Do Nothing

Live Recording

In this Lovestream we'll explore what it means to do nothing by experiencing the art of stillness and learning to reconnect with the quiet presence beneath the noise. We'll discover that doing nothing is not empty; it's where clarity, peace, and truth begin. Stay until the end for a guided meditation.

Transcript

Hi everyone. Good morning, Good afternoon, Good evening, Wherever it is that you are. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome. I'm happy to be with you here today for our weekly love stream. We exchange our hearts, Exchange our loving presence. Very happy to be here with you. Let's take a moment. To just land. We can do what I call the One Breath Meditation. Deep inhale through the nose if it's available to you. If not, Through the mouth is fine. And then a long, Extended exhale. Again, Through the mouth is okay, But if you like through the nose, It's fine. Remember, My friends, There are no hard, Fast laws here. There are not rules to follow. These are all invitations and suggestions, And then you make it your own. You do what resonates for you, What feels along. With your body. Some days you might want to breathe through the nose and some days you might want to breathe through the mouth. That's why we got two options. It's a beautiful thing. I do invite you to take a little pause at the top of that inhale as you fill up your lungs and your chest with all of that beautiful air. Take a little pause at the top of that inhale just before exhaling and letting it all go, And then another little pause at the bottom of that exhale. And just listen in. And when I say listen, I mean feel. We're not listening for a sound. We're feeling into. That pause. And just noticing what is alive. In that pause. At the top of the inhale just before you exhale and at the bottom of the exhale just before the body takes that next breath. So let's do it together. Let's do three breaths together because one is just a warm-up. And do it at your own pace, Your own cadence, However it works for you and however it feels good to you. Let's do it together. How did that feel for you? How does your mind feel? How does your body feel? How does your energy feel? The breath is the anchor. It anchors our busy mind into present moment, Into the body. So it's an anchor. That holds us in this present moment. So beautifully. And it takes practice. As I often remind all of us, It takes practice. We get good at what we practice. So the more we practice sitting in stillness, Stilling the body, Taking our deep breaths, Bringing the mind's attention to this breath and into the body. The easier it becomes to do this when we're overwhelmed, Anxious, Deep in emotion or deep in thought, We can pop out of those moments of identifying with thoughts, Identifying with emotion, Attaching and clinging to the upset that's here. And we get to just come back to the breath. And the beautiful thing is, You don't leave home without it. So it's available anytime, Anywhere, All the time, Everywhere. So it's not a special place you have to go, A special room you need to sit in, A special candle you need to light. It's always right here. As they say, Right under your nose, Right here. My dear friends. I'm very happy. To have this time with you. So let's get into this gentle exploration of do nothing. Let's start with the raw, Honest truth that most of us, If not all of us, Feel a real discomfort in doing nothing. Is that true for you? When you sit in stillness. And do nothing. Is it uncomfortable? Is there a discomfort? Is there a little bit of anxiety or angst coming up? I gotta do something. Oh, I have my laundry list of things. I'm wasting time. This is silly. It's natural, That's natural, That stillness and the doing nothing with this body and eventually with this mind. Feels kind of unnatural at first. And that discomfort is simply revealing how conditioned we are. We are deeply conditioned, Especially in the West. To constantly be doing something. So it makes sense that if we slow down to the point of hitting the brakes, And just do nothing. There's gonna be some discomfort in that. Anytime we do something. Even doing nothing. That is completely out of line with how we usually do things, It feels uncomfortable. It doesn't feel good. But just because it doesn't feel good doesn't mean it's not good for you. So that's okay. That initial stillness is gonna feel unnatural. It's going to feel weird. It's going to feel like. . . I don't want to do this. I don't want to sit here. I don't want to do nothing, The resistance is going to come up. So what do you do when the resistance comes up? What do you do? You guessed it. You do nothing. What do you do when the thoughts start spiraling? My gosh, This is so dumb. What a waste of time. You do nothing. What do you do when your body wants to get fidgety and move? Is uncomfortable. You guessed it. You do nothing. And you simply notice. You notice the discomfort of doing nothing. And you notice the depth of your conditioning. The harder it is to do nothing, The more deeply conditioned you are as a human doing, Rather than a human being. Because the being part of your life has not been explored, Has not been tapped into to a great degree. And this ties into this addiction that we have, This addiction to productivity. How our identity becomes tied in to productivity, To doing, To achieving, To proving ourselves. And then, What happens if I pause? No, I can't pause. What happens if I do nothing? No, No, No, No. When we're so deeply identified to doing, To being productive. The fear of stopping. And doing nothing. It's huge. We literally think we're gonna die. Who is it that thinks they're going to die? The ego, That small self, That small self that believes itself to be this body, These thoughts, These emotions, This identity. That's all the ego is. It's a small sense of self based on the stories we keep telling ourselves about ourselves. That's the ego part of us. And it's very strong. So when you sit in stillness and you do nothing. That's small self. He's going to start complaining. Like a child. I don't want to be here doing nothing. I want to go over there. I'm bored. This is annoying. This is stupid. Just like a child. That's the small self. So this addiction to doing is driven by the ego. It's driven by the small self. And let me tell you, My friends, I've lived in that space most of my life, Up until about 20 years ago when I entered the deep spiritual journey of self-discovery. I was all about the doing. I was this superwoman with a cape flowing behind me as I flew all around my life, Saved people's lives, Literally, In surgery, Ran my business, Raised my kids, Ran my household, Worked on my marriage. I was the queen of doing. I have a bunch of gold medals in the closet. Olympic gold medals in doing. I was a human doing. I didn't know any other way. I didn't know. Most of us. Don't know. We don't know that there is another way to live this life. Because the messaging is so deep, So strong. In our society. To be productive, To achieve, To get the diplomas, To get the raise, To make the money, To buy the stuff, Right? You know what I'm talking about? Check it out for yourself. See if this resonates with your life and your journey. Maybe you're still on that journey of human doing. That's okay. That's okay. We just are where we are. And we meet ourselves. Exactly where we are and we start. Exactly where we are. Gently, Lovingly, Kindly. With grace. We don't beat ourselves up for it. We don't compare and say, Oh my gosh, She started 20 years ago, What? No, My gosh, I'm so behind. I'm older and I haven't even started. Nope, We don't do any of that stuff. Remember, Comparison is an act of violence against the self. So we don't want to compare. We simply notice mindfully. Mindfulness is noticing what's here. Without judgment. So we just noticed. Oh, Yeah. I'm really. . . Pretty much 99% of my life I'm a human doing. I'm non-stop doing. Even when I go to bed, I'm still doing. I'm doing the thoughts. I'm making the lists. I'm planning. If that's your case. Just notice. That's okay. The first step is raising awareness to what is here. And the more honest you can be with yourself, The deeper your journey will go. The more that we cover. The truth from ourselves, The more that we lie to ourselves. Or maybe not lie, Just kind of. . . Make up stories that we believe or hold on tightly to our belief systems. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, No. The right thing to do is to make money, To get the degrees, To get a lot of stuff and then retire at some X point in time. Those beliefs keep us in a cage. Those stories that we tell ourselves. A story like, Oh, Well, She can say those things because she was a surgeon and she worked and she had a career and she has her children. But me? No, I can't do this stuff. She can sit around doing nothing. I can't sit and do nothing. Notice yourself, My friends. Notice your mind. Notice the narratives that come up. If you're not sure what I'm talking about in terms of these narratives and these stories, Check out my page. You're going to see that there's a love stream that I recorded about releasing the stories that we tell ourselves. So if you need support, That's what this platform is for. That's what these love streams are for. It's to open spaces, Open spaces, Open doorways. Within ourselves. And we each do it however we do it. We don't have to compare. Your life story is gonna be different than my life story. That's okay. That's okay. And so we're talking about how. The discomfort comes on. When we sit and do nothing, When we sit in stillness and we get to see all the stuff that is coming up for us and we get to see how uncomfortable our nervous system is. And how it feels to slow down and stop. Just stop. One of my teachers is the beautiful Gangaji. And her teacher is Papaji, Who comes from the lineage of Ramana Maharshi, If you know him from India. And Papaji's main teaching is, Stop, Be quiet. Do nothing. That in itself is a deep spiritual teaching. To just stop. And discover. What is here. Discover what is here when you just. Stop. You surrender to this moment. And we'll do a little bit of that in meditation. Together. Meditation is simply the art of doing nothing, Of bringing your body into stillness and observing what is here, Observing your mind, Observing bodily sensations, Observing through the senses. What do I hear? What do I smell? What do I see? Perhaps what do I taste? And what do I feel in my touch? That's what meditation is. We don't have to complicate it. You don't have to sit cross-legged like a pretzel. In the Himalayas. With a flowing robe, Although you can. That would be nice. I would love that. But that's not going to happen anytime soon. So you get to sit in your space. And invite stillness and silence in and feel the spaciousness. Spaciousness. That develops. When you practice sitting in stillness and silence. And at first, Your nervous system is not gonna feel comfortable when you slow down. Because we're just not trained in it. We're trained in the opposite. We're trained in constant doing. So when we sit. In stillness and silence. We get to watch what begins to arise. And what arises are thoughts. Usually, Discomfort. Resistance. Thoughts of restlessness. Restlessness in the body. The body wants to move. Restlessness in the thoughts. This is annoying. This is boring. I don't want to do this. I'm hungry. Oh, I forgot to send that email. All that stuff. We get to observe the mind when we sit in stillness and silence, When we do nothing, When we simply stop. And then we get to notice. . . Am I actually now doing the nothing? Or am I surrendering to the nothing? But is there an efforting? You see what I mean? Because we can do nothing by efforting. Okay, Here I go, I'm. . . I'm doing nothing. Here I am. Okay. I'm still doing nothing. I'm not thinking, I'm doing nothing. But there's still a doing, There's still an efforting in that. Or we can open our palm. Relax our bodies, Our mind. And for that, From that space of effortlessness, We can do. Nothing. Without actually. Doing. Without the doing. Do you see the difference, My friends? It's a subtle difference. Efforting to do nothing with a closed fist or effortlessly. Doing nothing. So you might ask, Well, How do I do it effortlessly? Because I feel myself straining to do it right. But I don't want to effort. But I'm still resisting. That small self, That ego self, Wants to do it right. Wants to be smart, Wants to be productive. Wants to be the number one in the class. I'm just talking about myself, My friends. You apply it to yourself if it applies. But I'm just sharing my experience. Bring it back to yourself and see how it resonates. So when we sit in stillness and in silence. In this meditative practice. We are practicing. Allowing. We're shifting from, I'm trying to meditate, To just allow it to be whatever it is. Whatever it is. Whatever arises is your meditation experience that day. And the beauty is, We are dynamic beings. We're not static. We're ever-flowing, Changing, Dynamic beings. So the experience of sitting in stillness and silence is going to be different. Every single time. So if one day you sit. Doing your practice. And your mind is just open, Huge, Vast, Open space. And you feel no efforting. And you feel like, Wow, I got this. This is how it's supposed to feel. This is what she's talking about. This is how I want to feel. And then the next day you sit and you're nowhere near that experience. You are just struggling. Your body's uncomfortable and you've got itches everywhere and your nose is stuffy and your mind is just busy. Your thought stream is just bombarding and it won't leave you alone. Well, My friends. That is. Your experience that day. It's not better, It's not worse. It's not you're doing it wrong and the other day you were doing it right. Meditation. Is the practice of allowing. By doing nothing. So what do you do when all those thoughts are bombarding? You do nothing. And what do you do that day when you're giving yourself praise? Ah, I'm so spacious. I'm an open vessel. This feels so good. You do nothing. And when your body is itchy and uncomfortable and fidgety. You do nothing. Because as soon as you're looking to do. You popped out of. Awareness and into that small self, That ego sense of self, The one that's trying to control, The one that's trying to be the best, The one that's People-pleasing. Oh, I want my teacher to be proud of me. I want them to see that I'm getting this. I'm a good student. I'm doing the right thing. That's when we're sitting in that small sense of self. It's a very contracted, Tiny little box. But that's not the truth of who you are, My friend. You are loving awareness. You are the consciousness. That Bob Marley sings about when he sings One Love. So this is a journey, My friends. It's not a one-time shot. We sit, And we do it once, And we got it, And we're awakened, And we're enlightened, And then that's it. We've made it. There's no making it. There's no there, There. There's no when I get there, Then I'll know because my life is going to be smooth. No, My friends. It doesn't work that way. And that's the beauty, That life is a constant unfolding. It's a constant unfolding. And deepening. And that's the beauty of the spiritual journey. And there's always something new and always something fresh that I uncover, Another layer that opens up. And something else to consider. Is the difference between doing nothing and being present. So some of us think that doing nothing is just a zoning out. But it's not a zoning out, My friends. It's more so a deep, Awake state of awareness, Of presence. So the word nothing is a little bit misleading. Doing nothing is not zoning out. It's more so a deep presence, An awakened presence. So there's an aliveness, All of your cells. Are alive. You're hearing. Is more cute. You're seeing colors, Shapes, Shadows, Light is more awakened. Your physical sensations, Whether you feel a cramp or you feel your fingers are cold or your hands are heavy in your lap. Are more enlivened. So this doing nothing of which I'm speaking is a deep presence. Rather than a nothingness. So we can either be efforting to be still, Like, Okay, I'm trying, I'm really trying hard to be still. I'm not gonna move, I'm not gonna move. There's kind of a forcefulness about it. Or we can relax into stillness. Let's do it together with a breath. Relaxing into stillness. Deep inhale. And an audible exhale. And when the mind wanders and starts thinking some thought, That's okay. We just bring it back by focusing on the breath. Sew again. Deep inhale. Long exhale. Let's do a few more together. Deep inhale. Perhaps a yawn? Long letting go. Bringing your attention back to the breath as soon as it tries to deviate and think or do something gently like you would redirect a child. Oh, Come this way, Sweetie. Come this way. And relax. Into the stillness. Don't have to push yourself through that door. Just relax through that stillness. And notice how you feel. Notice how this feels for you. And you might say, Well. Dr. Tammy, Soul Surgeon. How much do I need to practice this? Well, The answer is, Of course, Only as much as you want. But the beauty is. . . That you can take micro moments of doing nothing. You don't have to. Make these long sit down sessions where you set it up and you need to turn your phone off and nobody talks to you and all this. You can do that, It's a beautiful thing, And it is helpful in the beginning to create kind of optimal circumstances for your doing nothing moments. It's like if you're learning a language. If you're learning a language, You're first going to start in a quiet room with a teacher, One-on-one. It enhances your focus. It enhances your paying attention, Your mind, Focusing on the task at hand. So that eventually, In a chaotic room, With lots of people speaking this new language to you, You're able to jump in and out of conversation. This is the same exact thing with this doing nothingness. You can eventually be in the supermarket. In traffic. With a lot going on. And we can still. Presence. Enter stillness. Come back through. The bridge that is the breath. And have a micro-moment of doing nothing. This is how we eventually integrate this stillness that is ever-present. It's always, But only always, Here. It doesn't go anywhere. We just cover it up with stuff. We just cover it up. So the way to integrate this stillness. Into our everyday life is to take these pauses. Between tasks. To take these breaths between conversations. So our practice can be varied and deliciously switched up. So we can do micro moments of that one deep breath meditation. And we can have longer sit down, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 40 minutes. Of really taking our time. With embracing and meeting the truth of stillness and silence and finding that spaciousness. It's always here. It's always here for us. That's the beauty. It's a space we can return to. Over and over and over again. So think about what resonates for you. How would you like to bring this practice of doing nothing into your life so that eventually you don't really need to practice. Eventually it just becomes part of your go-to. It becomes part of you. Natural way of being. You don't have to intentionally say, OK, Here I go. Now I'm going to take this breath. Or now I'm going to sit on that cushion, Put the shades down, Turn out the lights, Turn on the candle, And do nothing. It just becomes a part of your modem apparandi, The way you just walk through life. And you get to ask yourself. This deeper invitation, Which is. Who are you? Without all of this doing, Without these layers of conditioning. You get to explore. Who you are beyond the roles. Beyond your achievements, Beyond your productivity, Beyond all the movement in your life. You get to touch the essence beneath it all. So let's take a few moments in our closing time. To do a brief guided meditation to see if these teachings can land a little bit. I love the metaphor of the snow globe. You know, We shake the snow globe. You know, Those decorative snow globes that you can buy in all the big cities. The Dharma talk shook up the snow globe so the snow's everywhere. And now in the guided meditation we just come back to stillness and to silence and we let it land. So let's do a little bit of that together before we close up for the day. Find some comfort in your body. Eyes open or eyes closed. Or downward gaze. Half open if that feels good to you. Give yourself what you need. In this moment. Come back to the breath. The breath is our anchor. The breath is the bridge. To bring the mind back into presence. Bring the light of your attention. To your body. Breathing. If your mind is feeling busy, You can instruct it to say. Breathing in. I know I am breathing in. Breathing out. I know, I am breathing hell. Simply noticing what is here. Noticing sensations in the physical body. Noticing any tightness. Or expansion. Noticing the mind stream. If it's busy with thoughts. For quieting down. Simply noticing. Without judgment. This is here. This is now. Everything changes. All the time. Peace. Is this moment. Without judgment. Peace. Is this moment. Without judgment. And bring your body into stillness. Perhaps hands on lap. Palms up or palms turned. Stilling the body. An itch arises. Just notice it. Back to the breath. A bit of a thought arises. Just notice it. Return to the breath. Meditation is the art of doing nothing. Stillness. Be still. Drop the Effort Game. There is nowhere to go. And nothing to do. Relax. Into this breath. If a thought comes. Bring the mind's attention back to the breath. Notice the body is breathing you. There is no need to do anything. Not even to breathe. Life is happening through you. You are the vessel. Through which life lives. No self. No problem. Just life living through you. Your body is a tuning fork. Tuning into the life living through you. There is listening. Seeing is happening. Smelly. Tasting. Touching. Peace is this moment without judgment. Noticing if you're judging this moment. And simply drop that thought. Return to the breath. Breathing in. I know I am breathing in. Beating out. I know I am home. I want you to put a hand on heart. Offer yourself deep gratitude. Or showing up for yourself. In this love stream today. Or being gentle and kind with yourself. By drinking the nectar of the Dharma. Reminding yourself that you don't need to remember anything that was said. The words are in you. And trust that you received exactly what you needed to hear today. Bring some movement into your body. Open your eyes when you're ready. If you feel inspired to offer Dana, Dana is the Pali word for generosity. If you're feeling a generous heart and would like to share the green love. The green energy, You're invited to do so by sending a donation to the teacher who will accept. With deep gratitude. As I read our closing poem from Rumi, The 13th century poet. It's titled The Breeze at Dawn. The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don't go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want. Don't go back to sleep. People are going back and forth across the door sill where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open. Don't go back to sleep. Let me share the merit that whatever benefit might have come to us from listening and being present today, May it benefit not only ourselves, But be of benefit to everyone we encounter. And may it aid in the healing and transformation of our world. Om shanti, Shanti, Shanti, Peace in your heart, Peace in your mind, Peace in our world. Thank you, My friends. For being here. Thank you, My friends. I love you. I thank you. And I can't wait to see you next time. Bye for now, My friends. And don't forget, Don't go back to sleep.