Yes.
You are. I am too. We all are.
Our whole life is based on doing. For example, I am very attached to planning, visioning, analyzing, problem-solving, fantasizing, worrying, struggling, striving, and trying to figure things out.
Yes, the many teachers I have read and listened to who have experienced something akin to “awakening” suggest the opposite of all that doing. They are big on non-doing.
And what the heck is that?
I submit, it’s the path to joy, love, and inner peace. It is the practice of letting go, surrendering, allowing. Basically, it’s the path of non-resistance.
This idea is not new to me. I wrote my Master’s thesis on spiritual surrender over thirty years ago. And still, I resist.
But today, after watching my sweet Toronto Blue Jays lose Game 2 of the World Series, I woke up. I mean, I Woke Up to the pain of resistance.
I had a heaviness in my heart and solar plexus. And I knew right away I was sad. Yup. Sad. Disappointed. Discouraged. Blue.
Normally, I’d spend time trying not to be sad. I’d say a prayer or reframe the situation — “Oh, there’s plenty more baseball to be had,” or say an affirmation, “Life is good.”
Simply Noticing Instead of Fixing
Not today. I am reading Taming Your Gremlin, which is part of our 100-Hour Life Coach Certification Program. In it, the author teaches the practice of “Simply Noticing.” Literally, it’s the idea of simply noticing your experiences and not trying to change anything.
So I noticed the weight, the tightness, the disappointed energy. And I didn’t try to change it. I didn’t try to DO something. I let it be. Then I thought about Michael Singer’s “relax and release.” And so I did a little breathing as well.
And sure enough, I am not entirely convinced that the heaviness is gone, but the pain of it is. I am “not resisting,” letting the experience be there and allowing it to evolve naturally.
My First Experience of Non-Doing
I will share something profound with you.
I first experienced that way of being when I was ten years old. I had broken my wrist in two places and needed surgery to set it. They sent me home at 2 pm to wait until 7 pm when the operating room was available. We were in a small town.
They sent me home with my throbbing, unbelievably painful wrist wrapped up in a compression bandage to wait. No drink, no painkiller, no food. Just lying on my bed whimpering.
And then, in the midst of this misery, I heard a voice speak to me gently. It wasn’t a weird voice; it was in my own mind — maybe my own voice but way more comforting. It said, “Go into the pain.”
It said it a couple of times. And so I did. I took my awareness, which was doing everything it could to avoid feeling the pain, and placed it smack dab onto the wrist and the throb and the enormous discomfort.
And here’s what happened. I felt this strange energy surge through me starting from the top of my head, like that funny sensation when someone pretends they are breaking an egg on your crown, and this energy surged through my body. All of a sudden, I was lying there, feeling the pain but it didn’t hurt.
I don’t know how else to explain it. Yes, there was pain — but it simply didn’t hurt. I lay like this for several hours until my parents took me back to the hospital.
I believe this was my first very obvious experience of non-doing, of not resisting, of letting go.
And a formative one at that, given that I have been attracted to this subject ever since.
Practising Non-Doing in Everyday Life
The awakened teachers who speak of this way of being in the world seem to make it look easy. That has not been my experience. As I mentioned at the start, I am very attached to planning, visioning, analyzing, problem-solving, fantasizing, worrying, struggling, striving, and trying to figure things out.
But today, I did not. Today, I simply noticed the experience of the Jays losing and left it at that. The result? I felt inspired to write and share this with you in case it’s helpful. And I seem to have my energy and joy of life back as this sunny Sunday stretches before me.
There will be family, pumpkins, football, F1 racing, and Springsteen. Oh my. What a glorious day I get to experience, notice, and thoroughly enjoy.
Warmly…
P.S. I do understand the Jays losing is not a life tragedy. It is what Michael Singer calls “low-hanging fruit” in The Untethered Soul. And that is where he suggests we start. Right? Can’t run a marathon without learning to first run a mile.
