The Moment You Stop Doing, Everything Changes

How often do we let ourselves just be? Johanna talks about how much of life is spent doing and consuming, both in the world and in the constant voice in our head, and invites you to stop all doing for a few minutes or an hour. She explains how to sit or lie down, put the phone away, and let every thought and sensation be exactly as it is, without trying to calm anything down. Over time, she describes, a deep sense of peace can rise as you notice the awareness in which all the doing happens. It is for anyone who feels full of input and out of touch with the quiet within.

Transcript

I don't know about you. But it's so easy in this world we live in today to be constantly doing. And constantly consuming, Constantly having some kind of input. Constantly running around. All the information in this world right at our fingertips. With the internet. With Google. Now with Google. Artificial intelligence. We just need to get our phone out, Type it in, And boom, We have so much information there to consume. And this is doing as well. We're not just doing in the external, Like working, Running around, Doing things right in the external. It's also doing in the internal, The constant thoughts, The voice in our head that doesn't stop. And then the constant input. That is stimulating these thoughts. And then we read about ourselves and we read about the world. But more and more we feel. 4 We feel out of touch maybe with who we really are. With this silence within with the emptiness. So doing nothing, Doing no thing. Is such a powerful practice because you're constantly choosing to not be doing anything in the external. And if there is doing in the internal, The thoughts, Just to let it be. So here is how. I do it. You can do it for a couple of minutes or maybe even an hour. Maybe instead of watching Netflix again. Watching another video about something, Maybe even about spirituality. Or doing another yoga class. Maybe. And just take this time. To do nothing. 5 minutes, 20 minutes, An hour. Maybe sit down inside and Look through the window at a tree outside. Maybe that helps. Or maybe you don't. Maybe you just sit down. And stop. You stop all doing in the external. Put your phone away. And you to sit. You don't even close your eyes, But you can, Of course, If you feel cold. But it's not even a meditation. Trying to bring your attention back to your breath or to your physical sensations in your body. You're not trying to calm down your thoughts. Everything gets to be exactly as it is. Nothing is wrong, Nothing needs to be changed, Nothing needs to be different, You cannot do it wang You just sit there or lie there And don't do anything. And in the beginning, The thoughts might be getting very loud. Like, Why are we doing this? That doesn't make any sense. We should definitely be doing something else that's more productive than whatever this is, Because whatever this is, It's not helping me in any way. And you don't try to change that either. Just let it be there. It's not ultimately true. But it gets to be there too. The thoughts get to be there. They might be annoying, Yes. But nothing is wrong with them. And we don't need to react to them either, Right? We don't need to do immediately whatever they're saying. And thoughts are very interesting. It's the internal doing, Right? We cannot stop that. It's a little bit like a high-speed train. You cannot stop that suddenly. The longer you do nothing measured in time. The thoughts you might notice. May get less. Loud. In the beginning they may get very loud. And then they may get less loud and less loud And you're just there. You just let everything be there. You don't try even to force yourself to observe something, But it might come up naturally. After five minutes, Like, Oh wow, I've been like so lost in my thoughts. The last five minutes and I've been thinking about this or that. Okay, Ready? I'm gonna fill my breath now for a moment and then I'm gone again in some thoughts and then. . . Breath again but you don't force yourself to do it, It just comes up naturally. Just be there with whatever is. And then the longer. You practice that and just Sit with it. Suddenly there might be arising something else. Something then. Feels peaceful. Such a deep sense of. . . Peace. And that is. . . The awareness. You are. It is the being. You are in your true nature, In your essence. And the words are just pointers. The words are. So limiting, We need to experience it, We need to sense it, We need to feel it. The words don't even come close. But it is the best words I have. To describe it. You are the awareness of everything. You're the space in which all the doing happens. All the external doing which we stopped for a couple of minutes or hours right now. And all the internal doing, All the thoughts, All the emotions, All the physical sensations. They're rising in this space. And in your essence you are that space. In your essence, You are the awareness. Of everything. And that got covered up by all the doing, By all the thoughts. All of these layers, The world and we ourselves are like putting on top of it. And nothing is wrong with these layers, They're still gonna be there most likely, Right? But this practice to do nothing brings you back in touch. With who you really are. R that is this space. In which everything else is arising.