Busy doing nothing

I was guiding a meditation this morning and we were just entering our silent phase when ‘busy doing nothing’ came in to my mind.

I noticed the thought and let it go, but it came back to me this afternoon.

At first I assumed it was from the A.A. Milne books about Winnie the Pooh…

Drawing of HCristopher Robin pulling Pooh downstairs
Pooh ‘doing nothing’ with Christopher Robin. Illustrated by E. H. Shepard

But a little bit of research shows when Pooh specifically talks about doing nothing it’s in the 2018 Disney film Christopher Robin (more on that in a moment).

So I got to thinking about the idea of doing nothing, and how meditation is sometimes described like this.

‘How can you sit and just do nothing? Isn’t it a bit boring?’

But the truth is, it’s actually quite hard to sit and do nothing.

To quieten your mind for a while and stop worrying about the hundreds of things you have to do.

It’s not something we are conditioned to do.

We live busy lives, and are constantly doing something, so to ‘stop doing’ can be challenging.

That’s why, personally, I like to think of it as ‘not-doing’ rather than describing it as doing nothing.

Anyway back to the film.

Christopher Robin is grown up, stressed and lost in his busy life.

He’s forgotten how to stop and appreciate the little things.

Pooh comes out with these beautiful words:

“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.”

Clever Pooh!

He also says:

“Doing nothing often leads to the very best of something.”

Not such a ‘silly bear’ afterall.

Let’s all be a bit more like Pooh, and find a few minutes everyday to do nothing – or at least ‘not-do’ for a while.

Ann 🙏

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