How can it be productive to relax?
The Art of Rest & Relaxation - Week 4
Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is relax. Mark Black
Have you ever witnessed yourself running around in circles trying to make something work - and instead it just got worse? When that happens it is an important point of call to stop what you are doing (if we don't we risk to slide down a worsening spiral) - so let's hope we are aware enough to perceive, recognise and realise this point of call to stop the madness - and instead choose to take a break, rest, relax, take some time out and allow help to flow in via inspiration or in other more direct ways.
Help usually cannot really flow in as long as we ARE running around in mad circles trying to make something work, whatever that is, just by ourselves. We easily could work ourselves deeper into more trouble at times by simply not being able to stop.
Instead, when we are able to stop, taking a break, taking time out, breathe, rest and relax, we make room for inspiration to quietly flow into our minds and sometimes offer us a whole array of possible solutions or that one particular light-bulb-moment that brings clarity. As the ancient Sufi prophet Rumi said: "The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear."
Eckhart Tolle, a contemporary spiritual teacher, who is best known for his books 'The Power of Now' and 'A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose' has put it this way:
"Stillness is where creativity and solutions to problems are found." Of course, this stillness is always available to us, if only we would opt for inaction over action for example by choosing to meditate. Meditation is a conscious approach to finding the answers needed - while avoiding stress and running around in circles altogether, because we are aware that stillness in meditation will deliver the answers, solutions, or sometimes just the next necessary step.
Relaxation means releasing all concern and tension and letting the natural order of life flow through one's being. Donald Curtis
'Donald Curtis, an american actor, university lecturer and minister, has expressed the same very beautifully in saying: "Relaxation means releasing all concern and tension and letting the natural order of life flow through one's being."
Letting what we have done be enough and allowing the 'natural order of life' to flow in while we withdraw into rest and relaxation, opens the doors for creative solutions.
That's exactly why 'Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is relax'!
The well-known Vietnamese Monk Thich Nhat Hanh takes it a step further as he recommends:
"It is very important that we re-learn the art of resting and relaxing. Not only does it prevent the onset of many illnesses that develop through chronic tension and worrying, it (also) allows us to clear our minds, focus and find creative solutions to problems."
Discover the magic of inspiration while you simply rest and relax - then you will return to whatever you were doing - refreshed and excited to try what you have found. Life can be so easy and enjoyable, if only we let it...
Please take 10 deep, slow, long, smooth and even breath and explore the question "What kind of tension and worry do I hold on to? How freeing could it possibly feel, when I simply let go, rest and relax, and let the natural order of life flow through me?"
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