What If You Had Nothing To Do?

I can’t remember a time when I had nothing to do.

No obligation. No deadline. No shoulds hanging over me.

Even when I am tired, even when I don’t want to do anything, there is always something that needs to be done.

This is especially the case when you run your own business, or when you take on obligations for yourself — like publishing a daily blog.

I always have a long list of things to do.

But there are moments when it all becomes too much.

Sometimes I feel like I need a break — a pocket of time when I have nothing to do.

Nothing To Do vs Doing Nothing

This is not the same as a pocket of time when I choose to do nothing.

Doing nothing is not the same as having nothing to do.

Even when doing nothing, the long list of things you need to do hangs over you. It weighs you down.

Having nothing to do removes the list entirely.

It creates freedom to do nothing without the heavy weight of what you “should” be doing.

This is the idea behind Sabbath time.

Sabbath time removes the list. It tells us that there is nothing to do.

This time with nothing to do allows us to just be, without the looming weight of all we’re not doing.

And yet, my nervous system is so acclimated to urgency, demand, and deadlines that when I create this pocket of time with nothing to do, I feel unsettled.

A space with nothing to do requires trust that things will get done in their proper time.

And it opens us to consider that perhaps we don’t need to do as much as we thought we did.