Sunday Thoughts
The art of doing nothing
The perfect antidote to an overwhelming week is ‘doing nothing. As I have said before my track record for doing nothing and being without a to-do list is poor. Even my days off have things to tick off because to-lists calm my big anxious energy.
Today happened to be my 2nd therapy anniversary, which I realise isn’t a thing but it definitely should be because the relationship with oneself is the longest and often the most complex. And also because therapy is hard work and thus major milestones should be celebrated and rewarded! It is at times a heavy emotional burden pulled out from the hidden corners of your soul weighing you down but it is also a place to gather tools to get outside your mind. If there was ever a week that highlighted the importance of therapy, it was this past one.
Rejection is something I have come to accept as a part of life being well versed in its language from a young age. As a female who is from a non-white Muslim background, I have a comfortable relationship with an academic and professional relationship. We aren’t one of the gang and I am okay with it. I mean my name alone probably puts people off. However, what throws me off is when rejection comes with a side of undermining and humiliation. I ask the socially inept power trip hungry out there- Why make someone suffer if you aren’t seeing things from their point of view?
When you have more than one of these experiences in a week, it reminds you how far you’ve come in the last 2 years and that time and time again, it is advised to rest or do nothing. But what does even ‘doing nothing’ mean? I guess like most things in life mine and yours looks different. Mine includes reading, napping so deliciously deep you forget who and where you are, walking while marinating my thoughts or cooking ( because in my world a lot is healing in the kitchen) but someone else’s might just watch tv and ordering take away ( which is cool too and I like the idea of it but like I said my anxious energy wouldn’t accept it for myself). So today on the second anniversary of committing to my mental and emotional wellbeing I did nothing. I made a pan of doodh patti and had it in this early spring sunshine wrapped in my winter coat over my PJs reading the words of Joan Didion, Nora Ephron, and MFK Fisher as the morning crispness turned golden; I flirted with spring flavours of wild garlic butter on a freshly baked baguette; I took a long restorative nap; went on a late afternoon walk just before the sun was setting in the quiet solitude of my thoughts under a blue injected with a coral pink sky. Not so much anything but I’m still a beginner at this art form.
“Take a rest; a field that has rested gives beautiful crop.”