The art of doing nothing

The art of doing nothing has been practiced for thousands of years. Zen monks are the masters of doing nothing, but are you really doing nothing. Most of the time we are actually doing something. If you haven't noticed meditation is one of the best ways to do nothing. You are doing something, you are watching your minds pop into your head. Don't think about your thoughts just let them happen.

1. Meditation/Mindfulness

This is the best form of doing nothing(something). One of the easiest forms of meditations is to just sit down anywhere, a chair will do, with your eyes open or closed and just watch your thoughts pass through your mind. Don't things about the thoughts just let them happen. On the other hand, don't force your thoughts out of your mind, again just watch them come and go.

2. Just Breathe

Take a deep breathe in and out. This can get your mind off many other things and allow you to do less.

3. Relax

Stress, anxiety and many other emotions are the cause of unhappiness and too much going on in the mind. Develop control of your emotions by watching them happen not acting on them. In other words, just relax and don't get fired up over your emotions.

4.  Increase fulfillment

You can gain a great deal of pleasure by just taking you mind out of fantasy land and on to what is happening. For example, when you are eating, you can gain much more pleasure from being aware of the tastes you are experiencing instead of having you mind on something completely different.

5. Nature 

The most powerful way to be in the moment is to meditate or practice do nothing while in nature. There are so many sounds, smells and sights in nature that it fast tracks your progress of being in the moment.

Hopefully by now you have figured out that you are actually doing something but in the western world it seems like we are doing nothing because of the amount of things going on. By just watching our thoughts we can look "from the outside in" to our lives that we are living.