Dear Abundance seekers and fellow bloggers,
How often do you do nothing? Really nothing. Like the “just sitting on the couch and staring off into space, alone with your thoughts” kind of nothing. Completely free from distractions. If you’re anything like the average person today, you’re probably thinking “rarely” or even more likely, “never.”
In today’s world, we’re accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We gladly take the time to charge our phone’s battery, but disregard recharging our own. The second boredom strikes, we pick up our phones and scroll through social media or turn on the TV and start binge-watching a show we’ve already seen. Doing nothing has become a thing of the past, which means people are experiencing burnout at record-breaking speeds.
You might be surprised to find that there are actual benefits of doing absolutely nothing. When you turn off all distractions, it allows space for your subconscious to expand, ultimately boosting your creativity. When distracted, our mind jumps to the most obvious answers when trying to solve problems. But once you take the time to exhaust those options, you end up thinking of breakthrough, inventive answers that can lead to some life-changing ideas.
Boredom also lets you know when something is wrong. When you’re constantly buzzing around, checking off your to-do list, it’s easy to ignore emotions and miss out on what that inner voice is trying to tell you. But when you start to quiet your mind and your surroundings, you can start to feel those gut feelings coming to the surface, ultimately motivating you to make changes that better your life.
Probably most surprising, doing nothing can even help you to be kinder. Being alone with our thoughts makes us long for a larger sense of purpose, prompting us to try challenging and meaningful activities that extend beyond our own lives.
Even after reading about the many benefits of doing nothing, you might be thinking, “but I need to be productive at all times.” This is especially the case for women. It might feel weird to sit on the couch while there are dishes in the sink, but this can be fixed with a change of mindset. Instead of seeing it as “not being productive,” think of it as investing in your own wellbeing. Because that’s exactly what it is.
You also don’t need to suddenly fit in an hour of doing nothing into your day. Start with five minutes at the same time each day. If your mind starts to turn to that email you forgot to send or your breathing starts to get ragged, don’t worry. All these reactions are normal and will fade over time. Suddenly after a week or so, doing nothing will become something you look forward to. Yes, really.
So today, go ahead and do something for yourself: Do nothing. It might just be everything you were looking for.
In yoga you are taught to silence the mind and attain nothingness in the “shoonya“or quiet. Our Rishis said there are 4 layers of consciousness in which the human mind operates. AUM also has 4 stages.
- A – Waking state or the conscious mind
- U – Dream state or the subconscious mind
- M – Deep sleep state or the unconscious mind
- Space in between the two AUM’s – Turiya state or the state of pure consciousness.
In waking state, we are aware and we have thoughts, in dream state we have some awareness and some dream thoughts, in deep sleep state we have no awareness and no thoughts. But in Turiya state we have complete awareness and we have no thoughts.
Now when my consciousness can travel through these 4 states seamlessly without resistance instantly based on my intention Yoga is said to take place. The finite and limited in us merges with the infinite and unlimited in us. In these 4 states as we progress from the outer to the inner Realities mind keeps on expanding and so does awareness.
Awakened, conscious mind is the individual mind looking at specific limited objects.
Dream, subconscious mind is the universal mind looking at universal or general infinite aspects of an object based on thinking arising out of the human faculties of memory and imagination.
Deep sleep, unconscious mind is the cosmic mind present at the beginning of the cosmos. Here there is complete causal knowledge of all universes and their infinite life forms and objects. The cosmic mind is the mind in Ananda virtually a Buddha mind. All knowing.
The Turiya is the infinite mind. This is is the primordial mind. It is also called the Mool Prakriti. This mind is absolutely at peace, harmony in silence, in equilibrium and all knowing, all powerful all present, …
The goal of human life is to go from the conscious mind which starts in us from birth and go inside us in the mind to awaken the dream mind, the deep sleep mind and the infinite mind. It means to become conscious of the sub conscious, the unconscious in us and reach the Turiya state of infinite mind. The tunnel between the outer world of conscious mind to the conscious deep inner world of Turiya state of mind awakens all infinite potential in us to reality.
Then the God in us gets awakened. The ultimate in us gets realized and experienced. We become creatures with Supreme knowledge, Intelligence, Power, Creativity, Intuition, Bliss, Fearlessness, etc. We cross the threshold of birth and death. Time stops. We reach the zone of infiniteness and nothingness in us. This zone is called Moksha, Nirvana, Kaivalya, Mukti, Liberation, Freedom, Salvation etc.
Go ahead and do nothing today. Shut off all gadgets and just be.
Niddhi
Sunnies My Bunnies:) 