Brought to you by Conscious Flow, Inc.

Workshops on: 

Healthy Workforce: Stress Reduction at the Office, Presentation Skills, and 30 Second Networking Commercials

"LOVE IS the new currency.

PEACE IS the new measure of success.

TRUTH IS the new security.

JOY IS the new status symbol."

~Debbie Barnett~

I'm at the tail end of a week's vacation in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The above picture is the view from my writing perch. One of the things I've enjoyed most about this getaway has been its lack of activities. No unpacking and repacking suitcases. No schedule to uphold, other than getting this newsletter out. No one is holding me accountable except me. What a treat to be able to do nothing for a whole week.

There's an art to doing nothing. It isn't something that comes easily to Westerners. Our culture dictates that we be productive all the time. Even on our days off, we're usually busy running errands or doing laundry. Heaven forbid that we're caught napping or slacking off. And no, checking emails or surfing the web don't count as "nothing."  

What is success if you can't enjoy it? Doing nothing is beneficial to our health. What seems like "nothing" is really quite something. If we're always in a state of go-go-go, we'll soon burn out. Then our productivity would really take a hit. It's okay to just "be" without having to "do" anything at all every now and then.

Because it is an art, doing nothing takes practice in order to achieve mastery. Shushing that nagging voice in our heads, the one that says, "I should be doing something," takes work. Learning to let go of the guilt associated with not being productive every waking second takes practice, too.

When planning your next vacation, be sure to schedule down time. Running from one activity to the next is not relaxing. If you're not able to get away on a vacation, take five to 10 minute "do nothing" breaks. Call it meditation, or call it your "do nothing" time. Taking time to unplug and go off line, even for only a few minutes a day, has a cumulative effect. Our sanity depends on it.

While you may not be sitting poolside at a Mexican hacienda right now, wherever you are, take a few minutes, and just "be." After all, you're an artist in the making.

Namaste,

Debbie