January 10, 2023

Doing Nothing for a Week

By Ken Giglio, Principal of Mindful Leadership

We always need to be doing something. Activity is how we measure our worth in large part and how corporations determine productivity. We know all this activity, connected with pace of today’s business world is taking a toll on workers. The future workplace, many agree, will be more holistic, with a focus on well-being. Studies show that workers who have a healthy dose of “being” are better at “doing.”

Meditation is on most lists as a wellness practice to facilitate well-being, and this week I am meditating, a lot.

I am on a silent retreat. This week I will only be doing what it takes to foster the conditions to Be. This means mostly nothing but sitting and walking in silence. This is not a new experience for me. I have been practicing mindful reflection for over 25 years, which includes formal sitting meditation every day. Retreats are a more recent way for me to “build confidence in our everyday mindfulness practice,” as one mindfulness teacher puts it.

There is only one aspiration for a silent retreat, and that is to be fully present and aware. By doing nothing in silence, without the usual distractions of our complicated lives, we can allow everything to be experienced fully—thoughts, emotions, and sensations—in the moments we sit, walk, eat, or hike in the woods.

Though I will be taking a week off from work to do nothing, my mind, renegade that it is, will continue to do as much as possible. The thing about a silent environment without cell phones, reading, and writing, is that our minds do not like it at all, at least not at first.

As at past retreats, my mind will carry me back in time to hurts that I thought I was over and thrust me forward to a future I desire but may not be able to realize. As my mind goes so does my body, so I will feel the pain and hurts and burning desires as if they are real. If I can muster the awareness, I will come to understand that none of it is real unless I want it to be. As a Zen teacher once said, “if you let go a little, you will experience a little peace and freedom; if you let go a lot you will realize greater peace and freedom.”

With some easeful effort, I have built the capacity to create enough awareness and space to watch my mind being itself and feel my emotions more fully as they course through my body. These are the ways of being attentive and present within myself, and real way I am living my Tri-Lens Mindful Reflection Model.

I have come to learn from my mindfulness practice to work with my mind and be in a different relationship with myself. Being more at ease with myself and less wanting to be in control has helped with how I see myself, others, and the world. In short, all my relationships have shifted and continue to change for the better.

Silent retreats are not for everyone and not the only way to deepen a mindfulness practice. For me, being away from my day-to-day activities in deep reflection and contemplation is a way to understand that there is no dividing line between activity and doing nothing. With a growing awareness, we come to see that we are always being and doing at the same time in a constant flow of ever-changing moments. Whatever you find yourself doing in the coming days, may it be done with mindful awareness. For me, I will be away this week doing nothing.