Breaking the Cycle of Busyness

Last Friday night, I was cooking dinner. The news was playing on the smart speaker, the kids were playing downstairs. I was scrolling through my phone while cooking, cycling between LinkedIn, Facebook and two email accounts. The cycle kept repeating, because there was nothing there for me. I noticed this and asked myself: what am I really looking for?

There was nothing weighing on me that had to be done. There was no one I was supposed to get back to. I was in a place of relative freedom and closure — perfect for a Friday night. And here I was, wasting energy by flitting around my virtual world.

These online virtual worlds can be mistaken for reality sometimes. Reality was right there - freedom, closure, cooking, the news if I wanted it. Music was another option. I was a victim of the addicting nature of being plugged in. I was able to catch myself in this artificial busyness, forgetting my capacity to just be.

Collectively, I feel we are losing our capacity to just be with ourselves and enjoy the moment, especially when, like in my circumstance, I had the privilege to do so. Our comfortable “noise level” has ratcheted up to higher than it needs to be. We interpret the stillness as boredom because we’re out of practice in stillness. To those of you suffering from burnout, this is part of what rest looks like; just chilling out and choosing to stop the automatic busyness.

I usually listen to NPR when I’m driving. The other day though, it had been a busy, overwhelming day, so I kept the radio off as a way to clear my mind and “work out the kinks.” I was impressed at how big the benefit was — the time felt more spacious and calming than I expected.

This restful mind time is essential to being our best in all our roles, yet we don’t always take the opportunity when we have it. My fledgling meditation practice has helped me embrace a place of mental stillness.