Stop!

When was the last time you really made a stop, at least for a few moments or minutes? When was the last time you spent at least one hour or day doing nothing but being, breathing?

In our fast-paced, action-packed society, the concept of "non-action" often gets overlooked. We're encouraged to always be like a giant "energizer bunnies", to always be moving forward, to always be striving for the next goal. But this constant state of motion can leave you feeling overwhelmed, stressed, and even anxious. It's easy to lose touch with yourself and you sense of calm in the tsunami of tasks and responsibilities.

Non-action does not signify laziness or lack of ambition; rather, it means a mindful pause, a moment of gathering your mind and body. Non-action is about choosing, for a few moments or a few hours each day, to simply be, rather than to do.

The Point Is

Slipping non-action moments into your daily routine offers a number of benefits. It gives you space to breathe, to reflect, and to relax. It allows you to escape from the mental chaos that can sometimes consume you in the middle of work and private life mayham. Most importantly, it provides an opportunity to reconnect with yourself, to listen to your thoughts, and to acknowledge your emotions.

By giving your mind a break from constant thinking, planning, and doing, you can reduce stress and increase you sense of feel good. Studies have consistently shown that stress reduction is linked to better mental health and overall quality of life. The practice of non-action can help harness this peacefulness within you, allowing you to return to your tasks with a renewed sense of focus and energy.

Put Non-Action into Hammock

Non-action isn't about doing nothing—it's about doing nothing with intention. It can take many forms, depending on what suits you the best. It could be as simple as sitting in a quiet room for a few minutes, focusing on your breath. One of my favourite practice is what I'm calling "climbing onto hammock" exercise. You take a nice position, laying down or sitting as comfortable as possible. You close your eyes and focus few moments only to calm your breathing. You visualize yourself standing near by hammock tied between two big trees. Where, use your imagination. Warm wind is blowing and it's nice warm weather. You slowly walk right next to hammock, climb on it. Then you just simply imagine yourself slowly swing inside the hammock just breathing. Imagine how you are feeling, how are your arms, legs, belly, head and so on. Take several deep breaths before opening your eyes. When you open your eyes, stay still few moments and breathing deeply and slowly. Then first sit down, be on that position few moments and only then stand up. Finalize the whole thing by taking two deep breaths and spreading your hands open your sides when inhaling and pushing them forward when exhaling. You are ready for action, what ever it is. Go for it!

Making Time for Non-Action

You may often feel that you have too many tasks to do and too little time to execute them. However, integrating non-action into your routine doesn't require a massive amount of time. You can start by having 30 seconds "Hammock" moment every 45 minutes of 60 minutes. Give it to try for two weeks and see how you are feeling. Do let us know the results. It's always fun to hear.

In next phase, you can expand your non-action 30 seconds out of your work. Cool way is to have 2-5 minutes Hammock before your start working and when you have just finished working. First one helps you to keep your "eye on the ball" and the second one, helps you to shift your mind off from work and have a blast out of working hours.

Remember, tough nut Special Forces Soldiers or experienced athletes can flush their minds and bodies in the middle of very demanding situation by simple elements. Taking tactical breaths. Inhale through your nostrils and exhales through your mouth. When person is facing the rawest of the rawest moment in life, everything ordinary flies out of the window. You focus on your breathing, you act like a machine, you become aware what exactly your body is doing and give clear commands to yourself, sometimes they can be said out loud. Action becomes reactive due to thousands of hours of training for the situations which are for most of the people unthinkable and the most unpleasant of the unpleasant and extremely dark. Why I am telling you all this? To motivate you, if Special Forces soldiers can do some simple breathing exercise in the middle of battle, you certainly can do them, it's just a matter of what is it you want in life, life full, great, fulfilling life or being under the heavy rock of stress, nuthouse mayham situations day after day, week after week...you get the picture? I know, a bit provocative, huh! Life is ;-) Now, take a few moments even that it'll piss you off, breath, feel, relax.

#nonaction #donothing #focus #stress #stressmanagement #visualization #breathing #tacticalbreath #takeabreath #worklife #relax