The Spiritual Necessity of Doing Absolutely Nothing 

There is something wonderfully rebellious, and spiritually necessary, about giving ourselves permission to do absolutely nothing. We live in a world that has practically turned busyness into a spiritual practice. We schedule, organize, respond, produce, improve, accomplish, check the phone, check the email, check the calendar, and occasionally check to see whether we have enough time to check everything else! Somewhere in all that activity, we can forget one of the most powerful spiritual truths we know: “I am a thriving, omnipotent individualization of Divine Source. My spiritual power does not begin when I accomplish something, and my Divine nature does not increase because I crossed six things off my list before lunch.” There is a spiritual and energetic necessity to creating time when absolutely nothing is required of us, time when we stop trying to solve the next problem, manifest the next desire, organize tomorrow, or replay yesterday. Bob Proctor said, “Faith and fear both demand you believe in something you cannot see. You choose.” Those final two words matter because our attention is creative energy, and we get to choose where that energy resides. The most powerful choice we can make is to stop feeding every thought demanding our attention, allow the external journey to become quiet, and simply experience the magnificent consciousness of Being. Before the appointment, the responsibility, the title, the goal, or the next great idea, there is I AM. There is Divine Source individualized as me. 

Doing absolutely nothing is different from merely having nothing scheduled. We can have an empty afternoon while our minds are simultaneously visiting yesterday, tomorrow, the grocery store, somebody else’s business, three imaginary conversations, and Tuesday at 2:30. That is quite a commute without ever leaving the living room! True spiritual spaciousness happens when we consciously release ourselves from the requirement to engage. We breathe, notice, experience, and allow ourselves to simply BE. Perhaps absolutely nothing remarkable happens, which may be precisely the point. We spiritual folks can get a little sneaky about this. We sit quietly thinking, “Okay, Infinite Intelligence, I cleared twenty minutes. Where’s my revelation?” Suddenly we have turned doing nothing into another assignment for God! The deeper practice is allowing there to be no required outcome. Esther Hicks reminds us, “The greatest gift you can ever give another person is your own happiness.” When we give ourselves permission to reconnect with joy, peace, spaciousness, and the simple pleasure of existing, we are tending the consciousness we eventually carry back into every relationship, responsibility, and creative endeavor. We remember that thriving is more than accomplishing more. Thriving is the fullness with which we inhabit our own Divine Being. 

 
Occasionally we need to put “absolutely nothing” on the calendar and protect it as faithfully as any other appointment. Someone asks, “Are you available Thursday afternoon?” and we can proudly answer, “Absolutely not. I have nothing planned.” Because that nothing is sacred space, an opportunity to clear the mental and external clutter long enough to remember the Being beneath all the doing. Give yourself permission to sit somewhere beautiful, look out a window, breathe, let your mind settle, and allow the world to carry on for a little while without your assistance. In that sacred spaciousness, there is nothing to prove, nothing to produce, and nothing you need to become. There is simply the extraordinary awareness: “I AM HERE. I AM Divine Source individualized. I AM a thriving, powerful, magnificent expression of Infinite Life.” Remember, doing absolutely nothing gives us the space to remember absolutely everything that matters.