Niksen

NIKSEN, Embracing the Dutch Art of Doing Nothing, by Olga Mecking, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2020

Even in lockdown with limited travel and dining options its hard to imagine doing nothing, that is nothing.  Not mindfulness or yoga, or even structured balance exercises.  Just nothing.

And in fact, some followers feel that kids have a better shot at doing nothing than adults who struggle with practice and learning new non-habits.

But, says Mecking, doing nothing is something teachable, a new routine that, although strange and seemingly unnatural to many of us, has real health benefits.

"Doing nothing on purpose," she says, "without a purpose " -  like simply gazing out a window, or sitting on the deck in an old aluminum chair - no cell phones or laptops in sight - comes close.  Although it might be ok to actually schedule niks (nothing) time on your Outlook calendar, we're not talking about a finite activity that begins with a bell and ends with another call. 

This is about nothing, doing nothing, and seeing what actually passes through and lingers in the brain. Consciously doing nothing in fact can extend our energy levels and increase creativity, something that many innovators crave by 4 pm.  Working at home, going at productivity with an pandemic-driven obsession, is exhausting, and Mecking believes that given our new, higher levels of stress, instead of latching onto a new hobby - crocheting placemats or building miniature cars - we take a break, drift off (consciously and deliberately of course), and come back  with a fresher mind cleared and lightened.  What a fabulous idea!  

The instructions for doing niksen are far simpler - and cheaper -  than learning tennis or even advanced yoga.  One must unplug, but remembering that our work and home environments will not always cooperate, some advance planning about what works for your preoccupied brain is recommended:  

*  move away from your computer

*  find a window with a view

*  walk 

*  find the comfy chair and lean back and snuggle in

*  when the snow melts and the coffee shop tables are back on the sidewalk, grab one!

"When I look at the animal kingdom, I notice we are the only beings who never sit still.  I wonder if all this is natural. Even great hunters like lions and fast runners like cheetahs take time to lounge about and do nothing.  How  did we lose the ability to sit still?" Mecking asks.  "And what price are we paying for this loss?"  The science is there, of course, and we buy it, but the difficulty is in the execution.  Check out Appendix 2, page 210, for more detailed instructions.

Patricia E. Moody

FORTUNE magazine  "Pioneering Woman in Mfg" 

IndustryWeek IdeaXchange Xpert

A Mill Girl at Blue Heron Journal, on-line resource for business thought-leaders and decision-makers,  patriciaemoody@gmail.com