Something from nothing?

One of my new favorite quotes comes from Bruce Lee.

Bruce Lee once said, when referring to life, “It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.” Interestingly, a discipline that Bruce Lee and many others advocate to help hack away at the unessential aspects of life is to essentially — doing nothing — really! More and more scientific studies suggest that occasional periods of silence and solitude can help alleviate problems related to stress, anxiety, high blood pressure, even insomnia. Doctors are beginning to theorize that a little bit of quiet time may even alter a person’s brainwaves, thus increasing gray matter density, mental acuteness and focus. Perhaps, it can even decrease fatigue and symptoms of depression! It is beginning to appear that doing nothing does something!

It is understood the act of doing nothing is not easy. Establishing ideal silence and solitude means no distractions — no TV, no Internet, no music, no books, no people, no anything! So, to successfully do nothing, it will require a huge effort on your part. You may have to move to another room, you might have to close your eyes or even wear earplugs. Heck, you may have to resort to sitting in a closet with the door closed to get away from all the distractions! It will certainly feel weird (it will positively look weird — Heaven help you if someone finds you sitting in the closet doing nothing). The reason why, of course, is because you have been conditioned to always have something going on in your life — think about it. The tech industry is making a fortune off all your distractions. How many gadgets do you have that give you something to do when there is nothing to do?

The four pillars of Comprehensive Airman Fitness include the mental, physical, social, and the spiritual pillars. I acknowledge, spirituality can be difficult to define, but it is very real. It is so real that a growing body of physical evidence suggests by simply giving your mind (not just your physical body and brain), your soul, your spirit, whatever you call “You,” a chance to rest and reset occasionally, good things can happen. Are you at the point where you are ready to try just about anything? Consider doing nothing. God bless!