A powerful rejuvenating therapy
It’s doing without expectations. It’s getting beyond your comfort zone and breaking the habit of being yourself, changing your point of observation. Idleness and contemplation play an integral role. They are the essence of creativity and change, and along with restful sleep, they rejuvenate, they heal, they “illuminate”.
“Not doing” can illicit sensations of unexplained joy, embarrassing moments of serenity, wonder, inspiration, light-headedness. Idleness does not create addiction and it’s free. However…it’s important to come to it without expectation. One essential ingredient of the therapy is walking barefoot. Grounding and re-establishing contact with the Earth and the self is freeing, sensual and brings inner confidence: on the grass coated in morning dew, on stone, along a soft wooded path, in the cool water of the brook, on autumn leaves…but watch out for the prickly burrs of fallen chestnuts!
Contemplation of the kitchen garden can also help, as can kneading dough in the company of others. Recharging while tummy-bathing in the sun, listening to the sound of the stream with your feet seeped in the water, reverting to nomadic gatherer and enjoying currants, wild strawberries, black and blue berries straight from the bush. Smelling aromatic herbs eyes tight shut, making peace with nature, thinking vegan for a while at least, putting judgement on pause, forgiving, appreciating the weather just as it is, doing archery, standing still and attentive to the sounds of the animals in the woods, rereading Castaneda, reading “The One Straw Revolution” by Masanobu Fukuoka, roaming the woods at night, completely letting yourself go on the hammocks among the Birches, connecting to the ancestral energy of the stone, tree hugging deep in the wood and far from prying eyes, making yourself unavailable, gazing at the stars without assigning them names, wandering aimlessly until all your thoughts have dispelled. Phoning Luca so he can come and fetch you back!
