The Joy Diet: Nothing

The 10 ingredients in the The Joy Diet are intended to be added slowly and retained - this is a habit building exercise. Week one's new ingredient is Nothing. The instructions are to "do nothing for 15 minutes each day."

Wow. Nothing is hard for me to do. Simply making the 15 minutes to be unavailable is a challenge. It has to be a time when I do not need to be on call for the children - which really means never. So, rather than scheduling a time that I would definitely be unavailable, I have tried grabbing 15 minutes each time that I think I might actually be able to finish it. And, by the end of each day, I have managed to find a 15-minute block of time to do nothing.

Giving myself permission to let the chores slide for 15 minutes is usually hard for me. In the context of this experiment, however, it has been easy. I have been able to remind myself that I waste at least 15 minutes a day trying to de-stress and have been able to convince myself that it is probably better to actively "do nothing" for 15 minutes than to bumble around uselessly or vegetate in front of the tv for 30 minutes or an hour.

My experience this week has come as no surprise to me. About half-way through my "nothing" time, I have drifted into a hypnagogic state - that place between wakefulness and sleep where awareness becomes odd and dreamlike experiences invade a waking consciousness. When I meditate while sleep deprived, this is very common for me. Interestingly, I did not actually fall asleep during any of these sessions this week. I remained aware of these experiences and was able to separate myself from them at some level.

After each session, I felt more ease. The ease didn't last, but it was there for a brief period. And, every experience of ease helps.

I love doing nothing. It feeds my soul like no activity. I come out of my time with more calm, more focus, more ease. I know this. I have a history of building a meditation or yoga habit and then letting it slip. I am hoping that the fact that this is the base ingredient in this "diet" will help me rebuild a habit. Maybe I'll even keep it around longer this time.

The Joy Diet: a Beginning

I've been reading Gretchen Wegner's blog and she is participating in a bloggers book group hosted by Jamie Ridler. I'm intrigued, so I'm joining in - albeit a little late. The current book is "The Joy Diet" by Martha Beck. The plan is that we read the book a chapter at a time, and spend a week with the ingredient of joy in the chapter and then blog about it on Fridays.

I've been pretty stressed lately and could use a little community and a little more conscious awareness of the joy in my life. An on-line book group is perfect for my schedule. In addition, I have been struggling to keep up with this blog and have NaNoWriMo coming up in November, so a more regular writing schedule would be a good thing.

Things got started this week and I only realized it on Wednesday. My copy of the book is waiting for me to pick up at the library tonight. In the meantime, I am getting started the best I can based on reading other people's blog entries.