Firstly, doing nothing gives you the time to reminisce; to review what you are doing and analyze whether or not you should continue doing it. You get to see the value, or the futility, of doing something or anything.
Doing nothing for a moment is like pulling yourself out of a picture so that you can see the picture from a different perspective. We all know how difficult it is to see the picture when you are in it.
When you do nothing, you give yourself the opportunity to ask, “Is it time to change?”
Filling your time with something to do is a perfect escape from yourself, while doing nothing forces you, sometimes painfully, to face yourself and your concerns.
I have noticed an interesting phenomenon among people who ask for a divorce. I asked them, when did the idea germinate; when was the final decision to make a change “born?” It often happened when the person was on vacation or sick in bed with nothing to do. When you do nothing you give yourself a chance to review everything.
In the Hindu tradition, zero and infinity are related. Everything is nothing. Nothing is everything.
Another benefit of doing nothing for an interval of time is that it provides space for creating something new. When your brain is fully engaged it is not available to be creative.
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