Art of Doing NO Thing

 

  

Rest and laughter are the most 

spiritual and subversive acts of all.    

Laugh, rest, slow down.

                             

 -  Anne Lamott, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith

I've spent years perfecting the Art of Doing No Thing - one of the most difficult things I've ever had to learn to be.

First, I thought doing no thing was taking a day off work and lounging around the house - watching TV, reading a book, catching up on household chores.... I realized I was still doing something.   

I incorporated napping into my schedule.  I would lay there on my bed and while my body was at rest, my mind was running thousands of miles an hour.  Feeling guilty for all the things I should be doing. Not giving myself permission to just be.

I incorporated guided meditations during naptime - listening to someone's voice take me on a journey of the inner recesses of my mind - focusing on a mantra and tuning into the musical soundwaves.  Gradually, my mind slowed down.  Emptied out a little bit.  I realized that I didn't need to sleep.  I just needed to be still.

My dog encouraged me to go outside.  We would sit on the grass doing no thing - listening to the wind blow.  Feet naked in the ground - watching the tree branches sway.  When thoughts would come up, I would watch them and bid them peace and farewell.  Taking a deep breath and focusing on my environment - the luscious grass, the cool earth, the trees providing me with shade.

Laying back on the ground, watching the clouds dance.  Turning over on my stomach, observing the ants marching up and down grass stalks. A whole ecosystem below me - holding me up and providing me comfort.  Connecting my nature to Mother Nature.  It felt so peaceful and energizing.

I realized that slowing down and resting gave me more energy and stamina when I shifted into being a human doing again.

I began to seek other ways to find this delicious peace of resting - this pleasureful sensation of feeling loose and present in my body - relaxed yet aware.

I found it in laughter.   When I have a good laugh, it's like I shaHAhake all my cells up and down.  Everything jiggle and joggles and gets moved about.   A delicious chaHAhaos of breath erupts resulting in peace and pandemonium within.   

In the beginning, to have a good laugh laugh, I watched funny movies or listened to a comedian.  While that helped, it kept my mind going with all sorts of stimuli.   Laughter Yoga - laughing for no reason - brought me the stillness of mind I was seeking.  Engaging my body to function in a way that was pleasure-full to my soul. Creating a sensation of mirth within that would overflow outside of me and make a wonderful sound.

We live in a culture where we are taught to do, do, do - rest is seen as being lazy.  We live in a world of seriousness and stress.  Laughter is not the norm.  Both of these birthrights - Rest and Laughter - taken away as we grow up to fit into our society.

Yet - we seek it.  We crave it.   The pleasure of stillness - of being, resting, laughing.  When we hear it and experience it, it lightens up our soul.   Yes, Anne Lamott, I am a subversive, a pleasure Revolutionary to my core.   Woohoo!!!

Elation is a ChoHOhoice

It's a choHOhoice we make to be haHAhappy.   

To see the bright side of things, 

the cup that is half full, 

the good in all people.

 

I've been told that I'm a dreamer,

 not a realist, 

not for real   

Too happy - 

too positive - 

too enthusiastic.    

I was born that way.   

We were all born that way.   

With a certain joie de vivre.  

As children, we knew that to be the truth of our beings.

As I grew up, I witnessed other ways - 

worry and drama, 

depression, 

worst case scenarios, 

DONT's and NO's.   

 

 

What I've learned during my brief 44 years on this planet is 

that these methods do not work.  

They just create more of the same.

 

Making a choice of being haHAhappy chaHAhanges everything.  

Practicing my gratitude muscle daily brings me more abundance

Opening my heart wide brings me beauty and blessings

Allowing my mind to be quiet creates a space for my intuition to be heard

Laughing out loud keeps me flexible

Elation is the Art of Being HaHAhappy 

Feeling the haHAhappy from head to toe

And deep in your bones

Emanating from your heart

Showing up as a glow

Settling on my lips as a smile

Singing you a haHAhappy song

PERMISSION to SHAhaHAre

"FIND THE HUMOR IN THINGS TODAY.  IT WILL DO YOU GOOD.

SEE THINGS WITH THE FUNNY SIDE UP!  PEOPLE WILL CATCH 

ON AND EVERYONE WILL BE LAUGHING."

This is one of my favorite pages from a new book called PERMISSION SLIPS.   This book features the wise wisdom and delicious ART of my lovely WILD CHILD tribe Sister Goddess Pattie.   SG Pattie gave herself permission.  She decided to play big and shine her light wide.  She submitted her ART to StoryPeople who loved it so much they made it a book.  Woohoo.

SG Pattie's colorful pages and whimsical designs and bright words exude HAhaHAppiness. I open this book and the pages make me giggle and the words remind me to give myself permission to just be.

SG Pattie and I met at a WildChild Art Retreat years ago - when the walls of my house were still white with other people's stuff on them.  After seeing this Wise Omazing Woman create and acquiring some of her ART to bless my sacred space, I gave myself permission to paint - every possible surface I could find.  That is why my house has orange walls and yellow gold hallways and blue, fuschia and green kitchen cabinets.

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SG Pattie was kind enough to share some of her wisdom with me - here is our interview below:

1. What inspires you to create?

My heart and spirit inspires me! It is not something that I readily think about but rather it is a feeling that over comes me to pick up my paints and pens. It is a feeling of being whole, of being complete, of being ME when I create.

2. Do the words come first or the images/pictures/colors?

There really is no one way for me...Some days the images come first, which then bring whispers from my heart...Other days the words come and they direct me what to paint...color is my way of bringing the two together.

3. What is your favorite permission slip?

This is a hard question to answer because I use them all...and on any given day I will have a different answer. So, I would have to say today, that my favorite permission slip is "LUCKY DAY". I have this new book out, I am blessed with good friends and a loving family. I have found that I am much stronger than I thought I was, and that happiness is truly a state of mind. There are my 4 lucky things that I honor today!

4. Where do you get your ideas?

I get my ideas perhaps from a color I might see, from a book I am reading, or the sweet song of a bird outside my window. Ideas come from my heart and then blossom outward.

5. What is your secret superpower?

AH...my secret superpower is that I do not require a great amount of sleep! So I have many hours available to create, garden, read, love my kitties, and enjoy life.

6.  What encouragement can you offer to other artists?

Be courageous to submit anything you feel really shows who you are and what your heart has to say.  Be okay with rejection, not everyone likes everything we do. Fear traps us and does not allow us to move forward closer to our dreams. That old saying ..."if at first you don't succeed...try...try..again" is a great mantra!

7. What other projects are you willing to shaHahare with the world?

I am currently working on a board book for children of all ages. This again is a book inspired by the transformation of my good husband, Michael. I found that talking about death was not a subject most people were comfortable with, and trying to find a book that dealt with death that was suitable for a 6 year old was impossible. That is what this new book is about. How people never leave us really...because, they are always in our hearts.