Inspiration is a foundation of our lives, a cornerstone that should be revered and never taken lightly. One of my favorite webpreneurs and bloggers is life coach Jeannette Maw. She has inspired so many people to live happier and fuller lives. She has created a network of people who are busy creating and happily living the lives of their dreams. As a deliberate creator studying the law of attraction, she wrote about how ‘doing nothing’ can help you re-align yourself with what you want. This re-alignment might spring you into action, set you on a new course of being, or simply make you feel better. Feeling better is the end result most people desire.
My daughter is one of these kids that needs to be in constant motion. Her little brain moves a mile a minute, but if she doesn’t have anything to do, she goes onto a path of tantrums and self-destruction. Its quite disturbing at times, and some days I join in and have my own little tantrum. One day, I felt my daughter going down this path once again. “I’m soooo bored. There’s NOTHING to do. I’m soooo bored,” over and over again she ranted. Feeling inspired by Jeannette’s post, I decide to try a different tactic. Usually, I will try to come up with ideas or activities for her. Most of the time she rejects them, because she really just wants attention, not a solution to her problem. On this day, I chose a different approach. “Let’s see if we really can do nothing. Maybe if we do nothing, then you’ll think of what you want to do.”
We went into my bed, and cuddled up. I announced that we were going to try to do nothing.
“Stare at the ceiling. Don’t talk. Don’t do anything. When someone talks or giggle, then we are done doing nothing.”
We laid in the bed, staring at the ceiling, barely blinking. Suddenly, my daughter started to giggle.
“Oh! You are giggling! That’s not doing nothing” I exclaimed.
“But, we are still staring at the ceiling. And we are blinking. We aren’t doing nothing,” she replied. Her little eyes tinkled.
“That’s true, and we are laying in bed together. What if we closed our eyes and went to sleep…”
“Then we are sleeping! And when I was really bored, I still was doing ‘something!’ I was walking around being bored!” We started to giggle hysterically then.
“It’s impossible to do nothing! Because, even if you are doing NOTHING, you are still doing SOMETHING!” She laughed. We laughed and giggled for a long time, and talked about inanimate objects not being able to do nothing either, merely because they exist. As we tried to do ‘nothing,’ her entire vibe changed. We spent the rest of the day together having fun and enjoying each other’s company.
My daughter’s epiphany was truly amazing and life changing. Now, if she gets “sooo bored,” I only have to remind her that she’s still doing something, no matter how mundane it may seem. And when those moments start to come, I summon her back to my bed for a cuddling, trying to do ‘nothing’ session. Works like a charm.
