Improve your life by switching off

Instead of ‘no pain no gain’, what if you took more time off and as a result had a greater impact on the world? Relaxing is a responsibility, but it is not always that easy…

We all know the feeling… you have a situation to deal with that is coming up, or a piece of work that you are concerned about, and there is so much anticipation for it. After finishing work, it is still on your mind. You can’t switch off. After going to bed it is still on your mind. You wake up in the night and are thinking about that situation or that piece of work. You just can’t switch off… well it doesn’t have to be that way.

How to do nothing

I believe switching off and doing nothing go hand in hand. To be able to turn off means being comfortable with doing very little following a period of being on; and that goes against what we are used to.

If you think back to a time when you didn’t feel bad not being switched on you might have to go way back. We have created a culture where we want to be seen doing all things. Saying yes to every opportunity, even if we don’t want to, working after hours to get things finished, or to do extra. If this isn’t you, you will likely know people who fit into this category. For more on the culture of being busy, see my post, ‘always busy, doing nothing.’

We can however choose to do ‘nothing’. Now what I mean by ‘nothing’ simply means switching the brain off. This could be doing something fun with friends or literally doing nothing…