Summertime for me has always felt like things just naturally seem to slow down. When I was a school counselor, the major plus of the job was having paid summers, time off, and the opportunity to travel to the places on my bucketlist.
Since leaving the school district in June of last year and starting to work as a counselor on my own to grow my practice, I have had to sacrifice two of the luxuries I appreciate most: taking adventures to explore new places during the summer and the extra time to do nothing.
One of my counselor colleagues once said something that stuck with me and reminded me of what it means to be a human being. She said, “Don't just do something, Sit there.” Most people particularly in the Western hemisphere, believe that if we are not doing something all of the time, then we are wasting time because we are not being productive.
During initial sessions with clients where we do mindfulness exercises to help them calm their racing thoughts and strengthen their focused attention, I discover that many of them are not able to do so because they cannot stop thinking about their to do lists or their agendas. This causes me to think about when and how our society got to this point of believing that if you are not doing, then you are nothing and more importantly, you are nobody.
As a high energy person, I recognize firsthand how difficult it can be to sit still in slience and do nothing. For this reason, I feel that meditation is a saving grace because even though you are just sitting still in silence, it is called a practice which actually makes it sound like something we are doing rather than what is actually happening which is the simple act of just being.
What if we were to call meditation Being instead? Even if you aren't a meditator or you've never tried meditation, you know how to just be because you know how to sit still and be silent (even if your inner voice is still talking to you). Today, I woke up and received the insight of the day written below which was what inspired me to write about why I think it's important to try Being just as often as we engage in Doing.
In my opinion, who you are is not necessarily determined by what you do; who you are is who you choose to be each and every day and the beauty in this is that it can change from moment to moment. You can be grateful or resentful. You can be honest or deceitful. You can be authentic or ungenuine. You can be present or disconnected. You can be joy or sadness. You can be love or fear. The awareness of ourselves and who we are happens when we are doing, but even more so when were are just Being.
In our need to be somebody, we often forget that we are somebody.
- Eric Micha’el Leventhal - Author