Boredom: the difficult task of being without doing

Why is it so hard to be bored? In my particular case, I find it very difficult to do nothing. As soon as I have a free space, I try to fill it with tasks: doing household chores, answering emails, ordering those papers, working-out, studying and so on. And the more I talk to my clients, the more common I find this pattern. So I asked myself, what's the matter with stay quiet…doing nothing “productive, goal-oriented” and only being in the moment?

We live in a capitalist system that asks us to produce and consume. We have to do to insert ourselves in the market. And also, the current rhythm leads us to do everything and now. Otherwise, we are wasting our time and "wasting our life".

We live in the doing world instead of the being world. To be stimulated all the time is the current concept of being, living, being a human, being part of society. So if doing equals living, it is not surprising that not doing generates in us anxiety, anguish, discomfort, fear? Not doing in those terms connects us with not living.

But... is doing the way (or the only way) to live? Are we “wasting” our time without doing? What can we find when we don't do? These kinds of questions led me to try the “not doing” method and simply being in the present and here, accepting it (instead of trying to avoid the silent or quietness) as it presents. And...yes, it was not pleasant at times, but I discovered other things that I was not attending to. Things in my present here. After all this happening, wanted or not, pleasant or not,...isn't that living?

What other things can we experience when we don't do? Stay in nature, rest on the couch connecting with our body, sit on the balcony and watch the landscape, walk and feeling the fresh air…What arises in our mind when we don't do? What happens if we stay with it?

Being in the present and here is another way of living. And it’s worth a shot.