Top Santé: Why has doing nothing become an inaccessible “art”? In other words, why are we always in action?
Fabrice Midal: “We have completely lost the habit of doing nothing. It may seem panicking to do nothing. We have the feeling that if we do nothing, if nothing happens, we feel a void, we no longer feel alive. . The emptiness is atrocious, if there is any emptiness, it is nothingness. To do nothing is in this way to renounce life. To this anguish of silence and doing nothing, is added this habit that we have acquired of running, of being “speed”.
According to you, this perpetual race would be futile and counterproductive …
Contrary to popular belief, doing nothing nourishes while “always doing” impoverishes. In running, we have a double illusion. The first is to think that the more you run, the more you act, the more you feel alive and efficient. We are so caught up in what I call the “dictatorship of profitability” that stopping for a moment is deemed unnecessary. From morning to night, we are thus drawn into this obsession with efficiency. However, this obsession is in itself ineffective because it suffocates. In reality, the fact of running exhausts and forces us to act in a kind of tension which empties and can push to exhaustion or even burn out. This disease of the century, completely paradoxical, sums up well what threatens our society: to want to do too much and do too well we collapse.
The second illusion is to believe that “doing nothing” causes you to lose your bearings. Stopping is assimilated to death. Meditation offers a way to overcome this difficulty and to tame this silence to discover that it can be a moment of simplicity and stillness full of riches. Let’s take an example. Couples in restaurants are afraid to remain silent for a while and end up looking at their cellphones. But if they took the time to be in silence for a moment, other words would come and they would touch the wonder of being together. Perhaps the art of doing nothing is just learning to be with your children, your partner …
You say that accepting to do nothing allows you to become aware of certain riches. Which ones?
Being ready to do nothing for a while allows you to experience life in its turmoil. This path allows you to open up more to feelings and emotion. But it can help to take a step back from a situation that we are going through. The art of doing nothing also gives access to intuition, creativity, spontaneity, the spirit of childhood.
Do we also gain peace of mind when stopping?
No, the art of doing nothing is not a question of well-being and serenity but of jubilation. The jubilation of sharing a moment with your child. Doing nothing does not make you more serene or calmer but more alive. It touches on the joy of rediscovering things in oneself that have been forgotten.
When I’m not doing anything, I don’t need to run, to control my life. In the silence, I find myself and I find power in myself, I am less afraid, I heal or rather I calm my fears. The more I ask myself, the more I trust. Do nothing to the extraordinary virtue ofallay fears, worries.
Can everyone succeed in doing nothing in this sense of rediscovery?
Of course, because doing nothing is actually a summit of “doing”, in the sense that it helps to rediscover the summit of one’s humanity. Human beings cannot live without it.
To enjoy a roaring fire, our grandparents didn’t need to take a “selfie” like they do today. Do not take anything outside of the usual course just to enjoy a moment of silence. It nourishes deeply.
Why does meditation lend itself more to this art of doing nothing than watching television, for example?
The art of doing nothing is not “hanging out” as you can do while staying in front of the TV. The art of doing nothing is antithetical to “hanging out”. When I watch TV it’s a different form of racing. I look at the screen, I try to feed myself and since I don’t feel nourished I look at her for another hour and I feel empty. Conversely, the art of doing nothing means that there is an art of doing nothing at all. If I watch TV I don’t touch this miracle of life, I’m just relaxing. That is why meditation is an art of doing nothing.
Some will say that they don’t have time to sit there and do nothing …
This is wrong, doing nothing does not take a lot of time. Three short minutes may be enough. It is a movement to integrate into his life, a radical gesture whose greatest difficulty, I insist, is not to take time but to accept the silence and to tame the fear of emptiness that we associate it.
The art of doing nothing while meditating, how does it work in practice?
It just boils down to stay without doing anything. I object to the idea of meditation as presented: looking at your thoughts, being in the present moment. I regret that meditation is presented as a “new do” and a new tool to be more effective. It is not that to meditate in my opinion. In reality, to meditate is to make an appointment with oneself and not to respect new injunctions. Knowing whether you should have your eyes open or closed, these are points of reference that can help, of course, but that is not the main thing. The important thing is to allow yourself to do nothing, without any expectations. It is then that you can naturally discover the joy of being, to feel more alive, more joyful, happier.
It is good to get used to taking a few minutes to sit still undisturbed and without source of distraction (television, radio, book, magazine). Giving yourself this moment of meditation helps you take a break from being fully present to yourself, without any concerns. Being attentive to what is happening in oneself without any expectations is already great “.
“Transform your life thanks to the Buddha”, Fabrice Midal, The Duke. S Editions.
Fabrice Midal is an editor and one of the main teachers of meditation in France. He is the founder of the Western School of Meditation and A Day for Learning to Meditate. Next day to meditate: Saturday December 10 “Learn to meditate and discover confidence”.
Read also: The health benefits of meditation
Meditation to make peace with yourself
An exercise to learn to do nothing
