time spent offline

I’m practicing being still, doing nothing.

I sit outside. I let the sky, clouds, trees, birds, sound of cars, the sun, passers by keep me entertained. It requires no special equipment, nor any special skills, to sit still. It’s free. It can be done anywhere; preferably outside. A bird might shit on you, but that’s life. Getting fresh air and a dose of sunlight is worth the risk. I sit still. Quitting social media is the easiest part, so is getting rid of your smartphone, planning weekly digital sabbaticals, and going for a walk instead. The hardest part is the time that remains; infinite. What do you do with all that time? You can fill it right back up, with 100 things to do offline. There is no shortage of things one can do offline, depending on their interest, skill set, resources. Not everyone can, or wants to, go hiking, or build furniture, or plant a garden, but there is something for everyone to do in the offline world. No matter what we choose to do, however, doing things offline requires more effort than scrolling online.

Except for one thing.

There is one thing that is available to all of us, at any time of the day, without any special skillset or gears: doing nothing. Sitting still. On a bench at the park, soaking up the sun, the clear sky, trees, checking out the overly excited puppies and enjoying the sound of birds. If you have time to read this post, I can assume you are not so busy to find time out of your day to experience the delight of doing nothing. Even if you are so busy, we can all find pockets of moments in our days to do nothing, sit still, for a few moments: in traffic, waiting for your drive thru coffee, waiting for a meeting to start. I won’t lie and say it will be easy. A mind used to constant stimulation, chatter, keeping busy will rebel. It can feel painful, even physically uncomfortable, to sit still and do absolutely nothing. But these feelings only last the first few moments. A few seconds or minutes of resistance, before easing into the joy of doing absolutely nothing.