Waldorf Teacher Parent Inner Work: Doing “Nothing” as an Accomplishment

Doing nothing may be your biggest accomplishment this year.

My New Year’s Resolution this year is not to make any active New Year’s Resolutions and instead to focus more on the value of rest and relaxation.  In today’s society there is so much daily pressure to do more that it seems appropriate to focus on less as a New Year’s Resolution.

Depending on your temperament you may naturally see the logical value in doing less, you may experience life at a more comfortable pace in general, or you may have difficulty understanding the concept of time-off at all.

To add even more complexity to the issue, the pressures of our modern information age do not encourage us to honor the value that less brings to our lives. When you log into Facebook you see an endless column of things people are doing and accomplishing. When you listen to the news, talk to friends or family or receive a holiday letter you are bombarded with even more lists of accomplishments.  We are buried in lists of what people are “accomplishing” every minute of every day.

This constant barrage can be inspiring and can influence us to accomplish more ourselves. However, it can also create an atmosphere in which we forget the value of rest or we start thinking of rest as a “non-accomplishment”.

However, more rest, may be the biggest accomplishment you have this year.

Time-off or rest is like an investment plan, paying off your credit card and having money in a savings account all rolled into one.

Imagine every minute you rest is worth a quarter. And being sick, stressed or dealing with unexpected things costs at least a few dollars. If you look at it this way you can see the following:

1. Not taking any time-off will deplete your “health savings account”.
2. Not resting will create “health credit debt”.
3. When you need “extra credit” during a time of stress or sickness you will not have it. This means it will take longer for you to get better or, instead of sleeping it off overnight the illness or stress may drag on for days.
4. Every little bit counts. You may think sitting down for five minutes or taking a ten-minute power nap won’t do any good but have you ever saved money in a coin bank? I put random change in a bank every week and it adds up very quickly. When I exchange it for bills it is usually over $50.00. You can even try putting a nickel in a coin bank every time you take a break and see how fast it adds up. The visual of the coin bank will help you see visually how much health credit you have.

My challenge for you this week is to try looking at time-off in this way for one week and see what a difference it makes in your life. Please post feedback after your week to this blog entry.