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What do we do when we have “downtime”? Gaps in our busy schedules?
Many of us default to our never-ending to-do lists. All the things we need to catch up on and “get done.” The endless tasks on our lists may feel quite important, and perhaps many of them are, but what if we are leaving something off our lists that is also very important? Perhaps the most important item of all? Something we need to be catching up on that we are not often taught to consider?
We are spiritual beings having a human experience. We are constantly learning and growing, and our human bodies move at a slower pace than the rest of us. They need time to integrate the many new experiences we are having.
They need time to catch up with our expansion.
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Every experience is a spiritual experience. Every moment carries with it potential opportunities and lessons and gifts.
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What does this mean? Well, quite simply, it means “not doing.” Being. Resting. Breaks from technology. Time in nature. Taking a warm bath. Receiving touch. Meditating, perhaps. Nourishing our bodies and relaxing our nervous systems.
Catching up with our expansion means slowing down and creating the conditions in which our bodies may emotionally and energetically integrate the many spiritual experiences we’re having.
Every experience is a spiritual experience. Every moment carries with it potential opportunities and lessons and gifts. And we are more available to perceive these moments as opportunities, integrate the lessons that unfold, and receive the gifts they bring when we slow down and allow space for our bodies to expand into that which we are becoming. (And if we don’t create space for this, life will likely eventually do so for us. And we probably won’t like it.)
We are forever becoming. There is no end result. Who we are in this moment is who we are. But for our bodies, this moment is often who we were, because they’re forever catching up with who we are.
The things we do end up doing us. Our to-do lists, our perceived responsibilities, control and define us. But what of the responsibility to our souls, and to the souls of others? How are we showing up for ourselves and others when our nervous systems are shot and our well-being is suffering because we haven’t taken the time to slow down and take care of ourselves?
Being busy has become a status symbol. If we aren’t busy, we are “wasting time.” We are worthless members of society. We can’t stand ourselves when we’re not doing, and others can’t stand us either.
The endless to-do lists in our minds are a programmed routine. We’ve been conditioned to be “doers” so we willingly plug ourselves into the matrix. We become cogs in a machine that drains our life force and causes many of us to remain spiritually stagnant.
There is a way out.
A way to move beyond this programming is by doing perhaps the most productive thing we can do for ourselves and for the planet:
Not doing.
How could not doing be the answer to anything?
Because in addition to giving our beautiful, precious bodies the rest and nourishment they need, the answers we seek arise in the stillness of the space that remains when we are not doing and simply being.
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Photo credit: Getty Images
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