Solitude. It’s nice being alone sometimes. We all need a break from the comings and goings of life. The stresses of work. The social responsibilities. The chores. The things in our lives that require maintenance. We do work a lot more than just our jobs. If you consider work as anything you make yourself do that you wouldn’t do otherwise. A break from everything is really helpful and useful.
Many of us learn that taking such a deep break is not appropriate. You can schedule a break for yourself. But then there’s an expectation that since you had a break, you should be able to perform and operate better after the break. This invalidates the break entirely, and makes the break an extension of the work, which makes it work. Because then your break is there to serve your work performance.
There’s a thinking that if you had a break, you should be able to do more.
Then the break isn’t really a break. You’re not turning off your mind and your energy completely. The break becomes more like a fueling session. But the act of fueling is not nothing, it’s work, even if it’s labeled “break time” on your calendar.
To shut off completely, with no expectation whatsoever from this time, is extremely valuable. And not valuable as in it’ll make you superman where you can magically do everything now that you have filled your tank. But instead, it shows you the demons that puppeteer your mind on a daily basis.
You may notice immediately when you take such a break that you feel you’re wasting your time. That maybe you should use this time for something useful. You can notice this little judgmental controlling voice that’s telling you you’re wasting your time and should be using it for something more productive and how irresponsible and stupid you are for wanting to relax for a moment. This is the puppeteering demon to be aware of. This little monster is making a nest in your mind and riding you like a horse to wherever it wants to go. On a daily basis it controls you in ways you have no conscious awareness of (usually).
Do some nothing for a bit. And notice the forces that say no to that. They’re not on your side.
The Mshary 