The Disease of Doing
Worry is wasted energy.
Often we feel like we are on a treadmill to keep up with life. Always squeezing one more email in, one more job at home before getting to a billion jobs at work, planning ahead and balancing multiple priorities. JUST ONE MORE THING….before getting to the next thing.
The restlessness and worry related to planning, achieving, solving and fixing that dominates our thinking – and our being. The worry that I’m never doing enough. Then there’s the fear that it wont work out. So we say to ourselves, ‘Id better use every moment of my day, even my meditation time to plan it all out.’
Obviously some planning is necessary. But generally, its not helpful. Sebene Selassie from Ten Percent Happier writes that over planning and thinking is ‘wasted energy.’ She explains this addiction to doing as a ‘Pathology of Productivity.’
I like to think of holding my yogi values in one hand, and my IRD number in my other hand. Its a tricky balance, but its important to find inner calm and experience the joy and wonders of daily life, while at the same time ensuring we are getting things done that need to be done to survive in this Western world.
So how do live and work in a better, healthier way?
1. Notice its happening – being mindful. This is the most important step (and this is actually the purpose of yoga - to practice being mindful). When we are on the doing treadmill, its easy to get swept up in the momentum of the ‘disease of doing.’ So we must build awareness of how it shows up in our life. We find ourselves going over lists in our head, replaying thoughts over an over. Here’s the the thing - we must stop, take a pause, notice - what am I thinking about in this moment? How am I feeling? Usually I find I’m holding some anxiety about what I need to accomplish that day or week. Just noticing can help lessen the worry.
2. Build some inner calm - Even just some temporary calm and compassion. The best way is to through yoga techniques - reconnect to our body, our breath or any bodily sensations. This helps us create some spaciousness around the worry. We notice our breath, the sensations in our body, and when our attention wanders we gently bring our awareness back. Over time we build a quality of mindful awareness. While our sneaky mind will pull us into the past or the future at times, the body is only ever in the present moment. That’s why the body and breath are used as primary objects in meditation. The body is the perfect place for cultivating spaciousness and ease around the worry.
3. Get a wider perspective – Can we reconsider how we approach our to - do list? Do we need to approach our to do list from a place of worry as a motivator? Or maybe we can get more insight and see if we can try dropping the worry when thinking about our to do list, and replace it with a sense of ‘how can approach this with a bit of fun’ or ease. This can make our daily life so much more pleasant. I think I attach worry to productivity because I’ve simply gotten so used to it - and sometimes its how our parents operated and we have subconsciously taken it on. I didn’t even realize there could be another way. I guess it does all seem a bit back to front. But truly, I find this works - taking a pause and making space can actually be more productive. It seems kinda counter intuitive, but its true.
When we are feeling anxious, pausing can seem passive, useless, unproductive. I find yoga and meditation slows down my planning mind and I become more centered and focused, ready to drop the worry and take action.
Just like I learnt from living the van life, more is not always better.
Usually less is more.
Heart & Mind Yoga has a range of yoga classes for all levels, including beginners yoga. Learn more and book here
Jo Jarden is a personal trainer and yoga teacher and the founder of Heart and Mind Yoga studio in Central Christchurch. With 10 years experience in health promotion, she now helps people one on one with their wellbeing. Services include, yoga teaching, personal training,workplace yoga and wellbeing workshops.