The Power of Nothing

I just read an interesting article from my Lifetime Fitness magazine. First, I've never really thought about the name of the magazine. It's called "Experience Life." It hit me all of a sudden that I (we) need to experience life! There is so much it has to offer and I was thinking how much more enjoyable it is when I'm feeling healthy and my body is strong. I hear people say "I'm just fine eating McDonalds every day" or "I want to die happy eating my steak and potatoes" and to some extent, that's OKAY. We hear it all the time "everything in moderation" but at the same time, I don't think those people have really experienced life either. I don't know about you but I don't want my health or weight to ever hold me back. If I want to go hiking, I want to be able to. If I want to hop in a kayak and go kayak around a lake, I want to be able to. If my son says "Mom, let's go play at the park", I don't want to be too winded or tired to do it!

Anyway, there was an article in the magazine called "A Meditation on Nothing". The Editor in Chief wrote it and I thought it was really good. She talks about taking time to do NOTHING. Here are just a few things I liked from her article:

-"It's not until your brain stops its infernal spinning that you realize how accustomed you've grown to its constant hum and vibration. It's not until you agree to simply observe your thoughts passing across the screen of your mind that you realize how utterly ridiculous, grapsing and  repetitive some of those thoughts are."

--"...I realized how refreshing the simple experience of 'just being' could be." (referring to her meditation session)

--"At the same time, though, if there's one wish I have for you this fall, it's that for at least a few moments, you get a chance to experience the rare pleasure of doing nothing at all, and discover firsthand just how satisfying that can be."


I thought this really appropriate this time of year because it's unbelievable how busy October, November, and December get! It's like all of our weekends fill up like crazy and there's so many different things to do but I really want to stop occasionally to just do nothing and know that it's okay :o)