This post was inspired by a discussion with fellow practitioner and mentor Ginger Crisenbery while teacher assisting for her long-term professional training course.
“Wait, Watch and Wonder”
One day, earlier this year, I was being a bit lazy and decided to lie on my bed and pet the cats. I was looking out the window watching the changing color of the sun-gilded clouds as they moved across a bright blue sky. I took note of the birds flying by and the subsequent change in the vocalizations of my cats from purring to chattering bird sounds. No timepiece was present, save for the movement of the sun changing the position of the shadows in my room. I don’t know how long I spent taking in the sound of the quiet sniffly breathing of my beautiful cats, the feeling of their soft downy fur, the warm sun on my face and the picture out my window. It could have been an hour, it could have been minutes, but the feeling was pure joy.
The phone rang. I answered.
” What are you up to”? the caller asked.
“Nothing”. I replied.
What happened in that time as I rested on the bed? I was activating my parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS) without even knowing it. In an article I was reading later on the the subject and subsequently wrote a blog post about, the writer mentions that spending time with animals, or nature can stimulate your PSNS.
This doing nothing is so undervalued in this culture and yet it is what keeps us healthy. This is understood in many European countries, and the Eastern cultures but here in the States, doing nothing is just plain lazy.
A lot happens in that moment we call doing nothing. As 17th century Japanese poet Matsuo Basho so eloquently wrote,
“Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes, and the grass grows, by itself.”
“Doing nothing” is such an important part of what we do as practitioners. It is also a very difficult concept for westerners to understand. While trying to explain Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy (BCST) to people, I will go through all the science, talk about the nervous system, the cerebrospinal fluid, motions of the bones, I talk about slowing your tempo, mirror neurons ect ect ect, and then the inevitable question arises, ” Yes, but what are you doing?”
Although “nothing” is rarely the response the inquirer wants to hear, it just might be the most accurate. Bear with me (please pardon the obvious pun) … I will look to Mr Winnie the Pooh and young Christopher Robin to help me out here.
“What do you like doing best in the world, Pooh?”“Well, what I like best -” and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn’t know what it was called. And then he thought that being with Christopher Robin was a very good thing to do, and having Piglet near was a very friendly thing to have; and so, when he had thought it all out, he said, “What I like best in the whole world is Me and Piglet going to see You, and You saying ‘ What about a little something?’ and Me saying, ‘well, I shouldln;t mind a little something, should you , Piglet,’ and it being a hummy sort of day outside, and birds singing.”“I like that too,” said Christopher Robin, “but what I like doing best is Nothing.”“How do you do Nothing? asked Pooh, after he had wondered for a long time.“Well, it is when people call out at you just as you’re going off to do it, What are you going to do , Christopher Robin, and you say, Oh, nothing, and then you go and do it.”“Oh, I see, ” said Pooh.“This is a nothing sort of thing that we’re doing now.”“Oh, I see,” said Pooh again.“It means just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering.”“Oh!” said Pooh.—Then suddenly again, Christopher Robin, who was still looking at the world, with his chin in his hands, called out “Pooh!”“Yes?” said Pooh.“When I’m-when-Pooh!”“Yes, Christopher Robin?”“I’m not going to do Nothing anymore.”“Never again?”“Well, not so much. they don’t let you.”Pooh waited fro him to go on but he was silent again.
I am going to talk about the two bold face sections.
First of all,
“going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear and not bothering”
That is the best advice for Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapists (BCST) that I have ever heard. We are non-manipulative, we are witnesses, we don’t want to change anything in the system we want to observe , but we don’t want to put too much attention on what’s going on or the system may not change, it can feel self conscious (funny way to put it but it happens) . In my experience, when I get distracted and look away for a moment something often shifts. I believe Christopher Robin said it more eloquently, but I hope you get the idea of it.
The second is very important too. When Cristopher Robin says, “When I’m- when, Pooh!“
He is trying to say when he is grown up, but the idea is so painful, he can’t even speak the words. This idea is so difficult for children, for all of us really, because all that blissful indulgence in doing nothing comes to an end the minute we start Kindergarten or Preschool and is replaced by planned activities, play dates, schedules and homework and then disappears almost entirely as we enter adulthood. It shouldn’t, but it often does. Why?? Because they won’t let you. They represents that big anonymous adult world of society. Doing nothing becomes a waste of time, laziness, non-productivity and a hundred other negative phrases. We start filling our empty moments with obligations, learning activities, working out, play dates, lunches, sports and the list goes on. We forget doing nothing, and yet, once again, this peaceful state is an essential part of our healthy lives. BCST helps us find that feeling again. So much happens in that space when we listen to all the things we can’t hear. Healing, finding our ground, rebalancing, regrouping, centering… all that and more.
Do nothing, it’s good for you, don’t let them not allow it.
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