Why it’s sometimes best to do nothing

I’m sitting in front of the computer wrecking my brain for something to write about in today’s blog post. And ... nothing. It’s empty. Or so it seems. How is it possible that my usually überactive brain feels like I’ve run an intellectual marathon with it? Because I have. In the last couple of weeks ideas kept flying through my window in a constant stream so that I could hardly write them all down. My creative part was on fire. I felt as if I had thrown in some of these pills the guy in “Limitless” is taking. I felt great. Two days ago, however, things started to slow down and today they finally came to a standstill. I’m tired and don’t want to do ANYTHING. My first impulse was to force an activity upon me nevertheless. So I grabbed my guitar and started playing scales, but soon found myself distracted. (The cats needed to be cuddled.) A nap, a walk around the block and a cup of tea later I still feel exhausted at the mere thought of doing something. What’s going on?

The answer is simple: I’ve come to the end of a creative cycle. Cycles are built into our bodies and brains by default – we sleep, eat, grow and menstruate (well, only half of humanity) in cycles so it only makes sense to assume that we also think in cycles. Unfortunately modern life doesn’t exactly support this part of human nature. It used to be engrained in our way of life because our ancestors were subject to nature’s cycles: The seasons determined everything – when to sow and harvest, when to hunt, when to go fishing, when to build or fix our homes and when to expand the family. Then came urbanization, the Industrial Revolution and finally the technology revolution of the 20^th century culminating in web 2.0. In the course of which we have lost our connection to the rhythms of the earth. Instead of interweaving our daily activities with nature’s ups and downs we’ve created our own laws. Which is not a bad thing per se. Not a single day goes by without me being amazed at the possibilities of the internet: Be it the accessibility of knowledge and the DIY revolution that’s following in its wake or the innumerable ways to connect with people all over the world. But I’m digressing. The downside of all these human-made rhythms (i.e. the 8-hour day and the 40-hour work week) and inventions (electricity that makes us independent of day light, cell phones and social media that make direct interaction obsolete – that is if you let them) is that we have forgotten how to be in tune with ourselves.

Every complex cognitive or emotional process is cyclical. Why? Because of the involvement of the unconscious mind. In his book “Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention” psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi presents the findings of his 30 years of studying creativity. He interviewed a bunch of creative people – writers, painters, musicians, scientists, thinkers – and asked them about their work habits and general life experience. All of them described periods of incubation: Their conscious mind can’t solve the problem they are working on (be it a mathematical equation or how to depict the modern day loneliness in a sculpture) so they hand it over to their unconscious mind. How does that work? On way consists in engaging in a repetitive activity like swimming, gardening or even washing dishes – anything that keeps the conscious mind busy, but leaves enough cognitive capacity and energy for the unconscious mind to do its job. Or you could just do nothing at all. Lie on the beach and look at the sky, the changing configurations of the clouds and the stars. Or sit in the shade of your favourite tree and meditate about ... the sound of running water. (If that makes you want to pee, you can choose a different topic.) We need these phases of restoration and processing just like a computer needs to be shut down every now and then in order for newly installed updates to work.

So instead of obsessing about how to deal with your new boss or how to find the best piano teacher for your child (or whatever it is that you’re worried about at the moment), give your conscious mind a break, sit back and relax. And the answer will find you.