working a full-time job, but that wasn't enough apparently. So I participated in a musical. When that was over, though, it took me a long time to get used to having time to just do nothing. 

At first, I would feel guilty any time I was just sitting around in my pajamas watching Friends episodes on DVD (all of which I have seen 900 times). But I have since discovered that taking the time to rest and "do nothing" is essential. Especially for creative people. Often, if I am stuck on a scene I'm writing, I usually have some epiphany about it following a day of sleeping and eating ice cream and then sleeping some more and then watching Top Chef.

Your body needs inactive periods to survive (i.e. sleep). Your mind does, too. Sometimes you need to watch mindless television. There's a reason it's called mindless, but it gives your mind a break, which can be entirely productive in the long run. Sure, there are healthier ways to give your mind a break like meditation or exercise or being in nature, but whatever it is, make sure you take the time to rest and relax. You can't be creative if you are constantly busy and/or stressing yourself out. 

So don't feel bad about doing nothing. You don't want to let it get out of hand and be stagnant or apathetic, but only you can know how much time you need to rest and re-charge your batteries. 

Now excuse me while I go sit around and make up songs about my cats.

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