Doing Nothing At All

Take 20 minutes to drop all the effort of trying to be better, do better, improve yourself, improve the world... Instead, do nothing, stop trying, and just be. If you find yourself slotting your meditation practice as another entry in your to-do list, this practice will help you find more balance.

Transcript

One of the things that I love about mindfulness practice is the apparent tension between the idea that we're practicing to get somewhere,

That we're striving to be better,

To do better,

To improve ourselves and even improve the world.

And this other simultaneous idea that everything is okay exactly the way it is,

That we want to accept ourselves as we are and not criticize ourselves and not judge ourselves.

I used to wrestle with this question,

But as I've practiced more and more,

I realized that these two ideas are indeed conceptually completely in opposition to each other.

Yet somehow experientially in the practice itself,

Subjectively,

They can coexist perfectly.

So not only are we able to strike this balance in a moment of practice and in a lifetime of practice,

But also this tension itself is an example of the limitations of our conceptual understanding of all this,

That you can read all the books you want,

But there are areas where you're going to run into the wall,

You're going to go off the map unless you practice in experience,

Unless you apply in daily life.

It's a beautiful thing,

Really.

So let's play around with this.

And comfortable position.

Root yourself into the ground beneath you,

Noticing contact points with the earth or the floor beneath you or even your seat.

And from that stable foundation,

Reaching the top of your head up to the sky,

Opening the back of the neck,

Rising,

And then maintaining this upright alertness while relaxing your jaw and releasing your shoulders.

Letting go of any unnecessary tension in your belly or in your arms or your hips.

Settling in to a posture that works for you.

And if you need to lie down,

Please don't hesitate to do that,

To find a position that's safe for your body.

And this is your practice,

So everything I say is optional.

These are only suggestions.

Feel free to adjust or adapt.

And let's take a moment now to not rush into this.

Let's take a moment to let the physical posture we found slowly seep into our state of mind.

Whenever you're ready,

Letting go of any intention you might be holding to do anything.

Or to change anything about what you're experiencing in this moment.

Dropping any resistance.

And letting go of the intention to meditate.

Let's take a moment to relax.

If you find yourself naturally gravitating to some other practice that you're used to,

Maybe you're naturally paying attention to your breath or saying a positive affirmation.

Let that be a part of your effortlessness.

It's just happening,

So let it happen.

Let it last longer.

You might also notice yourself uncomfortable.

Maybe you're feeling a little tired or frustrated,

Or maybe you're bored of this practice already.

For this particular technique,

The instruction would be to just let that happen.

Again,

It's a part of your spontaneous experience in this moment.

And so to drop all the effort means to drop all the effort to change any of that.

The same is true of thinking.

Many practices guide you to notice when your mind wanders.

That is not an instruction for this practice.

For this practice,

If you notice thinking,

Again,

Allow that to be exactly as it is.

For this practice,

Whatever you might be experiencing in this moment is okay exactly the way it is.

You you You might also notice external experiences that you're resisting.

Maybe your neighbors are having a party or the people you live with,

Even though you told them that you needed some peace and quiet for your meditation.

They're having a loud conversation.

And so you might notice that,

And you might resist it.

You might want it to stop.

You might also notice the reaction you're having to it,

And you might be frustrated,

And you might want the frustration to stop.

Drop any effort to change any of that.

Let the noise happen.

Let the frustration happen in a radical act of acceptance.

There's a sense of almost open curiosity here.

You're open to whatever experience might arise,

And you're curious about that experience,

And you're also curious about your reactions to that experience.

You're just letting yourself be as you are.

Let all experience be a part of who you are in this moment.

This is what it's like to be you.

So all we're doing here is letting you be you.

You you you Often when we take a break,

This whole idea of taking a break can actually end up being pretty effortful and self-defeating.

We find ourselves trying really hard to relax,

And then sometimes maybe we can't relax,

And then we start beating ourselves up about that.

We start to actively search for things to help us relax and distractions because fundamentally it's not okay that we can't relax.

We hold that belief with us,

And so is that really taking a break?

What we're doing here is dropping any effort to change anything,

Even if we're finding ourselves with a lot of thoughts or challenging emotions or whatever might be coming up.

We're dropping any effort.

We're taking a true break.

A break from trying to make ourselves or the world different from the way it is.

We're accepting it.

We're dropping the effort.

Stop trying.

You you you Sometimes our self-care routines,

Whether it's exercise or diet or meditation,

Can become just another entry on our to-do list.

That's not always the best solution for our well-being,

And so what we're doing here is balancing that effort,

Especially in the context of your meditation practice.

Remembering here that it doesn't have to be a striving,

Goal-oriented pursuit of perfection and achievement.

Sometimes it can be imperfect.

So let's take this last few minutes here to refresh our intention to stop trying to do nothing at all.

Maybe even reset your posture a little bit.

And let the thoughts come.

Let the sounds play.

Let the body sensations flow.

Let the discomfort happen.

Just let it all be exactly as it is.

So so so Okay,

Nice work.

Let's release the practice.

No rush.

Take your time transitioning.

You can open your eyes if they were closed.

Get a sip of water.

Give yourself a little stretch.

And see if you can take a bit of whatever came up in this practice forward with you into whatever you've got going next.

Maybe you found a sense of ease.

Maybe some particular insights came up.

Whatever it might be.

And even if nothing came up,

That's okay too.

See if you can take it forward with you.

I really connected with this flavor of practice in that first year when I became a new dad.

And life was just overwhelming.

And it felt like the last thing I had any energy to do at the end of the day was pour a bunch of effort into meditation.

And so if life is busy,

If there's a lot going on,

And even if there isn't a lot going on,

If you find yourself caught up in driving and striving,

I recommend that you take a little bit of a break.

I recommend trying to find a little bit of a balance with this flavor of practice.

Maybe interspersing it within your other practices or maybe once in a while listening to this guided meditation or other similar ones and remembering that acceptance is the key to practice as well.

And that as much as there are things you need to work on,

There are also many amazing things about who you are already.

That you're okay the way you are.

Reviews

Excellent! Thank you!

🙏🏽✨️

Great meditation, self acceptance and a nice departure from the norm. Thank you. 🙏

Thank you for such a liberating practice. And the banana is a nice touch!

Thank you I just listened to this on the train. Perfect 😊

Appreciated this practice of acceptance. Thank you 🙏

Very illustrative, illuminating, and refreshingly different. Began to notice its effectiveness when, for a fleeting second, I experienced some small twinge of satisfaction around how well I thought that I was doing in that moment, and then, the instructor’s encouragement of dropping and letting go of *all* effort, striving, and intention became clearer to me, for that was what was happening — the effort and striving to do better, be better, and aim for perfection. It was a necessary lesson to which I shall return. 👍🏼

Wow. That was great !

Really great!!! Thank you so much - this is what I needed!

I find this type of open-focus meditation very complementary to the concentration or single pointed meditation practices. And the open-focus fits well with my understanding of the body— that is, bodies and minds function with a series of contractions and releases. Eg. In-breath and out-breath, concentration practice and a relaxed focus practice. I plan to incorporate this practice into my existing toolbox of mindfulness practices. Also, I like Jay, this teacher, he gives clear instructions and offers several good practice tips. a new favorite ❤️practice.